Pegasus-need additional help on backup issues like Alabama Jim's

[Guest]

I normally have used the xp backup utility that came with my xp pro cd. It
has always worked fine until very recently. I tried to do a backup and it
would not work very much like Alabama Jim's problem. I tried to start it from
the start menu in accessories, from backup in the list of apps in startup
list, using r/c on properties on the drive, from run command line, from
administator, from all users, and to no avail. It acts like it is starting, a
small window eventually opens with backup utility on the top and nothing on
the bottom just like Alabama Jim described, It shows up in the task manager
as running in the processes, but it never starts. I have tired chkcsk, system
restore and reinstalled it per your instructions to Jim. I did the thing you
said in systemroot and tasklist and I get 2 instances of ntbackup.exe-one
says 6480console and the other says 1692 console. I am going crazy with this.
I need help please. I can find no info on this problem anywhere. I could not
even find it in in the msft folder in my original xp pro cd. If in the end I
have to reinstall xp on another drive will a new install of xp and backup
still open my old backups created from my present backup cuase I have
programs in those backups that I have no where else? Cannot backup be made to
work some how?

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I normally have used the xp backup utility that came with my xp pro cd. It
has always worked fine until very recently. I tried to do a backup and it
would not work very much like Alabama Jim's problem. I tried to start it from
the start menu in accessories, from backup in the list of apps in startup
list, using r/c on properties on the drive, from run command line, from
administator, from all users, and to no avail. It acts like it is starting, a
small window eventually opens with backup utility on the top and nothing on
the bottom just like Alabama Jim described, It shows up in the task manager
as running in the processes, but it never starts. I have tired chkcsk, system
restore and reinstalled it per your instructions to Jim. I did the thing you
said in systemroot and tasklist and I get 2 instances of ntbackup.exe-one
says 6480console and the other says 1692 console. I am going crazy with this.
I need help please. I can find no info on this problem anywhere. I could not
even find it in in the msft folder in my original xp pro cd. If in the end I
have to reinstall xp on another drive will a new install of xp and backup
still open my old backups created from my present backup cuase I have
programs in those backups that I have no where else? Cannot backup be made to
work some how?

A good starting point would be for you to post two items:
- What exactly are you trying to achieve?
- What is the exact ntbackup.exe command line you use?

It would also be a useful if you reported the contents of the backup
log file that gets created each time you run ntbackup.exe.

 

[Guest]

I want to run an incremental backup of my c drive. I have 5 hard drives, 2
are external for backups and very full-too full to run any complete backups
now. I am intending to wipe down some of my drives and reorganize all my data
in the near future just not now. I need to run one last incremental of my c
drive to catch all my recently downloaded items since my last incremental
backup. I have backup assist and retrospect express backup apps and they both
work but since I have never done original backups with them and I do not have
enough room to do a new complete backup with them, I need to only do an
incremental which I have room for so it has to be with xp backup utility
since I have already done my complete and numerous incremental backups with
it.

Using the run box I typed "ntbackup.exe"

How do I get and record the contents of the backup log file, especially when
backup never runs to give me a log file?

Thanks a million for you help and patience with me. I read and tried your
suggestions in Alabama Jims thread-his issus sounds very much like mine too.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I'm afraid I still don't understand what you're trying to do.
Here are the things that I do not know:
- What is your drive structure? Where does Windows
reside? Where does your data reside? What are the
drive letters? What are the partition sizes? How much free
space on each partition?
- What do you want to backup? Your OS? Your data? Both?
- Why do you want to rely on "numerous" incremental
backups? Wiping the lot and doing a full backup would
be far more reliable.
- What is your ntbackup command line? You can see it
in the Task Scheduler.
- What is in your backup logs? You can see them here:
C:\Documents and Settings\titanrep\Local Settings\Application
Data\Microsoft\Windows NT\NTBackup\data

 

[Guest]

Most of the questions you just asked me are either in my posts so far or are
most likely irrelevant to my problem. However i will answer all of your
questions:

I have 3 internal and 2 external NTFS drives. The 2 external are my backup
drives.
My drives are as follows:
C drive: 80GB-75GB used with about 5GB remaining. This is my primarily used
drive.
D drive: 250GB-200GB used with about 40GB remaining. This is storage&needs
work
E drive: 60GB-56GB used with about 3 GB remaining. This is an old storage
drive.
I drive: 250GBExternal-220used with 30GBremaining. This is a backup drive.
M drive: 320GBExternal-250GBused,with 50GB remaining. This is also a backup
drive

Windows resides on drive C right now. There is aslo poorly running versions
of windows on the E drive and on the D drive, but I use the windows on the C
drive to control everything. I intend on reorganizing all 5 of my drives in
the future with fresh installs of windosw on the 250 GB D drive after I move
stuff I need off it and wipe it down and do the same with the 60 GB E drive,
but that is in the future and not part of what I want to do right now. The
drives have no other partitions on each.

I want to backup data, applications and settings on my C drive the 80GB
drive. Since I have already done a complete backup of that drive in the past
and have done incremental backups of that drive since then, and since I only
have room to do another incremental backup not another new complete backup,
that is why I want to just do an incremental backup of the c drive at this
time. I could not do a complete backup even if I had the room to do so
because the backup utility does not run. I could use a different app but
since I have never done a complete backup with them and do not have
room(75GB) that is not an option. So to protect my newly downloaded
documents, applications, etc. that i have added since my last incremental
backup, I need to do this incremental backup. I do not necessarily need to
back up windows too.

I know but many people say having incremental backups are the way to go and
that is how I have done it all along.

I cannot wipe the lot and do a new full backup because the backup utility
does not work-that is my problem!!!!!! I could do that with a different
backup utility but that would require me to do the complete reorganization of
all my drives right now which I really do not have the time to do at this
time because I have to go through all my data on 5 hard drives totaling 960GB
of data some of which is duplicated and needs to be sorted out. That however
is my last resort if I cannot get this problem fixed with the backup utility.

There is no backup log generated at all for the last 2 days since I have
tried to use the backup utility, even though a process for ntbackup.exe is
running in my tast manager. There are only entries for my last backups many
months ago.

I do not have backup scheduled to run at any time in the scheduled tasks
pane. I just run it when I feel i need to.

I hope this answers your questions and can provide me with some direction.

As I stated eariler I tried to reload the backup.msi file, I tried to start
it from administrator, from all users, from command line from r/c properties
on the c drive and going to backup, and nothing works. it acts like it is
starting, it opens a tiny blank box, it shows a process running in the task
manager and that is it- it does nothing else. Thanks again.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Here is my understanding of your current situation:
- You wish to back up your system drive.
- You have numerous incremental backup files.
- You cannot get ntbackup to work.

The problem with ntbackup can be difficult to resolve.
I recommend you walk around the problem by using
a different backup utility. Using TrueImage from Acronis
would let you create a full backup file of drive C: with
a compression rate of around 50%. This would create
a file of about 40 GBytes which you could park on drive
M:. After checking its integrity, you could delete all
incremental backups of drive C: in order to create some
space to manoeuvre.

On a general note: I think you are doing yourself a disservice
when storing data on drive C:. Since you have several other
drives, put all data there and keep C: free for Windows and
for your applications. 20 GBytes would then be ample!

 

[Guest]

Yes, you are absolutely right about everything you said. I guess it is now
the time to bite the bullet and do the long overdue reorganization of all my
drives, and i will use all of your suggestions when i do the complete
overhaul. I will seperate windows and apps and do complete backups once I
start again. Thanks very much for your patience and help and suggestions.
Take care.

 

[Rock]

No need to put apps on a separate drive. Keep apps on the same drive with
windows. If windows needs to be reinstalled so do the applications, and
some apps insist on installing to the drive where windows is anyway. Put
data on separate drives.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Seeing that everyone who is into backup solutions by imaging
agrees that data must not reside on the system partition, I often
wonder how long it will take Microsoft to adjust the default
settings in Windows accordingly. How is it with Vista - are user
files still kept on the system partition by default?

 

[Rock]

Seeing that everyone who is into backup solutions by imaging
agrees that data must not reside on the system partition, I often
wonder how long it will take Microsoft to adjust the default
settings in Windows accordingly. How is it with Vista - are user
files still kept on the system partition by default?

Yes in C:\Users. Vista has some changes in the backup capabilities though,
depending on the version. The file backup program backs up by file types no
matter where they are on the system, but on the flip side you can't backup
by location. Complete PC Backup which comes with Business, Enterprise and
Ultimate is an image based backup.