Can't restore from network drive!

Use this forum for help with AISBackup
Post Reply
cyclone
Posts: 14
Joined: Tue Feb 17, 2004 11:11 am
Location: Silicon Valley

Can't restore from network drive!

Post by cyclone »

My laptop hard drive crashed, so I'm attempting to restore from my backup disks. I'm using the Ultimate Windows Boot CD (http://www.windowsubcd.com/), which allows booting the laptop and loading XP from the CD rather than having to install XP to the hard drive (it's an amazingly useful tool). I'm able to run AIS Backup when doing this, but the boot CD has to stay in the drive since that's where the system files reside. Therefore, I copied the three backup CD's into a directory on another machine and mounted a shared network drive. I was able to load the backup job, but when it came time to actually do the restore AIS insisted on loading from the local CD drive rather than from the network drive where I loaded the job from. I also tried copying all the files from the backup CD's to a local directory but had the same problem.

Is it not possible to restore from anywhere other than a networked drive, or should this have worked and the problem was caused by the "Live CD" boot method?

Bill
Barry
Site Admin
Posts: 1529
Joined: Tue Aug 20, 2002 3:16 pm

Post by Barry »

The .bdb and .buz database files that AISBackup uses remembers where each file is, so manually copying a backup from disc to disk does not re-locate the backup internally. The correct way to move a backup from CD or DVD to disk is to use the Manage Backup / Change Backup Destination option.

There is a workaround, although it may seem a little clumsy:

Ensure that the backup is ‘re-instated’ on the PC that it has been moved to, the backup should have also been made read only (the source of the backup was not on this PC!). If you are not sure if these settings are correct remove the backup from the list but do not delete the backup and then use the Tools / Open Job from Backup Media to re-instate the backup.

On the PC holding the backup take a copy of the <job name>.bdb file (drag and drop while holding CTRL down will create a file called ‘Copy of <job name>.bdb ) This important step is required as the next step is going to wipe out the <job name>.bdb file.

Choose the option Manage Backup / Change Backup Destination, for the disc stage question choose Change, With the Enter the New Destination dialogue locate the backup, answer no to the FireWire prompt and choose No to the copy the existing backup question. It is at this point that the <job name>.bdb file gets wiped out, so from the backup folder delete <job name>.bdb and rename Copy of <job name>.bdb to <job name>.bdb.

Next choose the Manage Backup / Import Backup Contents File and locate the <job name>.bdb file. Do a quick test by clicking Restore From Backup / Next / Drag and drop any file to the desktop.

Next move to the Windows XP Laptop and choose Tools / Open job from backup media, re-instate the backup and optionally make it read only.

Let us know if this works okay.

Barry
Post Reply