After Restore Wiped External Source Drive?

Nope. For any restoration operation, TIH just reads the specified image file but leaves it in place unaltered. All of your *.tib files should still be there unless they were deleted in some other way.

Seems strange that the drive that holds those *.tib files wouldn't be recognized without needing a manual drive letter assignment. How are you trying to access it? In other words, are you now booting with the system that was unintentionally restored using an old image? Or are you booting with something else such as an emergency recovery disk? And what kind of external drive set-up is it: USB, eSATA, ??

Thanks for the response. I was trying to access it through Windows XP explorer (the OS the laptop restored to was XP).

I have now replaced the hard drive with one with a fresh Windows 7 install. When I access that drive now from Windows 7, there is nothing on it except a few system files generated after reinstalling some anti-virus software, etc.

The external drive is USB.

Any other ideas? Thanks again.

I must first admit to some mild confusion about the complete sequence of events as you've described them. However, the "bottom line" is that there should be no problem at all with accessing a USB external drive from "a fresh Windows 7 install." It should assign a drive letter automatically without requiring any user intervention, although it may not necessarily assign the same drive letter as the previous set-up.

My best guess is that the problem is somehow related to the "few system files generated after reinstalling some anti-virus software, etc." I can't really understand why or how "system files" would be installed on to your external backup drive rather than on to your active internal drive with the operating system, but it sure sounds to me like there has been some mix-up in that installation process. I'd tend to suspect that as the cause of any missing or corrupted files on the backup drive rather than anything to do with TIH as such.

'Fraid that's about the extent of my ideas. If the *.tib files are gone, I guess that's it subject to any possible professional recovery attempt.

John,

Is there a possibility you got confused by the fact that ATI can display partitions letters that are different from Windows. For example, I have a system reserved partition on my system disk with no drive letters. When I boot on the recovery CD, the system reserved partition has the letter D:\. I also have a D:\ disk in windows. If you have restored the ATI D:\ to D:\ you have erased your D:\ drive.

@Pat: Hmmm. A very interesting conjecture that never occurred to me. I understood from John's initial posting that both the old and current images (.tib files) were located on the same USB external drive. Regardless of that source drive's currently assigned drive letter, would TIH actually allow a restoration operation to overwrite its own image source without warning? If so, that would seem to suggest some need for improved program logic.

@John: If I misunderstood your actual circumstances, I apologise.

There should be a big blinking banner when restoring that warns that drive letter assignments might not be the same as when you normailly operate under windows. It's an easy mistake to make.

Yes, but does TIH actually permit X:\image.tib to be restored to drive X: thus overwriting itself in the process? Just asking. I've never actually tried it and don't plan to if I can avoid it. :)

You can't restore a whole hdisk to itself. You can restore a partition that is on the same harddisk as the tib provided that the tib is not in the target partition.

did yo do a windows serarch for the files to see if they are located on any other partition?

Scott Hieber wrote:

You can't restore a whole hdisk to itself. You can restore a partition that is on the same harddisk as the tib provided that the tib is not in the target partition.

So, as I understand what you're saying, TIH restore operations would not, in themselves, account for any actual removal or overwriting of their own source image files on whatever partition where they are located. It's just that the drive letter assigned to that partition might get changed under various OSes (or emergency disks) and their boot operations.

did yo do a windows serarch for the files to see if they are located on any other partition?

I guess John (the OP) is the one for whom that question is intended.

That is correct, and the reason why others are suggeting that some other action accounts for any missing files.

When ati restores, it boots in a linux OS and linux doesn't always assign drive letters in the same order that win does. So what is normaly your crve C: miught be, say, D: when restoring. This only matters if you assume the drive letters are assigned the same way and perform operations on the wrong drive.

Once you''re back in windows, the drive letter aasssingments should be the same way they were before restoring (assuming you haven't increased or decreased the total number of disk running under windows).

That is correct, and the reason why others are suggeting that some other action accounts for any missing files.

Okay, thanks. That's entirely consistent with my own understanding, which was the reason for that suggestion (it was me who made it) to the OP. I was just concerned that my understanding might have been incorrect. I certainly don't want to mislead anyone.