www.aiscl.co.uk

My C: disk became unreadable this morning but as I made a
full backup to a DVD yesterday, I was not worried. To my
horror the backup did not work, CRC read error on several
files, although the verify went ok at backup time. I now
have the system running after restoring an old backup
made with the Windows 2000 backup tool, but I am still
struggling entering license codes, installing missing
programs and trying to get my extra hardware to function.

Questions:

If I change my system to a double boot, as you suggest
in this forum, and do the backup from the second copy
of windows, will I then have a complete system after
a restore including hardware drivers, license codes
etc?

How can I avoid the disaster with a unreadable backup
copy? I thought I was really safe having frequent backups,
all verified when writing.

Saludos
Goran Hosinsky
La Palma, Canary Islands

Windows Professional 2000 5.00.2195 service pack 4
AIS backup 2.2.0.271
Restore source CD drive E:
Restore destination C:
CD drive: HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-4167B
DVD disk EMTECH DVD-RW

You may use AISBackup to backup from a different operating system and this process is made better in the existing beta version of AISBackup (build 279) as we made AISBackup restore Windows across many different operating systems', e.g. 2, 3 or more boot systems.

What is worrying me is the CRC errors, we have backups going back several years which we can restore from. The CRC problems can occur if there is any damage on the discs, for example finger prints, dust etc. The Manage Backup / Validate (Test) Backup option may be used to check the backup. Bad CRC errors may also happen if the DVD writer has become faulty, this can be checked by validating the backup DVD in another computer (perhaps using the trial version of AISBackup, although the 'test' option in WinZip will also be suitable for testing the DVD). It may be worth checking the firmware version of your DVD as I have noticed some updates in the past which improve disc reading.

Did you make more than one backup of the same data? This is usually a good thing to do in case media gets damaged.

Barry

I will check the backup cd in the future, I did only make one copy this time.
You did not answere my other question: If I do a complete backup booted
to a second version of Windows, when I restore it, will things like hardware
drivers and licence of programs be restored too? Using the Windows 2000
backup utillity restore I have a lot of work getting things to work again.

The computer and all hardware is new, just a couple of months old. But I
suppose that latent hardware problems are apt to turn up in the beginning
of its life.

Thanks
Goran

OS = Operating System

If you backup OS A from OS B and OS A needs restoring you may restore OS A from OS B.

If you create 3 partitions then you could test this by restoring OS A to partition 3, adjust the boot menu to allow booting from the third partition and re-boot OS A from partition 3. Doing this means you can test the restore process without compromising the 'live' operating system. If you still have the old PC you could move this disk from that to the new PC for testing. Remember the old disk may have to be made a slave by moving the jumper.

Barry