BR16 adding old backups

[SpeedFlow]

BR16 PE recovery media - lessons learned after testing on four machines: Win10 machine purchased as Win10, Win8.1 machine purchased as Win8.1, Win8.1 on an original Win7 machine, and Win7 on an original Win7 machine. I describe these computers this way because of BIOS, UEFI and legacy options that can be rather challenging across the OSs.

Do not use a flash drive larger than 32GB. First, the recovery builder will create a 32GB partition on the flash drive and the recovery media will not boot, yielding the "Windows failed to start" error. Second, the process trashed my 64 GB flash drive. Even after following manufacturers directions for this exact circumstance, there is no recovery for the flash drive.

Before attempting to use the recovery flash drive, go into BIOS/UEFI and place USB hard drives at the top of the boot order list. The very top. If USB hard drives are not at the very top of the boot sequence, the recovery flash drive may be skipped and the machine will slide into Windows boot, even though the Windows boot manager is listed below USB hard drives.

Also in UEFI settings, secure boot can remain enabled, or it can be disabled. No difference. Enable legacy, and the UEFI recovery media was never recognized (even under UEFI) and hence the recovery media would not boot.

Then, as discovered on all four test computers, the Paragon UEFI recovery media -must- be selected in boot options at startup. Correct - without this step, the machines ignored boot order entirely and jumped directly into Windows boot.

Some flash drives simply do not work as Paragon recovery media. These problem flash drives might work as recovery media on some computers, but not on others. (By "not work", I mean explicitly that the UEFI flash drive would not be recognized by the system and therefore did not exist at boot time.) Once a good flash drive was found, it worked fine as recovery media on all test computers. The point here is a failed recovery flash drive may not be due to the system or due to the media builder per se - try several different flash drives for recovery media builds, and test them before putting them away.

One BR16 problem down, several to go... emailed logs, adding pre-existing Paragon images to the BR16 backup list, and editing backup job scripts.

[wptski]

Are you using the proper ADK version for the W10 version that you have? There was ADK 8.1, 1511 and 1607 or was the last time I looked.

Diskparts doesn't recover your flash drive?

Funny on my old dual HD boot W7/W10 BIOS system, if I cold start with the Paragon recover drive for HDM15S plugged in, it boots from it. Restarts are fine but the next cold start I get a boot configuration error which corrects itself after a few seconds. Restarts into recovery drive the boot selection menu works fine. There is a delay timer, if set to zero, it'll boot into the default drive no matter one does!

[SpeedFlow]

I've been focused on using the default recovery build and avoiding the ADK/WAIK build option. The reason is that downloads and installs for ADK/WAIK are very large - too big and time consuming when working on computers that belong to others. In the end, once the details of UEFI and flash drive complications were worked out, the default recovery build on Win8.1 boots successfully into BR16 on Win7, Win8.1 and Win10 machines. That's what was needed to build confidence in the BR16 recovery media.

Correct, diskpart locks up when attempting to recover a flash drive larger than 32GB that was configured by the recovery media builder. For kicks I tried Paragon partition manager, and it fails as well. Manufacturers recommendation is to use diskpart to repair and never use the drive for that application again. Too late for that.

I've seen that boot config error, recovery seems graceful.

[wptski]

ADK 1607 for W10 v1607 has issues with NAS but ADK 8.1 works, trouble ticket in for over three months.

[SpeedFlow]

Very good to know, thank you!

[SpeedFlow]

The option to output a script file instead of immediately running a backup job does still exist as in previous versions. But I have not yet found a way to access, edit and execute a script file from within BR16 as is standard in previous versions.

[mladenek]

Hi,
I have similar problem. I make backup (with BR16) on old windows and install new windows. Now I install again BR16 but can't add my backup file to BR16. I need some files from backup and when I want to restore files and folders from backup to another location (not to original) I need to restart computer. Would be nice if I could mount my backup and access to my files without rebooting my PC.

[English Paragon Support Team]

Use the WinPE environment: Full control, no restart.

[mladenek]

Hi,
Or I'm doing something wrong or we misunderstood. With WinPE I also need to reboot PC and again need to reboot to Win 10 to find that non files was restored. Hope that backup image is OK (I tested it before format and it was OK but now some files won't restore).

[SpeedFlow]

Back to the OP and the purpose of this thread - previously-existing backups cannot be added, rooted in missing or abandoned tools in BR16.

I'm wondering to what extent the BR16 menu system is failing. (I have BR16 installed on clients' Win7 and Win8 machines.) At one point I ran across the option to output a script file. That is now entirely gone. Referring to the BR16 pdf manual, p. 9, it is stated that "A corresponding bar appears in the upper area after you accomplish a potentially dangerous operation." The statement is followed by a snapshot of the BR16 menu, showing "Main View" and it's subcommands "Apply, Discard, Show changes, Undo, Redo, Generate Script". I absolutely cannot find this menu, and the manual implies the options are available for tasks that may "destroy the on-disk data". "Generate Script" is nowhere to be found. There are multiple reasons to simply save a script file that can later be edited and run. All I want to do is save a script file of a backup job and edit it to address known issues, like controlling the datetime stamp and name of a backup file. What is happening now is that a scheduled backup names the Paragon backup directory whatever it pleases, with a static datetime stamp. This is the old problem that could be resolved in the script file.

Previously, a scheduled job script file for a was saved in the scripts directory. No more. It appears the script files for scheduled jobs are being saved in the registry, which makes no sense AND makes them inaccessible. So now I wish to get past this new restriction and formally save a job script file for editing and execution on demand.

At this point I also want to know if Paragon is supporting BR16, or abandoning it. Not only is Zero support being offered here, but it looks like new problems integrated into BR16 are being avoided as a topic. Not good.