www.aiscl.co.uk

I’m having a problem with the restore capability of AISBAckup V1.9 b202,
running a restore on Windows 2000 Pro, Dell Precision 360.

Here is the scenario…


1. Backed up 12GB of data from a Network Application Server connected
to a Windows XP machine onto DVD+RWs using Sonic DLA software.
The backup appeared to go flawlessly.

2. I now want to re-create the total content of the backed-up NAS onto a
local drive on a PC different than the one used for the backup.

3. I’ve installed a version of AISBackup on the second machine
(Windows 2000 Pro) on which I’ll be performing the restore.

4. I select the job from the backup media and import for restoration…

5. I select the Restore option and proceed to select all files.
(Subsequent tests indicate the problem also appears which only a
few subdirectories are selected.)

6. After several seconds of the restoration process in which files are
being written to the disk (file preparation works), AISBackup will hang.
Now, during this time, I’m receiving warnings about AISBAckup being
unable to create folders using a short directory names…???!!??

7. The restore will fail at the same point everytime in which a fairly
deep path has been created (about 10-12 subdirs estimate) and
rather than the several files being created within that dir,
a little more than 49 thousand subdirectories are created with names
like msql~1000 and both AISBAckup and an instance of Explorer
both hang.


Barry - Any thoughts on this problem?

Hi

If you are able to repeat the problem with only backing up and restoring one or two files from the directory will you make a small backup, zip up and send us all the files from the destination directory please.

Is the total path length (all subdirectories + filename) > 255 characters?

The short directory name warnings are given because AISBackup attempts to re-create folders using their original short name, a few applications, e.g. Microsoft Office, store registry information using the short directory name. Microsoft introduced an API in Windows XP that enables us to set the short name, Unfortunately Windows 2000 does not have this API and it is not always possible for us to create the folders with the same short names.

Thanks

Barry

Thanks for the quick replay, Barry. I'll see if I can re-create the problem using 1-2 directories, with a few files as you suggested.

I checked the path length and I'm only in the ballpark of 100 characters...

Oddly though, I can make this problem occur by restoring 1 of a couple top level directories, and both contain java classes with either really long file names (~30 characters) or some with names that have _ and $ characters in them... Probably only a coincidence, but I'll put togther that test case for you!

Thanks!!

Barry -

I've been able to reproduce the problem using a single directory with a handful of files. Please note, that while it appears to "hang", it's actually generating hundreds of empty subdirectories until you kill the AISBAckup process.

I've created the 47K ZIP file with the .BDB, .BUZ and .ZIP files which make up the backup session.

I've E-mailed the ZIP file to both the customer services and your personal E-mail addresses. Thanks for looking into this!!

Kind Regards,

- Jim Chalfonte

Hi Jim

The problem has been identified and fixed.

The fault was in the way short directory names are created, the CosTypedEventChannelAdmin folder was originally set-up with the short name CO93A1~0, unfortunately the short name ending in ~zero caused AISBackup to loop, needless to say this is the first time we have encountered a short name ending in ~zero.

We hope to upload build 204 soon but we still need to run some more tests, meanwhile if you manually create the folder CosTypedEventChannelAdmin AISBackup will complete the restore.

Barry

Hey Barry -

Sweet! That was quick work! I'll have to wait for the upload of build 204
as I have litterally dozens of subdirs that exhibit this particular problem!

Thanks for the help!!

Regards,

- Jim

Hi Jim

Build 204 has been uploaded:

http://www.aiscl.co.uk/downloadaisbackup.htm

Barry

Sweet!

Thanks, Barry! I'll try it out today and let you know how it looks!
Thanks for the help!

Regards,

- Jim

Well done Barry and Thanks!!

The changes you made to build 204 completely fixed the problem I was having, and I was able to succesfully restore all 12GB of data to my Windows 2000 machine. I can now confidently take my DVDs to the tradeshow next week, knowing that if I have a problem - AISBackup to the rescue!

Thanks for the quick turn around and quality work!

Kind Regards,

- Jim