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Unanswered Backups will not open

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      Tuesday, April 15, 2008 8:03 PM
       
       
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      I cannot get any backups to open. I can see all the backups, I can click Open, and they will start to open, but the process gets stuck at 79% every time. This happens whether I am accessing the backups from the backed up machine, or another machine.

      The "Opening backup" dialog gets stuck at 79%. I can see in the background on the main console that it is reporting the restore operation gets to 100%. Then that disappears, and the small modal dialog is just stuck at 79%.
       

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    • Tuesday, April 15, 2008 8:30 PM
       
       
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      Your restore driver may need to be reinstalled. Please give this a try:

       

      1. Launch the Console from the home computer having the problem > go to Computers & Backup
      2. Select any home computer from the list that has backups > click View Backups
      3. On the home computer, click Start > Right-click My Computer > select Manage > click Device Manager > expand the System Devices tree
      4. From the Console, select a backup from the list and click Open > if there are multiple volumes select one and click Open
      5. The System Devices tree will refresh during this process > identify a listing for 'Home Server Restore Driver' or 'Home Server Restore Driver 2' > right-click the instance of the restore driver and select Uninstall > click OK on the Confirm Device Removal dialogue that will appear
      6. An 'Open Backup' dialogue will appear that states 'Cannot connect to the backup service on the server. Verify that all services are running.' > click OK
      7. NOTE: If you are prompted to restart your home computer, click Do Not Restart.
      8. In the home server Console, click the Open button again > the process will relaunch and reinstall the Home Server Restore Driver
      9. Opening backups should now be successful
       
    • Wednesday, April 16, 2008 1:34 AM
       
       
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      Thanks. I tried that. First, it told me that the uninstall wouldn't complete without a restart. And there was no way around that. So I finall I said OK to that dialog, and it restarted.

      Then the next time I tried to open a backup, it stuck at 79% again, then after a while a dialog came up indicating a new device had been installed, but it wouldn't be complete without a restart. So I restarted again. (Hey, I just do what I'm told.)

      I tried to open a backup again, it is stuck at 79%, just as before. It will sit there for a half-hour like that.

      If I cancel, I get a message indicating "Windows - Delayed Write Failed. Windows was unable to save all the data for the file \Device\HomeServer20\SystemVolumeInformation\_restore[Some GUID]\RP190\change.log.

      That message is consistent, though I think the file it lists, or the location, has changed.

      I did get this to work on one of the other machines on my network using the same process, so I think this is on the same track.
       
    • Wednesday, April 16, 2008 1:36 AM
       
       
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      Oh, and because it would not delete the file without a restart, I never got that "Cannot connect to the backup..." dialog.
       
    • Wednesday, April 16, 2008 7:12 AM
       
       
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       Marc Moon wrote:

      The System Devices tree will refresh during this process > identify a listing for 'Home Server Restore Driver' or 'Home Server Restore Driver 2' > right-click the instance of the restore driver and select Uninstall > click OK on the Confirm Device Removal dialogue that will appear

       

      Thanks for your suggestions including the one above. When doing this, the unistall confirmation box hangs the PC, explorer crashes and I have to open up task manager to regain control.

       

      So like the OP, I still cannot open a backup of my C:

       

      regards

       
    • Wednesday, April 16, 2008 7:50 AM
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      If you have more then one client that is backed up can you please try:

       

      1. Open a backup of another client on the client that causing the problem

      2. Open the backup of the client that will not open on another client

       

      This should tell you if the problem is some issue on the client or if it's a problem with the backup itself

       
    • Wednesday, April 16, 2008 9:12 AM
       
       
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       brubber wrote:

       

      1. Open a backup of another client on the client that causing the problem

      2. Open the backup of the client that will not open on another client

       

      This should tell you if the problem is some issue on the client or if it's a problem with the backup itself

       

      Only one client but 3 hard disks in the same client (hope that makes sense). The other two open OK, its just the C that wont open, none of the backups of the C open up, always hanging at 79% telling me the Z drive is corrput and to run CHKDSK.

       

      regards

       
    • Wednesday, April 16, 2008 9:41 AM
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      OK, so it's obviously not a problem on the client. Besides a backup database problem (corruption of the database) it could also be a problem of the server running out of resources when trying to mount the backup:

       

      From the thread: Restore fails at 79% on BOTH clients?

       

      Here's a possible workaround. It won't work for most users, but it sounds like your situation might be right on the edge. At 79%, the server has finished its preparation work. (Most users with the problem don't get this far.) But then isn't able to service the client's requests, which needs just one more chunk of memory (12MB more.) It's possible that you may be able to mount if you could expand the pagefile size on your Windows Home Server. If you know how to do this (Remote Desktop to the server, My Computer's Properties, Advanced, Performance..., Advanced) then you could try that. Even if this works, you may find that you are able to open only some of your backups. The amount of memory needed is very hard to predict.

       

      Can you please try this?

       
    • Wednesday, April 16, 2008 3:58 PM
       
       
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      thanks for jumping in.

      I opened the backup of the initial problem client on another client. The client I opened the backup on is actually less powerful than the original problem client. So the issue seems to be on the client machine.
       
    • Wednesday, April 16, 2008 4:40 PM
       
       
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       brubber wrote:

       

       

      Can you please try this?

       

      Increased it from 720MB to 735MB but no joy. Back will not open and event viewer reports the normal error.

       

      regards

       

       
    • Wednesday, April 16, 2008 7:31 PM
       
       
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       sbguy wrote:
      Thanks. I tried that. First, it told me that the uninstall wouldn't complete without a restart. And there was no way around that. So I finall I said OK to that dialog, and it restarted.

      Then the next time I tried to open a backup, it stuck at 79% again, then after a while a dialog came up indicating a new device had been installed, but it wouldn't be complete without a restart. So I restarted again. (Hey, I just do what I'm told.)

      I tried to open a backup again, it is stuck at 79%, just as before. It will sit there for a half-hour like that.

      If I cancel, I get a message indicating "Windows - Delayed Write Failed. Windows was unable to save all the data for the file \Device\HomeServer20\SystemVolumeInformation\_restore[Some GUID]\RP190\change.log.

       

      All of this is expected behavior - I have reproduced both earlydoors and your own issue, this should be the solution. Smile Please follow the modified instructions exactly.

      1. Launch the Console from the home computer having the problem > go to Computers & Backup
      2. Select any home computer from the list that has backups > click View Backups
      3. On the home computer, click Start > Right-click My Computer > select Manage > click Device Manager > expand the System Devices tree
      4. From the Console, select a backup from the list and click Open > if there are multiple volumes select one and click Open
      5. The System Devices tree will refresh during this process > identify a listing for 'Home Server Restore Driver' or 'Home Server Restore Driver 2' > right-click the instance of the restore driver and select Uninstall > click OK on the Confirm Device Removal dialogue that will appear that states "Warning: You are about to uninstall this device from your system."
      6. A dialogue will appear stating "..to finish removing your hardware you must restart your computer. Do you want to restart your computer now?" > click No
        1. Note: If your system appears to hang, please launch the Task Manager and wait - the "..to finish removing your hardware" dialogue will appear once the system has recovered. (This was reproduced on a system with 512MB of system memory running many other applications and recovered in less than 1 minute)
        2. While cancelling or following this procedure you may receive a "Delayed write failed" message, this is expected behavior.
      7. An 'Open Backup' dialogue will appear that states 'Cannot connect to the backup service on the server. Verify that all services are running.' > click OK
      8. NOTE: If you are prompted to restart your home computer, click Do Not Restart.
      9. In the home server Console, click the Open button again > the process will relaunch and reinstall the Home Server Restore Driver
      10. Opening backups should now be successful

       

       

       
    • Thursday, April 17, 2008 7:02 AM
       
       
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       Marc Moon wrote:

       sbguy wrote:

       

      A dialogue will appear stating "..to finish removing your hardware you must restart your computer. Do you want to restart your computer now?" > click No

       

       

      Ok, got as far as here successfully. I clicked no and the system device tree refreshed and the 'Home Server Restore Driver 2' was still there. The backup dialog box stayed at 79%.

       

      I never got 'Cannot connect to the backup service on the server. Verify that all services are running?

       

      I closed everthing down but did not reboot.

       

      This morning the backup failed with `The network connection between the computer & server was lost. No reconnection within the timeout period`

       

      I dont know if this is part of the issue, but I have acronis on the box that is having the issue, as its the only way I can open the C after backing it up - would that cause a conflict?

       

      regards

       
    • Thursday, April 17, 2008 6:49 PM
       
       
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      If you still haven't rebooted the system, opening a backup may work at this point since the restore driver has been uninstalled but not reinstalled. I'm not certain Acronis is affecting this, but let's go over the purpose of the steps - they should be done in rapid succession regardless of the output on the screen in order to successfully reinstall the restore driver.

       

      When you are watching the device manager for the instance of Home Server Restore Driver (X), this is occuring while you are attempting to open a backup. The driver is for the virtual disk that is being installed on your system to display the contents of your backup. Usually if Open Backup hangs at 79-80%, this is an issue with the driver. Once you uninstall the restore driver (without restarting your computer), the Open Backup operation should break/fail - error messages will vary. If the Open Backup operation doesn't fail, cancel it.

       

      When you've successfully uninstalled the restore driver and cancelled the attempt to open the backup, close the Console. Launch the Console again and try to open your backup once more. As soon as you click 'Open' from the backup window, just watch it do it's thing and see what happens. During the Open Backup operation, the restore driver will be silently reinstalled - please decline any prompts to restart your computer. For the sake of experiment, please do not do anything else in the background on the home computer while you wait for the backup to open.

       
    • Thursday, April 17, 2008 7:25 PM
       
       
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      Okay, I did everything as suggested, but nothing changed.

       

      1. I clicked on Open to open a backup

      2. Home Server Restore Driver 2 appeared in the System devices list

      3. I right-clicked and chose Uninstall. I got the "Warning: You are about to uninstall..." dialog box. Then the "To complete uninstallation, you must reboot," and I clicked No.

      4. Nothing changed and the Opening Backup dialog just continued to chug along and eventually get to 79% and stick there.

       

      I then did the above process, but after the Uninstall attempt, I cancelled the backup, closed the console, and tried again. No change in behavior at all.

       

      I also tried unintalling the driver when the dialog got to 79%, and the dialog just hung with the OK button in depressed state (as I am getting).

       

      I never got any message about not being able to connect to the server or complete the restore. 

       

      I have done this multiple times with the same result.

       

      I am running XP Pro on a dual-core machine with 4 GB of RAM, and few applications running.

       

      The Home Restore Driver driver version is 6.0.1500.6

       

      I have to say this is pretty discouraging. I have all these backups that I thought were protecting me (which is why I bought WHS in the first place) and it appears they are worthless to me.

       

      I really appreciate all your help, but your suggestions are just not changing anything? Is there anything else I can try?

       

       
    • Thursday, April 17, 2008 7:42 PM
       
       
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      I feel for you.  I spent several weeks beating this subject to death with continuous searches and plenty of help from people here to no avail. http://forums.microsoft.com/WindowsHomeServer/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2950539&SiteID=50

       

      I think you're going to have to wait for Power Pack 1, which supposedly has a back-up database repair tool in it.

       
    • Thursday, April 17, 2008 10:09 PM
       
       
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       sbguy wrote:
      thanks for jumping in.

      I opened the backup of the initial problem client on another client. The client I opened the backup on is actually less powerful than the original problem client. So the issue seems to be on the client machine.

       

      With this post in mind I'm confident that your backup is fine, and that the driver is at fault and just needs to be successfully reinstalled. Please contact me at whsforum@microsoft.com and we'll try to get this sorted.

       
    • Friday, April 18, 2008 8:44 AM
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       iancrossley wrote:
       brubber wrote:

       

       

      Can you please try this?

       

      Increased it from 720MB to 735MB but no joy. Back will not open and event viewer reports the normal error.

       

      regards

       

      Increase a little bit more, for example try 2048 Mb
       
    • Friday, April 18, 2008 5:04 PM
       
       
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       sbguy wrote:

       

      I really appreciate all your help, but your suggestions are just not changing anything? Is there anything else I can try?

       

       

      Snap....followed to the letter but no change

       

      regards

       
    • Friday, April 18, 2008 6:46 PM
       
       
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      I emailed the address above, but received no reply...
       
    • Friday, April 18, 2008 7:06 PM
       
       
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       sbguy wrote:
      I emailed the address above, but received no reply...

       

      Sbguy,

       

      did you try and email me?

       

       

       
    • Friday, April 18, 2008 7:13 PM
       
       
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       iancrossley wrote:

       sbguy wrote:
      I emailed the address above, but received no reply...

       

      Sbguy,

       

      did you try and email me?

       

       

       

      LOL read it again...you meant whsforum@microsoft.com

       
    • Monday, April 28, 2008 5:02 PM
       
       
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       iancrossley wrote:
       sbguy wrote:

       

      I really appreciate all your help, but your suggestions are just not changing anything? Is there anything else I can try?

       

       

      Snap....followed to the letter but no change

       

      regards

       

      Well, well....

      I thought I would try and open C back up, more out of hope than anything...blow me down 79% came up them 87%, installing driver, 91% then pow up it pops

       

       

      I have changed nothing, added nothing installed nothing. I turned both the PC and home server off over the weekend as I had to move it, that as far as I know is the only difference I can think of ...so why it opened I do not know...I checked the event log and the only erroneous that i could see was "The default transaction resource manager on volume Z: encountered a non-retryable error and could not start.  The data contains the error code."

       

      Even with this error, it still opened......

       

      regards