Problems After Restoring Windows 7 with ATIH 2011
Hi All!
I've encountered two problems so far that have been quite annoying to me while using Acronis TIH 2011 to backup and restore Windows 7, and I don't know how to solve them. (By the way, I always backup and restore from the bootable disk to prevent backing up and restoring when files may be in use/inaccessible.) I'd appreciate any response that can help me get to the bottom of this!
1) After one of the restore processes, Windows booted up to a BSOD. I wiped the minidump files in the OS, restarted, booted Acronis TIH 2011, and restored again. No BSOD this time. However, it still thinks there was a BSOD and creates a minidump, even though the image is from a week ago. The minidump is always the about the same error on the same date. Why does this happen even when I'm restoring from a backup? I'm restoring the entire C drive, with the System Reserved and OS partitions, plus the MBR, so I assume there can't be any old data that was left over after the restore? How then does that minidump of 1GB always recreate itself after restoring? I've done this about six times, and the same thing happens.
2) After restoring, the Windows folder lock (padlock) icons on folders don't show up anymore, but their ownership, auditing information, and sharing settings appear to have remained the same. Does the icon disappearing mean that the restoration process altered/removed some security features of the folders? For example, my user's folder inder C:\Users used to have a padlock icon on it right after I installed Windows. Now after restoring, no folder shows the icons, but yet they still need admin access to open. If no setting has been changed, why does the padlock icon on folders gets disabled, and how do I re-enable it?
Thanks in advance for any help! I do appreciate it!
Hi Pat,
Thanks for your response! However, I was unable to get any further in resolving the issues I mentioned. Here's what I did and/or the questions I still have:
1) OK, I can understand that some system files may not have been backed up and aren't replaced during a restore. But I've already tried doing what you said, actually. I don't have a problem with there being a BSOD/STOP error report in the Reliability Report, but I'm just confused as to why, even after restarting, using the computer for a while, then restoring again (and repeating this process for about six times), but the BSOD/STOP minidump always gets recreated no matter what, and I have to manually delete that 1GB report each time. Shouldn't this clear any and all flags in the page file? But this is no big deal, since I can just delete them. I just find it annoying how if a BSOD occurs (which was caused by a restore, by the way; approximately every eight restores causes a BSOD), the report will always be recreated no matter how many times I restore, even after restarting the system.
2) Alright, but I have not changed any security/sharing settings, and I have no homegroup (I don't use that feature, and I'm on a public network). Hence, I have everything set to "do not share," "password protected," and so on. So, I should be able to see the padlock as you said, since only the owner and administrators have access to the Windows system folders (e.g. C:\$Recycle.Bin) and user folders (e.g. C:\Users\Admin). However, all folders that used to have padlocks no longer have them after a restore (not one folder now has the padlock anymore...), and no matter how many times I restore, they never do again. Only a fresh install of Windows fixes this, but I don't want to do that obviously when Acronis is supposed to save time from doing that. So, what should I do? How do I "verify sharing settings?" Do I simply change some sharing settings in the Control Panel, change them back, and reapply them? I'm a bit lost on this one.
Alan,
1) Yes, your case is a bit different from my experience. In my case, my system BSOD'd. I then restored a clean image, and when I rebooted, Windows told me "Your system recovered from a serious error". That was disconcerting since I'd assume there would be no trace of the previous BSOD. My research pointed at the page file and the flag thing.
Wouldn't the dump simply be part of the backup, and be restored with other filles, by any chance?
2) Are you using a disk and partition backup? or a file backup? When you restore, do you restore the entire partition or only some files/folders?
Hi Pat,
Thanks again for your help and assistance. I do appreciate it. Here's the additional info:
1) No, the computer was backed up a week ago before the image in question is used, so there's no way. Also, every time I login after restoring, there's a slightly longer pause loading the desktop, and that's how I know the minidump is being recreated. Also, I always use Windows Disk Cleaner to clear out the minidump, so it shouldn't be on the drive anymore. The minidump's date (i.e. the one that keeps getting recreated) is also always the date that the restore takes place (but this isn't the same as what the Reliability Report says which states a week ago), which also leaves me to believe that it is getting recreated. I've tried restoring over several days and restarting in between, but no dice.
2) When I'm restoring, I use a disk and partition backup, and I'm restoring the entire partition (i.e. the whole C drive). Windows has two partitions to the C drive, System Reserved and Operating System. I have backed up both in the image file, but not using the sector-by-sector approach. Thus, I expected most, if not all, files to be backed up and restored to their former state when I do a restore using ATIH. Of interest to note, when I right-click on a folder I know should have the padlock overlay on it, such as my C:\Users\Admin folder and then click "Properties," sure enough the icon in the Properties dialogue does indeed have a padlock on it. But the folders displayed in the Windows Explorer do not. In fact, the overlay appears to be turned off somehow, but checking the Registry Keys, it is still listed under ShellOverlayIndicators, which should mean that I should be able to see the padlock. But no, I don't, and I really don't know how to fix it... The most important part is that the security, sharing, ownership, and auditing settings are correct, of course, but I would still like to "re-enable" the overlay so that I know which folders are protected in a visual manner.
1) I am running out of ideas. If you delete the dump, do a new backup and then restore, does it get recreated? If yes, the information is probably is one of the files that are not backed up (pagefile). You could erase the pagefile on shutdown: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314834
2) This is weird. Could that be a case where the backup was done under another username? Or maybe you have some other software overlaying on top of these icons (some backup status indicator, ...). You might want to see if you have different handlers
http://www.thewindowsclub.com/the-overlay-icons-in-windows-7
1) That's OK, it's not that big of a deal. I was curious as to why the minidump is always recreated, that's all.
2) The backup is always done by booting up the computer with the Acronis disk (same goes for the restores). I don't have any other software causing conflicts that I know of, and I'm 100% sure the padlock overlay was there before the first restore was done (and 1000+% sure that it was there after installing Windows). This has happened to me twice now, once on my old hard drive and now on this new hard drive, and both I've used ATIH to backup and restore with before, so I'm certain ATIH is the culprit. I just don't know why nor how to fix it...especially since its entry is still in the Registry and there's an inconsistency with what Windows Explorer and the Properties dialogue say.
Just wondering, can doing a restore change the ownership and auditing on folders such that Windows now thinks that the restored drive used to belong to another copy of Windows, thus causing the padlock to not be displayed? That's the only thing I can think of: an inconsistency with who the drive belongs to and who the restored Windows thinks it belongs to. That, or Acronis somehow managed to damage/delete the overlay process, icon, and/or icon path...
I'd lean towards an "ownership" thing but I cannot explain it. Are the folders on a disk other than the system disk being restored?
As I've stated before, only the drive containing the OS (C:\) is being backed up and restored. All other drives are left untouched. If it makes any difference, the OS is on a SSD, and again, I've backed up and restored all partitions. But this problem persists on any and all computers I've restored with it so far, so I don't think it is a drive/Windows fault. It is something that Acronis is doing that's inconsistent with what Windows sees. The padlock icon does display in the Properties menu of locked folders, however the overlay does not. This leads me to believe that there's an icon issue somewhere.
Alan,
I signaled that thread to Acronis, since it is pretty bizarre. Their response is that your best bet is to open a support ticket.