Verifying an NTBACKUP file after the fact

[zarbiker]

Hi,

I wanted to backup my main data disk from Vista Ultimate using Complete
PC Image Backup but soon discovered that with a multi-boot configuration
there were serious limitations on the selection of candidate volumes to
image. The alternative non-image backup in Vista seemed of little use since
it only backs up a subset of your files. So I decided to boot XP and run
NTBACKUP from one of my native XP partitions to perform a full backup of my
160 GIG hard drive to a USB drive. The backup phase ran for 11 hours and
then entered the verify phase. Unfortunately, despite my diligence, some
automatic windows updates installed during the backup process and forced a
reboot before completion of the verify. The backup plus verification is at
least a 20 hour affair and, of course, I have to have my XP system running
instead of my production Vista system. While the odds are that the backup
file is OK I'd like to be sure and thus would love to know if there is a way
to re-Verify the backup file instead of starting all over again.

More specifically:
- Is there a way to ask NTBACKUP to perform a "Verify Only" operation?

- Alternatively, is there a way to use NTBACKUP to perform a "Mock"
restore that will traverse the whole input backup file and go through all the
motions of a full restore but not actually output anything. That would be a
great way to verify that the file is intact. Also, since Vista provides a
"Restore only" version of NTBACKUP (to restore backups produced via XP) I
might be able to this without having to reboot my XP partition.

Thanks.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Hi,

I wanted to backup my main data disk from Vista Ultimate using Complete
PC Image Backup but soon discovered that with a multi-boot configuration
there were serious limitations on the selection of candidate volumes to
image. The alternative non-image backup in Vista seemed of little use
since
it only backs up a subset of your files. So I decided to boot XP and run
NTBACKUP from one of my native XP partitions to perform a full backup of
my
160 GIG hard drive to a USB drive. The backup phase ran for 11 hours and
then entered the verify phase. Unfortunately, despite my diligence, some
automatic windows updates installed during the backup process and forced a
reboot before completion of the verify. The backup plus verification is
at
least a 20 hour affair and, of course, I have to have my XP system running
instead of my production Vista system. While the odds are that the backup
file is OK I'd like to be sure and thus would love to know if there is a
way
to re-Verify the backup file instead of starting all over again.

More specifically:
- Is there a way to ask NTBACKUP to perform a "Verify Only"
operation?

- Alternatively, is there a way to use NTBACKUP to perform a "Mock"
restore that will traverse the whole input backup file and go through all
the
motions of a full restore but not actually output anything. That would be
a
great way to verify that the file is intact. Also, since Vista provides a
"Restore only" version of NTBACKUP (to restore backups produced via XP) I
might be able to this without having to reboot my XP partition.

Thanks.

No, there is no "verify only" option to ntbackup. There are two further
issues in your approach, on of them serious:

- It takes forever to back up your files and it may take forever to restore
selected files, depending on where they are located in the .bkf file.
- Your backup consists of one huge egg in a very large basket. If that
basket develops a flaw then the whole backup will be inaccessible.

If this was my show then I would either use robocopy.exe to back up my files
or else a fully developed commercial product such as Acronis backup.

 

[Twayne]

Hi,

I wanted to backup my main data disk from Vista Ultimate using
Complete
PC Image Backup but soon discovered that with a multi-boot
configuration there were serious limitations on the selection of
candidate volumes to image. The alternative non-image backup in
Vista seemed of little use since it only backs up a subset of your
files. So I decided to boot XP and run NTBACKUP from one of my
native XP partitions to perform a full backup of my 160 GIG hard
drive to a USB drive. The backup phase ran for 11 hours and then
entered the verify phase. Unfortunately, despite my diligence, some
automatic windows updates installed during the backup process and
forced a reboot before completion of the verify. The backup plus
verification is at least a 20 hour affair and, of course, I have to
have my XP system running instead of my production Vista system.
While the odds are that the backup file is OK I'd like to be sure and
thus would love to know if there is a way to re-Verify the backup
file instead of starting all over again.

The odds are fairly good that it's OK; did you keep the backup log or
look for it in its default location? If there were any errors during
backing up, they should be in that log. The other possibility of error
would be disk-copy errors; as long as no new bad sectors have developed
on your US drive you're probably fine, too.

More specifically:
- Is there a way to ask NTBACKUP to perform a "Verify Only"
operation?

No, ntbackup doesn't have that feature. You indicated a 160 Gig USB
hard drive? And it took 11 hours? Or do I misunderstand something?
11 hours is several magnitudes too long for such a backup even to a
USB2 drive. I don't think even a USB1 drive could take that long to
back up 100-120 or so Gig unless something else was wrong somewhere or
you have a very slow system? My 360 Gig only take a few hours to do a
full backup to a compressed folder.
Because of that information I'd consider the backup suspect now, IMO.
Is it normal for your system to take that long? If that's "normal",
then maybe it's no big deal, but - wow - that's a long time for that
little data!

- Alternatively, is there a way to use NTBACKUP to perform a
"Mock" restore that will traverse the whole input backup file and go
through all the motions of a full restore but not actually output
anything.

Sort of ... you CAN redirect ntbackup to output to another drive/folder
instead of the original locations; the Restore choices are
1 original location,
2 alternate location, or
3 Single Folder.

Then you could use whatever compare method you wished to compare the
Restored files to the current files.

If the question is whether an update got entered into the backup,
then you look for the uninstall prog for it in C:\Windows. If the
uninstaller is there and its size/date/time agrees with what's in the
current Windows folder, you should be able to say it' in the backup. If
it's not there or the size or datestamp is differen,t then it's not
complete in the backup .bkf file.
For a one-up, you might be able to see enough to tell just in the
Restore window; it'll show you every folder/file in the backup.
If it's the whole thing you want compared, then some sort of program
like PowerDesk's Synchronizer feature should make it a lot easier to do.
PowerDesk is at
http://www.avanquest.com/USA/pc-utilities/utilities/desktop-tools/ .
There used to be a freebie version too; least there was when I got my
version 7. I've since switched to the Pro version so I'm not positive
the freebie is there, but I've not heard of it being discontinued
either.


That would be a great way to verify that the file is

intact. Also, since Vista provides a "Restore only" version of
NTBACKUP (to restore backups produced via XP) I might be able to this
without having to reboot my XP partition.

You could do any of the above without a Restart or reboot of any kind.

Personally, if I weren't sure it was a good file, I'd just turn backup
loose again tonite and let it run again - see what the verify says in
the morning.

I mentioned PowerDesk: there might be a better solution for a little
over twice what PDPro costs: That would be a drive imaging program;
they are great and can run completely unattended. The two best are
Symantec's Norton Ghost and Acronis True Image. If you're the techie
type BootItNG is good too. Last I knew they all have a full program
trial download. I use Ghost but more people seem to use Acronis True
Image, at least on these groups. I've used both & they're reasonable
easy to set up and get to work with without a steep learning curve or a
lot of time investment. I haven't tried BootItNG in a long time though
I still hear it's good, just needs a more techie type to use it.

HTH

Twayne

 

[Patrick Keenan]

Hi,

I wanted to backup my main data disk from Vista Ultimate using Complete
PC Image Backup but soon discovered that with a multi-boot configuration
there were serious limitations on the selection of candidate volumes to
image. The alternative non-image backup in Vista seemed of little use
since
it only backs up a subset of your files. So I decided to boot XP and run
NTBACKUP from one of my native XP partitions to perform a full backup of
my
160 GIG hard drive to a USB drive. The backup phase ran for 11 hours and
then entered the verify phase. Unfortunately, despite my diligence, some
automatic windows updates installed during the backup process and forced a
reboot before completion of the verify. The backup plus verification is
at
least a 20 hour affair and, of course, I have to have my XP system running
instead of my production Vista system. While the odds are that the backup
file is OK I'd like to be sure and thus would love to know if there is a
way
to re-Verify the backup file instead of starting all over again.

More specifically:
- Is there a way to ask NTBACKUP to perform a "Verify Only"
operation?

- Alternatively, is there a way to use NTBACKUP to perform a "Mock"
restore that will traverse the whole input backup file and go through all
the
motions of a full restore but not actually output anything. That would be
a
great way to verify that the file is intact. Also, since Vista provides a
"Restore only" version of NTBACKUP (to restore backups produced via XP) I
might be able to this without having to reboot my XP partition.

Thanks.

Your post looks to me like a good argument for another backup application,
such as Acronis TrueImage.

 

[zarbiker]

Thanks for all the responses.

- For Pegasus
I see your point about how vulnerable even a verified NTBACKUP file is
to
a successful restore. Perhaps using your Robocop suggestion will
allow me
to allocate my eggs to multiple baskets. One problem I see is that it
doesn't seem to support "Shadow copy support" and thus will most
likely not
be suitable for copying open files. I'll also read about the Acronis
product.

- For Twayne
Good observation on my USB 2.0 transfer rate. It turns out my
computer only
has 4 USB 2.0 ports but I have many USB 2.0 devices including 6
external
USB 2.0 drives. To avoid any problematic IO congestion I generally
only use
one USB drive at a time in any drive group sharing the same native
port. As
you can imagine, this port shortage forces me to attach the drives to
USB hubs
instead of directly to dedicated native motherboard ports. Operating
off of
a hub is what is probably causing the IO performance degradation.
Also the
fact that NTBACKUP is a file based copy facility doesn't help with the
clock.
In contrast, when performing sector based image copying (e.g. vista
complete
PC Backup) I can backup the same amount of data in approximately 1 1/2
hours
to that same external drive.
Thanks for the suggestion on "redirecting" NTBACKUP's restore output
for testing.
I'll definitely give it a try.

- For Patrick
Another vote for this Acronis application. I will look into it.