No Backup

[dpaterson]

Hi.

Well this is a fantastic start!!!

I just purchased Disk Manager 16 (without trying the free version i.e. like to try "do the right thing" as it were and actually pay for stuff) and it doesn't work right off of the bat.

It's installed and activated no problem. And all I'm trying to do is create a simple system backup for security purposes from my notebook to a brand new external USB drive. I go through the wizard selecting "Create Single Backup", "Whole Computer", select my external USB drive, and "Finish". A message is displayed "Base Image - Running Now" and "Preparing Backup". This is displayed for a few minutes and then another message is displayed "No backups were found" and "Click here to create a new backup". That's it. When I check my external USB drive it's blank. No backup at all. And given that I'm trying to backup over 400GB it should take a good while to perform a backup if it was working. As I said: fantastic start i.e. how can the backups be trusted (even if they were working) if a simple backup cannot even run from the get go???

And yes: I've turned off the simulation mode so that's not the problem.

Any help would be appreciated.

I would also like to know what this other software is that has to be downloaded from Microsoft in order to create Recovery Media (WAIK/ADK)??? I've downloaded it but don't want to install it before I know exactly what it's for and what it's going to do to my system.

Lastly: if one migrates from one disk to another does it leave the original disk intact??? I've not tried this as yet (so not sure if the migrate functions work either) but would like to know.

Regards,

Dale.

[fireworker]

Hi Dale

I just purchased Disk Manager 16 (without trying the free version i.e. like to try "do the right thing" as it were and actually pay for stuff) and it doesn't work right off of the bat.

It's installed and activated no problem. And all I'm trying to do is create a simple system backup for security purposes from my notebook to a brand new external USB drive. I go through the wizard selecting "Create Single Backup", "Whole Computer", select my external USB drive, and "Finish". A message is displayed "Base Image - Running Now" and "Preparing Backup". This is displayed for a few minutes and then another message is displayed "No backups were found" and "Click here to create a new backup". That's it. When I check my external USB drive it's blank. No backup at all. And given that I'm trying to backup over 400GB it should take a good while to perform a backup if it was working.

Send logs to technical support Paragon. They will determine the cause of the problem.
logs.jpg

how can the backups be trusted (even if they were working) if a simple backup cannot even run from the get go???

I've made a backup and recovery with Paragon a thousand times. And also I constantly test the analogs from competitors. So I'm sure Paragon is the most reliable tool of all, if you know how to use it.

I would also like to know what this other software is that has to be downloaded from Microsoft in order to create Recovery Media (WAIK/ADK)??? I've downloaded it but don't want to install it before I know exactly what it's for and what it's going to do to my system.

Windows ADK will not harm your system (except that it takes 3-4 GB of disk space). But you can try to create an Recovery Media without it. If your system has a Winre.wim file, then you can do without WADK.

if one migrates from one disk to another does it leave the original disk intact???

Yes exactly. At least that's the way it was planned, and it's always been like that before (I have not yet fully tested the last 16.18.6 build).

[dpaterson]

Hi fireworker.

Thank you so very much for taking the time and going to the trouble of answering my queries in such great detail. Very much appreciated.

Have not heard anything from support as yet. However: I managed to resolve the problem myself. This is a DAW that I'm backing up and has many of the Windows Services disabled in order to achieve maximum performance. Some of those services were related to volume shadow copying, Windows backup, and one or two others. I just enabled them all and it's now working (not sure which one was the culprit but will play around tomorrow to ascertain which of these services are requirements) (will do this after the migration that is currently running is complete and post my findings for the sake of completeness).

Good to now that the backups are reliable. Thank you.

I'm hoping I've done this migration right of course i.e. I wanted an exact "mirror copy" of my drive so I enabled copying of partitions sector-by-sector before beginning the migrate and used the appropriate option. It's definitely doing something because it's been running for hours!!! LOL!!!

One thing I did find strange was the fact that when booting using recovery media that I'd create: I could not access the external USB drive i.e. it's only visible from within Windows (was hoping to be able to migrate with no files being accessed on the system drive but am hoping, of course, that the migrate functions takes care of this and does not skip open files???).

Oh well. Guess I shall see in the morning what's been happening.

Thanks again.

Regards,

Dale.

[fireworker]

I'm hoping I've done this migration right of course i.e. I wanted an exact "mirror copy" of my drive so I enabled copying of partitions sector-by-sector before beginning the migrate and used the appropriate option. It's definitely doing something because it's been running for hours!!! LOL!!!

"Sector-by-sector copying" is very rarely necessary in ordinary life. This may be necessary for forensics or for example to recover missing files from a dying HDD. With RAW processing, copied not only any garbage, auxiliary OS files (eg hyberfil.sys, pagefile.sys, .etc), but also unallocated space are copied sector-by-sector.
"Normal copying" - requires several times less time and can be executed to a smaller disk.

One thing I did find strange was the fact that when booting using recovery media that I'd create: I could not access the external USB drive i.e. it's only visible from within Windows

Probably USB-drivers of your PC are not included in the standard installer Windows. If you add your USB-drivers when creating Recovery Media, external USB disks should be visible.

[dpaterson]

Good morning.

Thanks (again) for the info.

Well: apparently I have a backup!!! LOL!!!

I do need to somehow try boot from this disk to make sure though. From what I gather the only way of doing this is to remove it from its housing and install it in the notebook??? I say this because it's the BIOS that's not recognising the external USB drive and it appears as though it is a problem with this particular range of HP notebooks (HP ProBook 450 G3) i.e. not even a BIOS update resolves from what I've read. Loading drivers when creating the recovery media will only make the drive accessible when booting with the recovery media.

Anyways and out of curiousity: let me now see which of the Windows services are required in order for the image backup to work properly.

Chat soon.

Regards,

Dale.

[dpaterson]

And the culprits are (drum roll)...:

Volume Shadow Copy
Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider

If these services are disabled then backup doesn't run.

Regards,

Dale.