Backup locks up PC

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raycyn
Posts: 15
Joined: Fri Oct 01, 2004 2:41 am

Backup locks up PC

Post by raycyn »

AISBackup has been shutting down (or causing the PC to lock up) during the “Preparing Backup” portion of the operation and when I next open the program I see am “backup unexpectedly terminated” message. This problem has been occurring consistently.
I am using version AISBackup 2.7.09.360
My OS is WinXP Home Edition, Version 2002, Patch SP3;
I backup to an external hard drive:[BKUP]; Backup Destination is {XD]:\Backup\Data\Data.zip and {XD]:\Backup\Total\Total.zip.
I run two backup jobs: a backup of data files which I run daily and a backup of almost the entire hard drive that I perform weekly. Both jobs are affected.
I have rebooted the PC, several times, but the problem persists.
I have recently installed upgrades of 2 security suites, Norton Internet Security 2010 (version 17.0.0.136); and Spyware Doctor by PC Tools (version 7.0.0.508). I tried listing the AISBackup folder in each of these applications as exclusions, but it made no difference.
I also reinstalled Build 360, and ran CHKDSK on the external and internal hard drives
Ray Wright
Ray Wright
Barry
Site Admin
Posts: 1529
Joined: Tue Aug 20, 2002 3:16 pm

Prepare backup problem

Post by Barry »

Was it this message you saw?

The last time a backup was run AISBackup was unexpectedly terminated.
Some anti-virus software may cause this problem.
Example: Trend Micro Internet Security requires that AISBackup is added to
the ''Virus and Spyware Controls / Prevent unauthorised
changes / Program Exception List'' and set to Trust.


This problem was encountered here during testing when AISBackup accessed the Trend Micro antivirus program folder and it was found that AISBackup should be added to the Prevent unauthorised changes section of Trend Micro's program. To be honest I think Trend Micro should have popped up a warning and at the very least log the fact it is terminating a program - and to be fair to Trend, after uninstalling Trend Micro and Re-installing a message did pop up and I was easily able to add AISBackup to the exclusions (However these AV programs should log all such activity!!). Please bear in mind that if a backup program is to do its job then it must gain access to all files on the PC included protected files.

It is possible another application on your PC is causing this problem or there is a corruption in the disk structure that is causing the problem and as soon as AISBackup tries to access a particular file it is bombing out - or is being bombed out by a third party program - that should log the fact it is doing so!! (I'll get off my soap box now - perhaps it's worth looking at the third party reports and logs?)

When the problem was encountered here we did not know why AISBackup was bombing out, so a routing was built in to log to a file the folder that AISBackup was just about to explore; this code is still in AISBackup and can be invoked by using All Debug Mode. When AISBackup has started click once on the form (to ensure AISBackup has the focus) and then press * until '******** All Debug Mode ******' is displayed on the caption bar and then run the backup job. After the job is terminated navigate to the AISBackup Application Data folder which by default is C:\ProgramData\Aquarius IS Consultancy\AISBackup\ on Windows Vista and Windows 7 or C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Aquarius IS Consultancy\AISBackup\ on Windows XP / Server 2003. The file containing the folder is in a file called LastFolderChecked.txt. Note that these folders are normally hidden but you may type the hidden folders in the address bar of windows explorer (or show hidden files and folders).

If the LastFolderChecked.txt file contains a folder name try excluding this from the backup and then re-running the job. If the folder is from one of your anti-virus / anti-spam programs please contact the vendor and ask for a solution and please post the solution (or response) here.

If this does not help solve the problem we may have to add additional trace information to AISBackup to try and resolve this problem.

BTW: As the Norton software is likely to contain anti-spam (it does) there may be a conflict between Norton and Spyware Doctor, it may be worth uninstalling Spyware Doctor (by way as an experiment) to see if the problem persists. I have come across two antivirus software's causing a deadly embrace (aka lock up) on a PC when accessing a network share, and I may be wrong but I think Norton asks that Microsoft's own anti-spam program is disabled (Windows Defender) during installation.


Barry
raycyn
Posts: 15
Joined: Fri Oct 01, 2004 2:41 am

Post by raycyn »

Thank you Barry,
Your comments and advice were very helpful. I think I resolved the problem by disabling SpywareDoctor while running the backup.

Before doing this, however, I ran the backup in ****All Debug Mode ****. The backup failed, but the LastFolderChecked.txt file was from a previous successful backup. How could that happen?
I will report this problem to PCTools who makes SpywareDortor and see how they respond.
Thanks again for your help. This month marks my 6th year using AISBackup. It has saved me grief multiple times as I work with many large (30-40MB) Excel files whose data changes daily and occasionally I do something that corrupts one of the files – AISbackup to the rescue! I also appreciate the Forum and your timely responses to queries.

Ray Wright
Ray Wright
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