I replaced my motherboard and cannot restore critical files.
The backup was done using Vista Ultimate to a separate hard drive.
I reinstalled the OS (Clean) to my main hard drive, but when using the
"advance restore" feature I get an error that restore is unsuccessful.
I know the files are there (91GB).
How can I get them back without a full restore?
The error code is:0x8100001A
In my case, this error resulted from the lack of the MediaID.bin file
in the root directory of the hard drive to which I backed-up my
files. The Backup and Restore application creates this file and it's
presumably used to validate that the right removable disc (i.e. CD or
DVD) has been placed into the drive during a restore operation (as,
for example, the actual zip files are merely given enumerated names).
I haven't been able to discover: 1) the format of the tiny information
in that file, 2) or that of the catalog files, 3) or how the ID is
generated. In other words, I've no idea how to recreate that missing
file. Without that file, one simply is unable to restore from the
backup.
However, with the exception of larger files which are split and
sometimes spanned across the archive files, all the rest of the files
are stored without alteration, and including their paths, in the zip
files in the backup folder. This doesn't include ACL and other meta-
information, which is contained, presumably, in the catalog files.
But the file itself is all that matter for most people for most
purposes. Using any simple archive tool, such as WinZip, or just the
Windows zipfile interface itself, one is able to get to those backed-
up files.
The exception, however, are the larger files I've already mentioned.
It was the case with the previous XP backup app that one could simply
concatenate the split files with, for example, the command shell copy
command using "/b" and "+". However, I've not had success with this
with my split files in my backup. Well, actually, in one single case
the assembled file was healthy. In several others, it was not and was
useless. I'm not sure why this is. Note, also, that split files are
all given the original file's name, even when they appear within a
single zip archive. Any sort of de-archiving of those files to the
same directory will cause each to be overwritten by the one that
follows it-particularly problematic when inflating a single zip file.
I had intended to write a utility that would traverse the backup zips
and concatenate split files and restore everything to their proper
paths-and I intended to make this available to other people-but I
abandoned that effort when I discovered that concatenating the split
files by hand didn't seem to work.
If you are anyone else comes across any new information relevant to
what I've reported above, please email me at (e-mail address removed).
Best,
Keith
