Fresh start with Complete PC Backup

[Guest]

I had to reinstall a program to get rid of some corrupted files. Can this
affect my backup image going forward? Is there some way to go back to square
one and start all over with the Complete PC Backup process?

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi tommyb,

I had to reinstall a program to get rid of some corrupted files. Can this
affect my backup image going forward?

No, it shouldn't. An image is a picture of a system as it was at a
particular point in time. Unless the program files were corrupted when the
image was taken, a restoration of it should give you everything in the same
working order as it was when you made it.

Is there some way to go back to square
one and start all over with the Complete PC Backup process?

You can always make new images, and actually you should every few months.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

news:[email protected]...

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the information. Can I delete the current image before I run the
complete backup program again? That seems like the best way to be sure the
next image does not include any corrupted files.

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi,

Yes, you can. Normally I keep the last two as a safe guard,

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

 

[Guest]

Hi Rick,

This is actually a problem for me. My original complete Ultimate backup was
lost, and I need to make a completely new image. However, Backup & Restore
does not KNOW I lost my backup and insists on creating only an incremental.
Note that I am not talking about File Backup, but the full system image. I
confirmed experimentally that out of some 180gigs (perhaps 40 gigs of which
are superflouous like Recorded TV and swapfiles), only a 15 gig image is
actually created and when I try to restore it from a USB drive and the
emergency restore CD, it tells me that I've got the wrong number backup.

So: is there a) a way to force a full system image in Complete Backup, or
alternatively b) is there a way to reset Vista's backup flag so it thinks a
complete image has never been done? (On the latter I hunted around the
registry but didn't find anything obvious).

Thanks and cheers,

Jeff

 

[Guest]

(On the latter I hunted around the registry but didn't find anything
obvious).

BTW I should clarify: I *did* find a way to reset the backup notification;
navigate within REGEDIT to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > software> Microsoft > Windows

Current Version > Windows Backup and delete all key values (not the keys

themselves) in that folder and its subfolder System Image Backup. The next
time Backup and Restore is run, Vista announces that no full image backup has
been made.

But there seems to be more to it than that, because the size of my "initial"
image is still around 15GB, so either a) the REAL registry key keeping track
of full and incremental images is elsewhere and less obvious, or b) Vista is
excluding a whole lot of stuff (e.g. about 40 gigs of recorded TV). Since
there doesn't seem to be a way to view the files within that image, I'm
obviously hesitant to delete my hard drive and try a system restore just as
an experiement without some confidence it'll actually work!

 

[Guest]

obvious).

BTW I should clarify: I *did* find a way to reset the backup notification;
navigate within REGEDIT to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > software> Microsoft > Windows
themselves) in that folder and its subfolder System Image Backup. The next
time Backup and Restore is run, Vista announces that no full image backup has
been made.

But there seems to be more to it than that, because the size of my "initial"
image is still around 15GB, so either a) the REAL registry key keeping track
of full and incremental images is elsewhere and less obvious, or b) Vista is
excluding a whole lot of stuff (e.g. about 40 gigs of recorded TV). Since
there doesn't seem to be a way to view the files within that image, I'm
obviously hesitant to delete my hard drive and try a system restore just as
an experiement without some confidence it'll actually work!

Did you find an answer to this? I have the same problem.

 

[Don Farmer]

If you toggle the Show Hidden Files in Folder Options, you can see what is
in the Backup. They are *.xml and *.vcd, which are virtual disk images. I
have done a fresh start by simply reformating my external drive. I did not
have to do any registry tweaks.