Restoring a broken backup chain

[Froggie]

Greetings!  I have a backup chain consisting of a V1 FULL and a V2-6 INCREMENTAL.  V5 INC is deleted or missing.  I ask Hasleo for a System restore of a System image and all goes well without notice of any kind.  Upon System reBOOT, without notice, what is the state of the System as far as the above described backup chain?

Without notice, how will I know the status of the restoration?  Based on what I think your INCs are doing, I would think that the entire chain had not been restored and that the status would be at v4 (since V5 is missing and V6 needs V5 to restore properly)... I still don't understand how I would know that.

[admin]

Greetings!  I have a backup chain consisting of a V1 FULL and a V2-6 INCREMENTAL.  V5 INC is deleted or missing.  I ask Hasleo for a System restore of a System image and all goes well without notice of any kind.  Upon System reBOOT, without notice, what is the state of the System as far as the above described backup chain?

Without notice, how will I know the status of the restoration?  Based on what I think your INCs are doing, I would think that the entire chain had not been restored and that the status would be at v4 (since V5 is missing and V6 needs V5 to restore properly)... I still don't understand how I would know that.

I am sorry, if the corrupted or missing file does not contain valid backup data, the program will not prompt any errors when restoring. For example, if the data on the disk does not change when we generate an incremental backup image, then the newly generated image file will not contain any valid data, the corruption or loss of this file will not cause the failure of the restore operation, and the program will prompt an error only when checking the image. Of course, if the corrupted or missing image file contains valid data, the program will prompt an error when performing the restore operation.

[Froggie]

First of all, Windows changes something at the image level CONSTANTLY (MetaData being the most common), as a result, I've never seen an INCREMENTAL image that did not contain changed DATA... especially when the image was produced on a LIVE System.  Possibly this application is not really "imaging" disks...??

If possible, could you review my POST in the Wilders Security Forum concerning this issue, it will save me a lot of typing/recontexting... thank you.  It contains testing results with a broken image chain and will better describe our experiences.  Pls let me know if this is something you cannot do, I will then bring the whole scenario local to this Forum.


I like this application very much... it just needs to be tested well to know its limitations and what needs to be fixed/improved.

[admin]

First of all, Windows changes something at the image level CONSTANTLY (MetaData being the most common), as a result, I've never seen an INCREMENTAL image that did not contain changed DATA... especially when the image was produced on a LIVE System.  Possibly this application is not really "imaging" disks...??

If possible, could you review my POST in the Wilders Security Forum concerning this issue, it will save me a lot of typing/recontexting... thank you.  It contains testing results with a broken image chain and will better describe our experiences.  Pls let me know if this is something you cannot do, I will then bring the whole scenario local to this Forum.


I like this application very much... it just needs to be tested well to know its limitations and what needs to be fixed/improved.

I understand your concern, data security is the first thing to consider, and we are happy that our customers can help us improve the quality of our products.

You say it's a live system, does the backup contain Windows partition C:? For the C: drive, Windows will continuously change the data in it, but not necessarily for other data partitions, Windows will usually only change the data in a data partition when you access it.

We have registered an account with wilderssecurity and will respond to customer questions there as soon as possible.

[Froggie]

My main concern has been for System Backups (all necessary partitions for return of BOOTable System).  Others have been testing Partition Mode and File Mode restorations.

I noticed this morning that you have become very active in the Wilders Imaging Forum... I THANK YOU very much for that.  There are some very good testers over there and our recent interest in Hasleo has blossomed as well.  It's hard for me to carry everyone's experience with your application over to this Forum and at the moment, Wilders is fairly active.

I will continue to bring my individual experiences to both Forums and if something significant occurs with the Wilders crew testing, and I don't see a Hasleo timely response there... I will bring that issue here as well.  I really don't want your Devs to miss anything during this testing process... it's almost like a free BETA test team availability  

Thanks again for your interest in our Wilders testing area...

[admin]

Many thanks to the members of the Wilders forum, you helped us identify many quality issues. We will mainly be concerned with bootable issues after after restoring the Windows operating system, especially isolated Windows partition.

[Froggie]

v3.0.2b221219, great job in early detection of broken backup chain prior to changing disk geometry... as a result, OS-only partition restoration went very smoothly and resulted in a fully operational System, even using pre-break image versions.

I have a suggestion though... you use a WARNING msg during a partition restore in "Partition Mode" that states, "All data on the selected drive will be destroyed.  Are you sure you want to continue?"  The msg is misleading... only the selected partition will  be destroyed.  You should change drive to partition and stop scaring us like that .  That same msg is totally valid for a "Disk Mode" restore where, indeed, all the partitions will be destroyed in that mode.

Actually as I think more about this... drive and partition are usually the same thing, it's DISK that's unique. I would choose what you think is best but make sure DISK is used when needed (like when using a "Disk Mode" restore).

Keep up the great work!

[admin]

Thanks for your suggestion, and we will improve it.