Hard Disk crashed on old Averatec Laptop.
Installed new disk and OS (XP SP-1) from OEM recovery disks.
Installed AIS 2.5
Tried to restore from backup on USB external drive. Everything looks OK but I get "missing xxxxxx-1.buz file, xxxxx-2.buz, xxxxx-yy etc. There are buz files on the drive but they start at very high -yy numbers. However, I have many sequential xxxxxx-yy.zip files that begin with 1 and increment.
I believe that I remember copying the AIS backup files from a different external HD to the current one (which has more space).
Desperately need to recover. Any suggestions?
Also since this is OEM software (not an original Microsoft OS disks) I cannot Microsoft Recovery console.
Best Regards
Harry
Missing ".buz" files when reinstalling after HD cr
Restore from external drive
The .buz file contains the description of the backup and there should only be one of these files on the external files. The .bdb file contains the contents of the backup and again, there should only be one of these of the backup destination.
The backup itself is stored in a number of .zip files, however AISBackup gives you the opportunity to change the file extension to enable you to exclude backups from antivirus checking software, .azp is suggested by AISBackup.
To install a backup from the external drive use the Tools / Open Job From Backup Media and follow the on-screen instructions.
AISBackup would not have created a file sequence of .buz files unless this extension was created deliberately, and indeed the extension cannot be changed once the backup has started, so I cannot understand how you ended up with the file structure you have reported.
If you need more help please ensure that Explorer is displaying file extensions (Explorer / Tools / Folder Options / View / un-check Hide Extensions of Known File Types) Then e-mail a screen print of the ‘view / details’ list of files.
Barry
The backup itself is stored in a number of .zip files, however AISBackup gives you the opportunity to change the file extension to enable you to exclude backups from antivirus checking software, .azp is suggested by AISBackup.
To install a backup from the external drive use the Tools / Open Job From Backup Media and follow the on-screen instructions.
AISBackup would not have created a file sequence of .buz files unless this extension was created deliberately, and indeed the extension cannot be changed once the backup has started, so I cannot understand how you ended up with the file structure you have reported.
If you need more help please ensure that Explorer is displaying file extensions (Explorer / Tools / Folder Options / View / un-check Hide Extensions of Known File Types) Then e-mail a screen print of the ‘view / details’ list of files.
Barry
Buz Disaster
Bad News: Had numerous ".buz" files....perhaps as many as 500 +.
Attempted restore to my crashed laptop several times and aborted when msg about missing ".buz" was displayed (in these cases I was given the options: "abort", "skip", "cancel").
Finally in desperation I selected "skip" repeatedly (manually) through first ~500 ".buz" to get to ~525 ( I cheated and looked at the directory of the external HD and saw that .buz started in the 500 range). This resulted in somehow deleting not only the entire AIS backup for the Laptop I was trying to recover but also the AIS backups for my MAIN computer that also resided on the same external HD. Have painfully manually reinstalled many of my programs and downloaded some important files that I fortunately backed up on line!!
Burned by AIS once (which was a third degree burn) I started looking more carefully at the AIS Disaster Recovery instructions. As far as I can tell you really need to have the Microsoft Recovery Console installed to reliably recover a disaster situation using the AIS backups and are therefore basically out of luck if you have an OEM installed XP OS since normally, of course, the systems come WITHOUT the Microsoft Recovery Console installed. And as AIS points out once SP2 is installed one cannot reliably install the Microsoft Recovery Console if using an OEM installed OS (Big Red Bold Text).
So basically, as I read it, if one has an OEM installed XP OS that has been upgraded to SP2 there is NO guarantee that one can recover a disaster situation using the AIS software.
Have I missed something.
Attempted restore to my crashed laptop several times and aborted when msg about missing ".buz" was displayed (in these cases I was given the options: "abort", "skip", "cancel").
Finally in desperation I selected "skip" repeatedly (manually) through first ~500 ".buz" to get to ~525 ( I cheated and looked at the directory of the external HD and saw that .buz started in the 500 range). This resulted in somehow deleting not only the entire AIS backup for the Laptop I was trying to recover but also the AIS backups for my MAIN computer that also resided on the same external HD. Have painfully manually reinstalled many of my programs and downloaded some important files that I fortunately backed up on line!!
Burned by AIS once (which was a third degree burn) I started looking more carefully at the AIS Disaster Recovery instructions. As far as I can tell you really need to have the Microsoft Recovery Console installed to reliably recover a disaster situation using the AIS backups and are therefore basically out of luck if you have an OEM installed XP OS since normally, of course, the systems come WITHOUT the Microsoft Recovery Console installed. And as AIS points out once SP2 is installed one cannot reliably install the Microsoft Recovery Console if using an OEM installed OS (Big Red Bold Text).
So basically, as I read it, if one has an OEM installed XP OS that has been upgraded to SP2 there is NO guarantee that one can recover a disaster situation using the AIS software.
Have I missed something.
.buz files
I cannot understand why you ended up with 100’s of buz files unless you change the backup file extension to ‘buz’, this of course would cause problems as the backup files and backup ‘instructions’ would all have the same file extension, namely 'buz'. Do you recall changing the backup file extension from zip? As far as I know this conflict has never happened before, but nevertheless AISBackup will have to be updated to validate the backup file extension if it changed.
AISBackup only needs to use the Recovery Consol method if there are big differences in the operating system, so basically re-installing Windows and bringing it as up to date as the backup version will mean the backup will not need the recovery console. AISBackup also allows a second computer to make the backup, however for you this would mean removing the laptop drive and hooking it up to a second computer using a disk to USB adapter.
Most OEM computers usually install a recovery partition on the disk; this however would be pretty useless if the disk itself had an unrecoverable error. Some computer manufacturers also supply the operating system on CD or DVD, and in this case the easiest way to recover a PC with an old Windows CD, e.g. Windows XP without a service pack and your backup is SP2 plus all subsequent updates; is to install the old windows into a small partition on the disk, boot from this copy of Windows and then create and restore the backup to a second partition on the remainder of the disk. Having two copies of Windows on the same PC is equivalent to what most PC manufacturers do anyway (so you should not feel you are wasting disk space) but with the added advantage that you can access the disk containing main copy of Windows if there is a problem with the operating system which prevents booting.
Another option is to make a pre-installed environment CD, like BartPE (Google BartPE) However I have noticed that BartPE cannot always ‘see’ the hard drive in some PC configurations. If you can get BartPE to work on your PC this can be used in place of the Microsoft Recovery console for completing the ‘over the top restores’. BartPE has a forum if you need help creating the CD and we have instructions for adding AISBackup and the Recovery Console equivalent to the BartPE CD on the web site.
Barry
AISBackup only needs to use the Recovery Consol method if there are big differences in the operating system, so basically re-installing Windows and bringing it as up to date as the backup version will mean the backup will not need the recovery console. AISBackup also allows a second computer to make the backup, however for you this would mean removing the laptop drive and hooking it up to a second computer using a disk to USB adapter.
Most OEM computers usually install a recovery partition on the disk; this however would be pretty useless if the disk itself had an unrecoverable error. Some computer manufacturers also supply the operating system on CD or DVD, and in this case the easiest way to recover a PC with an old Windows CD, e.g. Windows XP without a service pack and your backup is SP2 plus all subsequent updates; is to install the old windows into a small partition on the disk, boot from this copy of Windows and then create and restore the backup to a second partition on the remainder of the disk. Having two copies of Windows on the same PC is equivalent to what most PC manufacturers do anyway (so you should not feel you are wasting disk space) but with the added advantage that you can access the disk containing main copy of Windows if there is a problem with the operating system which prevents booting.
Another option is to make a pre-installed environment CD, like BartPE (Google BartPE) However I have noticed that BartPE cannot always ‘see’ the hard drive in some PC configurations. If you can get BartPE to work on your PC this can be used in place of the Microsoft Recovery console for completing the ‘over the top restores’. BartPE has a forum if you need help creating the CD and we have instructions for adding AISBackup and the Recovery Console equivalent to the BartPE CD on the web site.
Barry
Missing .buz files
Many thanks for your detailed reply. I am still digesting it.
In the mean time, to help solve the puzzle: I never intentionally changed any extensions to ".buz" and as I recall when I inspected the external backup HD directory there were numerous .zip files as well as the numerous .buz files for the laptop whose HD crashed.
Items to consider:
My memory is rather poor, but as I recall, at one time I did have this particular AIS backup password protected and later changed it so that it no longer required a password.
Also, when I ran out of disk space on an older USB (or was it FireWire?) 80 G external backup drive I DIRECTLY copied the files (for both the laptop and the Desktop) to a larger USB external drive and have proceeded to use this drive for perhaps a year until the disaster.
I gather now from some reading on the AIS website that direct copying is not recommended (is this correct?).
However, I don't ever recall getting anything other than messages that the my backups were completed without a problem.
File copying is such a natural and common procedures, especially to migrate to larger HDs as they become available, and just simply to make a clone copy of a backup on a Third drive for added protection, that if this in anyway jeopardizes an important backup I would request that AIS place opening banners at each launch warning against this practice and if at all possible change the software so that simple direct copies don't corrupt a critical backup.
Again, many thanks for your patience.
In the mean time, to help solve the puzzle: I never intentionally changed any extensions to ".buz" and as I recall when I inspected the external backup HD directory there were numerous .zip files as well as the numerous .buz files for the laptop whose HD crashed.
Items to consider:
My memory is rather poor, but as I recall, at one time I did have this particular AIS backup password protected and later changed it so that it no longer required a password.
Also, when I ran out of disk space on an older USB (or was it FireWire?) 80 G external backup drive I DIRECTLY copied the files (for both the laptop and the Desktop) to a larger USB external drive and have proceeded to use this drive for perhaps a year until the disaster.
I gather now from some reading on the AIS website that direct copying is not recommended (is this correct?).
However, I don't ever recall getting anything other than messages that the my backups were completed without a problem.
File copying is such a natural and common procedures, especially to migrate to larger HDs as they become available, and just simply to make a clone copy of a backup on a Third drive for added protection, that if this in anyway jeopardizes an important backup I would request that AIS place opening banners at each launch warning against this practice and if at all possible change the software so that simple direct copies don't corrupt a critical backup.
Again, many thanks for your patience.
Manually Moving backups
Manually moving a backup is not recommended, however AISBackup over the years has been re-written to recover from most error situations, indeed a simple disk to disk copy should always be okay.
It is a shame that the backup no longer exists as even with the zip files been named .buz the backup should have been recoverable with some work, and I now wish I mentioned that in my initial reply.
I hope when you copied the backups you kept both the laptop and desktop backups in separate folders.
Barry
It is a shame that the backup no longer exists as even with the zip files been named .buz the backup should have been recoverable with some work, and I now wish I mentioned that in my initial reply.
I hope when you copied the backups you kept both the laptop and desktop backups in separate folders.
Barry