Vista Backup & Restore - Restore problem (08x10000e4)

[Guest]

I had to re-install my entire Vista system on my PC yesterday back to how it
was set up when it left the factory. Prior to that I'd been doing regular
backups into a backup set which contained initial full backup followed by 4
incrementals.

When I came to run the restore on the newly re-installed system I got the
above error message and text suggesting something was wrong with the backup
catalogue. I'm devastated. Would like to know what the message means and also
is there any way I can correct the catalogues and recover my files (92GB!).
As a matter of interest I had backups stored on external hard drive. I also
chose restore from different computer option as I'd done re-install. The
computer names were the same in both cases.

 

[Guest]

When you say you did a full backup, do you mean you did a Complete PC Backup
(complete hard drive)??? Where did you back it up to (second hard drive,
DVD, external hard drive?????).. If you did a complete PC Backup, did you
use the Install DVD,or the Install partition and do the Restore from there????

 

[Guest]

I only have Vista Premium so what I meant was I did a so called full backup
of my files first time around. Not hard drive as that feature is only
available in higher versions of Vista. I backed up to a USB based external
HD. Hope this helps.

 

[AJR]

First - is the error code correct? Second - more detail regarding "I also
chose restore from different computer option as I'd done re-install."

 

[Guest]

Yes the error code is correct. On the second point. My situation was as
follows. I had a Vista system running on my Dell machine for 5 weeks. I
called the machine Tabydesktop. I ran the backup program every week so by the
time I had problems and was told by Dell to reformat my hard disks and reload
software as it was delivered from factory I had a backup set of initial full
backup of files followed by 4 incrementals. After I reloaded my system and
again called the computer the same name Tabydesktop I ran the backup program
and went straight to the restore option. I had no choice but to tell the
restore program that I wanted to restore files from another computer as I had
essentially replaced my old set-up due to above. The restore went out to the
external HD where I had the backup set, read the disk for a minute of so and
then reported the error message.

 

[Guest]

Looking at error code again there might have been one less zero in it. Try
both.

Nick

 

[Jill Zoeller [MSFT]]

The error codes are usually 0x followed by 8 digits. I can try searching for
past issues I've investigated but I'd need the proper code.

Also, since this is a file backup, you should have a series of .zip files
that contain your backups. If all else fails, it's possible to grab files
from those zips...so don't panic just yet. Please send me the error code
when you have it.

 

[Guest]

The error code is 0x810000E4. Reason given was

'There is a problem with the backup catalog. Restore from a different backup
or create new, full backup'.

I'm not panicking yet. Problem with going into Zip files is that some of my
videos have been split up over several zips so if I have to resort to this
how would I rejoin the various bits of files split across several zip files?
Also it seems to take an age to open these zip files from explorer. I really
hope we can get the catalogues back into shape, at least for some of the
backups.

Another question for later is extremely important. How can I verify that a
backup has worked and that I'll be able to use it in a restore situation. If
I can't do this at end of a backup run I'll not be able to trust the utility
and won't sleep at nights. Somehow I feel that backup should start the first
bit of the restore process once completed just so restore can do the catalog
reading to verify that the backup set integrity is still there.

 

[Jill Zoeller [MSFT]]

Nick, can you email me the backup catalogs? Remove "online" from my address.
Here are instructions for obtaining them. If they are too big to email, let
me know and I'll set up an FTP site.


1. Start the command prompt as an administrator.
2. Type the following text:

cd /d "c:\System Volume Information\Windows Backup"

3. Type the following text:

CD catalogs

4. Now type "dir" and press Enter. You should see two catalog files listed.

5. Type the following:

copy *.* c:\

6. Zip up those two files and email them to me (remove "online" from my
address).

 

[Guest]

Jill,

Will do in morning as quite late here. However looking at the instructions
I don't think I'll find any cataloues at all on C: drive in directory
indicated. Reason is I've got a new install of Vista in place as mentioned in
earlier post. I've not run Backup at all on this install yet. I'm trying to
initially do a restore of files that were on my ealier system. FYI the title
of Backup and Restore program at moment is Backup Status and Configuration.

 

[Jill Zoeller [MSFT]]

Ah, I see. Please try this on whatever volume the backups are stored on (I'm
not sure if this will work--if not I need to check with our team for further
instructinos).

--
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Want to learn more about Windows file and storage technologies? Visit our
team blog at http://blogs.technet.com/filecab/default.aspx.