\windows\installer directory purged soon after restore

[jeffareid]

After a full OS partition restore, the windows\installer directory self
purges. The trigger is either elapsed time or number of restarts. It's purged
within 20 minutes of a restore. The symptoms aren't obvious, such as some
microsoft (auto) updates fail to install, icons are missing, ... It took a
while before I figured out what the problem was.

The workaround is simple, just wait for windows\installer to get purged,
then do a second restore of the files and folders in windows\installer and it
will not get purged again.

Would be nice to know why this is happening.

 

[jeffareid]

After a full OS partition restore,

In this case I just upgraded to new hard drives. However for maintainance, I
do
a backup, compare, format, restore, compare to backup and defrag partitions,
so
I encounter restore issues more than most users.

 

[Gerry]

Jeff

What exactly do you mean by "purge"?

What you mean by restore? Using what tool?


--


Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[jeffareid]

What exactly do you mean by "purge"?

Deleted, most of the files and folders in \windows\installer end
up deleted a few mintutes and/or restarts after a restore.

What you mean by restore? Using what tool?

Drag and drop copy would work. Backup = copy partition to a
backup folder. Restore = copy backup folder to formatted
partition. Compare = windiff.

I actually use a program I wrote myself that works similar to
drag and drop, but it retains the short file names, date and
time stamps for files and folders copied. It copies all files
in a current folder before processing any sub-folders, to keep
all files in a single folder adjacent on the hard drive.
This is the same ordering that most backup applications use.

purge

Problem sequence:

1. backup XP partition (copy32 a program I wrote, == drag and drop)
to folder.

2. verify backup (file by file compare via winddiff)

3. format XP parition (using adminstrative tools, disk managment)

4. restore XP partition from folder (copy32)

5. verify restore (file by file compare via windiff)

After a few minutes and/or restarts, the contents of the directory
\windows\installer
are deleted. The fix:

6. restore \windows\installer from backup folder

The second restore fixes the problem

What I don't understand is why \windows\installer files and folders
are being deleted.

 

[jeffareid]

What exactly do you mean by "purge"?

Deleted, most of the files and folders in \windows\installer end
up deleted a few mintutes and/or restarts after a restore.

What you mean by restore? Using what tool?

Drag and drop copy would work. Backup = copy partition to a
backup folder. Restore = copy backup folder to formatted
partition. Compare = windiff.

I actually use a program I wrote myself that works similar to
drag and drop, but it retains the short file names, date and
time stamps for files and folders copied. It copies all files
in a current folder before processing any sub-folders, to keep
all files in a single folder adjacent on the hard drive.
This is the same ordering that most backup applications use.

purge

Problem sequence:

1. backup XP partition (copy32 a program I wrote, == drag and drop)
to folder.

2. verify backup (file by file compare via winddiff)

3. format XP parition (using adminstrative tools, disk managment)

4. restore XP partition from folder (copy32)

5. verify restore (file by file compare via windiff)

After a few minutes and/or restarts, the contents of the directory
\windows\installer
are deleted. The fix:

6. restore \windows\installer from backup folder

The second restore fixes the problem

What I don't understand is why \windows\installer files and folders
are being deleted.