Macrium Reflect Backup Failures

Not Myself · 31 Aug 2016

OldMike65 said:

While you are waiting for simrick, @Not Myself
You could check and make sure you have Fast Startup Turned Off. Read the link below.
Fast Startup - Turn On or Off in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums
This is one of the things she wanted you to do.

My "bang key" is working just fine. :)

Reason why she wants some of your apps uninstalled is that they could cause problems when you do your repair install. So its best to remove apps that can cause problems, before doing your repair. Any 3rd party firewall and antivirus programs are asked to be removed 1st, just to make sure your repair goes smoothly .

She also asked you to run check disk, here is a link to read for that.
Drive Error Checking in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums

No, I've not turned Fast Startup off, as I've been too occupied with other matters, but I do have the instructions, and will so do.

When I had problems installing the Anniversary Update, one of the specific things I did in preparation after downloading the file, was to remove both Avast! and Comodo Firewall, so shall do that again. One program I don't want to delete is Western Digital Smartware Pro, as it is limited to three installs, and I've already used two. I could probably get them to allow more, by convincing them that all installs were on one machine, but I'd rather not have to do that. Most others would be relatively easy, as I know what they are, and have the license keys for those that require them.

As I have posted more than once, chkdsk has already been run; it found no errors.

[Not a Rant, Just a Personal Comment Which I Happen To Feel Like Making]

Your "Bang" key is not working fine, it is stuck. I have an inbred objection to improper punctuation, caused by being educated by such people as Martin Lotin Perry for 11th grade English and who was my jv soccer coach; despite his being quite English, he did use the word "soccer," rather than "football." One absurdity that really annoys me is the non-construct ?!?!; then there are the plethora of the thread titles that make a statement and then make that statement a question; for example, I all too frequently see "I have a problem?", which makes me want to ask the poster if he/she/it does not even know if a problem exists, and is asking others to let the poster know. If any one wants to know if perhaps I am over-educated, I would have to plead guilty.

These are battles that I know I shall never win, so rarely even broach the subject, preferring to take on matters that I have at least a chance of winning, such as the time that I convinced the U.S, Fire Administrator that she was about to misappropriate a rather large sum of federal funds that I had obtained.

[/Non Rant]

simrick · 31 Aug 2016

Not Myself said:

In that case, which tuneup utilities, other than all of them, should I not use? I expected a reply such as yours: While I have paid little attention to these programs, a brief look at some reviews from time to time seemed less than positive.

(You might want to check the bang key on your computer, which appears to be stuck.)

simrick I shall wait for. I thought that the ISO method was what was being suggested here. I had never heard of the Download Tool, much less using it for what i need to do. I shall, right here, ask again for step by step instructions: I have been through enough (NOT blaming anyone here, far from it, just a personal comment) that I just want to get matters back to the status quo ante.

Which I will be happy to provide, when we're ready for it. :) Either ISO or Tool will work; I prefer ISO.

f14tomcat · 31 Aug 2016

Not butting in, just a question.... did I read many pages back that a good image was taken when done from a booted MR Rescue? If so, a clean install, then mount the good image, would allow a copy/paste of the users data back to the clean. Just a thought. I've most likely missed something somewhere.

simrick · 31 Aug 2016

Not Myself said:

No, I've not turned Fast Startup off, as I've been too occupied with other matters, but I do have the instructions, and will so do.

This must be done.

To understand what this is/does (it was first introduced in Windows 8):
“Fast Startup (aka: hybrid boot or hybrid Shutdown) is a new feature in Windows 8 to help your PC start up faster after shutting down. When turned on, Windows 8 does this by using a hybrid shutdown (a partial hibernate) method that saves only the kernel session and device drivers (system information) to the hibernate (hiberfil.sys) file on disk instead of closing it when you shut down your PC. This also makes the hiberfil.sys file to be much smaller than what hibernate would use (often 4GB or more). When you start your PC again, Windows 8 uses that saved system information to resume your system instead of having to do a cold boot to fully restart it. Using this technique with boot gives a significant advantage for boot times, since reading the hiberfile in and reinitializing drivers is much faster on most systems (30-70% faster on most systems tested). If you have a motherboard with UEFI, then fast startup will be even faster.”

So, if I ask you to please turn Fast Startup off, and I don't know that this hasn't been done, and then I proceed with further instructions assuming it has been turned off, any results are invalid.

Not Myself said:

When I had problems installing the Anniversary Update, one of the specific things I did in preparation after downloading the file, was to remove both Avast! and Comodo Firewall, so shall do that again. One program I don't want to delete is Western Digital Smartware Pro, as it is limited to three installs, and I've already used two. I could probably get them to allow more, by convincing them that all installs were on one machine, but I'd rather not have to do that. Most others would be relatively easy, as I know what they are, and have the license keys for those that require them.

I am not aware of any install limitations, but if you say so, then I will suggest you remove it and prepare to call them if you have trouble on the 4th install. WDSP is a backup program, and we are having problems with backups. I need this off the system please.

Not Myself said:

As I have posted more than once, chkdsk has already been run; it found no errors. [Not a Rant, Just a Personal Comment Which I Happen To Feel Like Making]

I understand this, and I remember you running it, but after the changes I've requested in Post#115, it needs to be done, where I indicated. Thanks.

DavidY · 31 Aug 2016

Not Myself said:

I have forgotten to mention that all of the installed programs, other than updates, were present before the Macrium, and possibly Restore Point, problem(s) began. I put it that way, given my belief that the Macrium difficulty is directly related to the failure of Restore Point, admitting as always that I have no proof of that conspiracy theory.

I admit I'm not an expert, but the one which did catch my eye was that some drivers and software were installed or perhaps updated on 20 August for 'Escort Detector Tools' . I did wonder if that was around the date your problems started; if so, it might be an issue with those particular drivers?

Not Myself said:

I know that TrueCrypt is deprecated, but as I have only added one file this year, giving a total of perhaps ten files there, I see no reason to bother stop using it.

Thanks for that, The main thing I wanted to check was that you aren't using TrueCrypt to encrypt your main System drive - I'm pretty sure that would be likely to cause problems if you had encrypted the C:/System drive.

One thing I'm pretty sure of with Truecrypt is that they've NOT updated their software or drivers in the last couple of weeks

, so I'd be surprised if your ten files were the cause of the problem.

simrick said:

If all this is unsuccessful, and @DavidY is willing to look into the VSSTrace program, that could be next, or we could try a repair install with an in-place upgrade next.

I'm on it - trying to figure out how to use it now...

simrick · 31 Aug 2016

f14tomcat said:

Not butting in, just a question.... did I read many pages back that a good image was taken when done from a booted MR Rescue? If so, a clean install, then mount the good image, would allow a copy/paste of the users data back to the clean. Just a thought. I've most likely missed something somewhere.

Hi TC.
Yes, you did read correctly. We were successful creating an image in the Rescue Environment.
But, we're trying to fix this without losing the OP's installed programs. So, I would try a repair install before a clean install.

DavidY · 31 Aug 2016

Not Myself said:

One program I don't want to delete is Western Digital Smartware Pro, as it is limited to three installs, and I've already used two. I could probably get them to allow more, by convincing them that all installs were on one machine, but I'd rather not have to do that. Most others would be relatively easy, as I know what they are, and have the license keys for those that require them.

simrick said:

I am not aware of any install limitations, but if you say so, then I will suggest you remove it and prepare to call them if you have trouble on the 4th install. WDSP is a backup program, and we are having problems with backups. I need this off the system please.

If we're trying to backup to a WD drive with encryption on it, and if it's paid software, then my feeling would be to leave the WD tools in place at least for now, until we've eliminated everything else. You can probably prove me wrong later...

simrick · 31 Aug 2016

DavidY said:

If we're trying to backup to a WD drive with encryption on it, and if it's paid software, then my feeling would be to leave the WD tools in place at least for now, until we've eliminated everything else. You can probably prove me wrong later...

Sorry, I thought we were doing all tests on the Seagate drive for now.

EDIT: Back in this post #96 I suggested removing the WD software and drive K, because one of the things I had read about this error also mentioned encryption issues...can't put my finger on it though.

DavidY · 31 Aug 2016

simrick said:

Sorry, I thought we were doing all tests on the Seagate drive for now.

You may be right - I lose track!

Not Myself · 31 Aug 2016

f14tomcat said:

Not butting in, just a question.... did I read many pages back that a good image was taken when done from a booted MR Rescue? If so, a clean install, then mount the good image, would allow a copy/paste of the users data back to the clean. Just a thought. I've most likely missed something somewhere.

That is Reply #95, on page 10. On my K Drive, in the Reflect folder, I have file identified as a Disk Partition Image, 95,379, 925 KB, and dated 28Aug2016.