ASR Wizard in XP Pro aborts making backup

[Murray Eisenberg]

When I try to use the Windows XP Professional (SP1a) Automatic System
Recovery (ASR) Wizard to create a backup file along with the associated
diskette, I get the error message:

The files for the recovery diskette could not be created.
The operation was aborted.

But five days ago I had no problem making an ASR backup set and
associated diskette! So something has changed that caused this
different result.

I emphasize that this is with XP Pro, and not Home. And it worked before.

I've found nothing relevant in the Microsoft Knowledge Base -- just
one article about the same error with ASR in but that's in XP Home,
which doesn't actually support ASR.

I did find one thread in microsoft.public.windowsxp.security_admin about
the same error with XP Pro, but the only suggestion there concerned
moving the pagefile back to the system drive C:. My pagefile is already
on C: and has always been there.

I've tried using a clean boot, but to no avail.

I can tell you this: I had installed Roxio Drag-to-Disk (formerly known
as DirectCD) yesterday to use with a Plextor DVD writer. That is an
extension to the file system that, to my surprise, added to Windows
Explorer "local volumes" corresponding to the several non-Windows (in
fact, Linux) partitions on my 2nd hard drive; and that installation also
messed up my drive letters.

That much is now ostensibly repaired: I uninstalled Drag-to-Disk;
deleted the Linux partitions; and reset the NTFS (and one FAT) partition
letters to what they should be. Note that the drive letter for C: never
changed, of course.

Any ideas or pointers?

--
Murray Eisenberg (e-mail address removed)
Mathematics & Statistics Dept.
Lederle Graduate Research Tower phone 413 549-1020 (H)
University of Massachusetts 413 545-2859 (W)
710 North Pleasant Street fax 413 545-1801
Amherst, MA 01003-9305

 

[mrtee]

Murray, you don't say whether you tried a different floppy. Is the floppy good? Can you format the floppy? Does XP recognize that there is a floppy in the drive?

I put a new "A" drive in my machine, ¾ of the time it (XP) does not recognize a floppy in the drive.

I am also having a problem in "Command Prompt" when I type "format a:\" the response comes up that "format is not a recognized internal or external command". Could that be related? I don't know.

--
Just my 2¢ worth
Jeff
__________in response to__________

| When I try to use the Windows XP Professional (SP1a) Automatic System
| Recovery (ASR) Wizard to create a backup file along with the associated
| diskette, I get the error message:
|
| The files for the recovery diskette could not be created.
| The operation was aborted.
|
| But five days ago I had no problem making an ASR backup set and
| associated diskette! So something has changed that caused this
| different result.
|
| I emphasize that this is with XP Pro, and not Home. And it worked before.
|
| I've found nothing relevant in the Microsoft Knowledge Base -- just
| one article about the same error with ASR in but that's in XP Home,
| which doesn't actually support ASR.
|
| I did find one thread in microsoft.public.windowsxp.security_admin about
| the same error with XP Pro, but the only suggestion there concerned
| moving the pagefile back to the system drive C:. My pagefile is already
| on C: and has always been there.
|
| I've tried using a clean boot, but to no avail.
|
| I can tell you this: I had installed Roxio Drag-to-Disk (formerly known
| as DirectCD) yesterday to use with a Plextor DVD writer. That is an
| extension to the file system that, to my surprise, added to Windows
| Explorer "local volumes" corresponding to the several non-Windows (in
| fact, Linux) partitions on my 2nd hard drive; and that installation also
| messed up my drive letters.
|
| That much is now ostensibly repaired: I uninstalled Drag-to-Disk;
| deleted the Linux partitions; and reset the NTFS (and one FAT) partition
| letters to what they should be. Note that the drive letter for C: never
| changed, of course.
|
| Any ideas or pointers?
|
| --
| Murray Eisenberg (e-mail address removed)
| Mathematics & Statistics Dept.
| Lederle Graduate Research Tower phone 413 549-1020 (H)
| University of Massachusetts 413 545-2859 (W)
| 710 North Pleasant Street fax 413 545-1801
| Amherst, MA 01003-9305

 

[Murray Eisenberg]

I never got to the point of being asked for the floppy! The ASR aborted
with the indicated message as soon as I pressed the Finish button in the
wizard that sets up the process.

The first thing that ASR backup does is to check the volumes for what is
to be backed up. But even before it's doing that on this system, it
give the abort message.

In a working ASR backup process, the next thing ASR would do is set up
the file selection; next do the actual backup of the system state; and
only after all that is done, does it ask for insertion of a diskette.

So this has absolutely nothing to do with the state of the particular
diskette.

And the A: drive works just fine: XP always recognizes when a diskette
is there. That's one of the first things I checked.

Murray, you don't say whether you tried a different floppy. Is the floppy good? Can you format the floppy? Does XP recognize that there is a floppy in the drive?

I put a new "A" drive in my machine, ¾ of the time it (XP) does not recognize a floppy in the drive.

I am also having a problem in "Command Prompt" when I type "format a:\"the response comes up that "format is not a recognized internal or external command". Could that be related? I don't know.

--
Murray Eisenberg (e-mail address removed)
Mathematics & Statistics Dept.
Lederle Graduate Research Tower phone 413 549-1020 (H)
University of Massachusetts 413 545-2859 (W)
710 North Pleasant Street fax 413 545-1801
Amherst, MA 01003-9305

 

[mrtee]

I have only used the ASR in standard mode, where it copies everything from the system drive (except XP) to a 2nd HDD for later restoration or moving to a different drive.

I never used it for individual folders or files, therefore I have no idea. Sorry. If all you are doing is making backups of individual items why not right click - drag to the new location - release and click copy?

--
Just my 2¢ worth
Jeff
__________in response to__________

I never got to the point of being asked for the floppy! The ASR aborted
with the indicated message as soon as I pressed the Finish button in the
wizard that sets up the process.

The first thing that ASR backup does is to check the volumes for what is
to be backed up. But even before it's doing that on this system, it
give the abort message.

In a working ASR backup process, the next thing ASR would do is set up
the file selection; next do the actual backup of the system state; and
only after all that is done, does it ask for insertion of a diskette.

So this has absolutely nothing to do with the state of the particular
diskette.

And the A: drive works just fine: XP always recognizes when a diskette
is there. That's one of the first things I checked.

 

[Murray Eisenberg]

ASR is one of the modes of the Windows XP backup utility. It creates a
backup of the system partition along with a floppy disk that enables one
to restore the entire system partition by booting from that floppy --
and WITHOUT having to re-install Windows first.

I don't know what you mean when you say you're using ASR in "standard
mode". Perhaps you're confusing ASR, which is just one functionality of
the Windows Backup (System Tool accessory ) program with that backup
program itself.

I have only used the ASR in standard mode, where it copies everything from the system drive (except XP) to a 2nd HDD for later restoration or moving to a different drive.

I never used it for individual folders or files, therefore I have no idea. Sorry. If all you are doing is making backups of individual items why not right click - drag to the new location - release and click copy?

--
Murray Eisenberg (e-mail address removed)
Mathematics & Statistics Dept.
Lederle Graduate Research Tower phone 413 549-1020 (H)
University of Massachusetts 413 545-2859 (W)
710 North Pleasant Street fax 413 545-1801
Amherst, MA 01003-9305

 

[mrtee]

When I used ASR, the first thing that happened is the system drive was formatted, a fresh copy of XP installed, then everything restored from the .bkf file to the system drive. This was all done by pressing F2 to call up ASR when booting from the XP CD.

Theere is a way to open the .bkf file and extract files for restoration, see: Use Backup to Restore Files and Folders on Your Computer in Windows XP http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q309340.

--
Just my 2¢ worth
Jeff
__________in response to__________

| ASR is one of the modes of the Windows XP backup utility. It creates a
| backup of the system partition along with a floppy disk that enables one
| to restore the entire system partition by booting from that floppy --
| and WITHOUT having to re-install Windows first.
|
| I don't know what you mean when you say you're using ASR in "standard
| mode". Perhaps you're confusing ASR, which is just one functionality of
| the Windows Backup (System Tool accessory ) program with that backup
| program itself.
|

 

[mrtee]

By the way, have you done that?

--
Just my 2¢ worth
Jeff
__________in response to__________

| ASR is one of the modes of the Windows XP backup utility. It creates a
| backup of the system partition along with a floppy disk that enables one
| to restore the entire system partition by booting from that floppy --
| and WITHOUT having to re-install Windows first.
|
| I don't know what you mean when you say you're using ASR in "standard
| mode". Perhaps you're confusing ASR, which is just one functionality of
| the Windows Backup (System Tool accessory ) program with that backup
| program itself.

 

[Murray Eisenberg]

As I said in my posting, my problem was NOT in trying to restore after
having done an ASR backup, but rather in making the BACKUP for ASR in
the first place!

The backup wizard for ASR never got as far as preparing the list of
files for backup, but, as I said, aborted with the peculiar message "The
files for the recovery diskette could not be created. The operation was
aborted."

When I used ASR, the first thing that happened is the system drive was formatted, a fresh copy of XP installed, then everything restored from the .bkf file to the system drive. This was all done by pressing F2 to call up ASR when booting from the XP CD.

Theere is a way to open the .bkf file and extract files for restoration, see: Use Backup to Restore Files and Folders on Your Computer in Windows XP http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q309340.

--
Murray Eisenberg (e-mail address removed)
Mathematics & Statistics Dept.
Lederle Graduate Research Tower phone 413 549-1020 (H)
University of Massachusetts 413 545-2859 (W)
710 North Pleasant Street fax 413 545-1801
Amherst, MA 01003-9305

 

[Murray Eisenberg]

I've resolved the problem I reported at the start of this thread...

First, upon advice from Microsoft Tech Support and others, I disabled
the Windows XP Pro's IMAPI CD-Burning Service COM Service.

(And of course I did a complete boot drive backup, by using Drive Image.)

Second, I installed Nero 6 -- but WITHOUT the packet-writing component InCD.

No restart was even required, and no drive letters were changed, and
Windows ASR backups start and complete normally now.

I left my DVD-burner attached to the Silicon Image SATA3 port (via a
Serillel2 connector) on my IC7-MAX3. (The CD-burner remained throughout
as IDE1.)

Thanks to all who offered diagnoses and cures.

When I try to use the Windows XP Professional (SP1a) Automatic System
Recovery (ASR) Wizard to create a backup file along with the associated
diskette, I get the error message:

The files for the recovery diskette could not be created.
The operation was aborted.

But five days ago I had no problem making an ASR backup set and
associated diskette! So something has changed that caused this
different result.

I emphasize that this is with XP Pro, and not Home. And it worked before.

I've found nothing relevant in the Microsoft Knowledge Base -- just
one article about the same error with ASR in but that's in XP Home,
which doesn't actually support ASR.

I did find one thread in microsoft.public.windowsxp.security_admin about
the same error with XP Pro, but the only suggestion there concerned
moving the pagefile back to the system drive C:. My pagefile is already
on C: and has always been there.

I've tried using a clean boot, but to no avail.

I can tell you this: I had installed Roxio Drag-to-Disk (formerly known
as DirectCD) yesterday to use with a Plextor DVD writer. That is an
extension to the file system that, to my surprise, added to Windows
Explorer "local volumes" corresponding to the several non-Windows (in
fact, Linux) partitions on my 2nd hard drive; and that installation also
messed up my drive letters.

That much is now ostensibly repaired: I uninstalled Drag-to-Disk;
deleted the Linux partitions; and reset the NTFS (and one FAT) partition
letters to what they should be. Note that the drive letter for C: never
changed, of course.

Any ideas or pointers?

--
Murray Eisenberg (e-mail address removed)
Mathematics & Statistics Dept.
Lederle Graduate Research Tower phone 413 549-1020 (H)
University of Massachusetts 413 545-2859 (W)
710 North Pleasant Street fax 413 545-1801
Amherst, MA 01003-9305