XP Pro ASR Backup Recovery from USB Hard Drive

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I do a full system backup using NTBackup in file mode to a Western Digital
USB 250GB Hard Drive. It looked like a satisfactory way to backup 38 gigs in
less than an hour, and recover it using Automatic System Recovery (ASR). The
problem is when I tried to recover the backup I found that my USB drive was
not listed as a possible source for the backup file. Anybody know why? Is it
because the drivers aren't installed at that point? I ended up installing a
default copy of XP Pro, copied the USB backup file to a D:\ partition, then
restarted the ASR recovery, pointing to the D:\ drive for the backup file.
What a pain in the backside! It would be so easy to simply use the USB drive.
Any help or info on this would be appreciated.
 
The NTBackup app is very old and basic, and has its limitations. A dedicated
backup app is preferable & has more options.
Some are avilable free.
 
ALH said:
I do a full system backup using NTBackup in file mode to a Western Digital
USB 250GB Hard Drive. It looked like a satisfactory way to backup 38 gigs
in
less than an hour, and recover it using Automatic System Recovery (ASR).
The
problem is when I tried to recover the backup I found that my USB drive
was
not listed as a possible source for the backup file. Anybody know why? Is
it
because the drivers aren't installed at that point? I ended up installing
a
default copy of XP Pro, copied the USB backup file to a D:\ partition,
then
restarted the ASR recovery, pointing to the D:\ drive for the backup file.
What a pain in the backside! It would be so easy to simply use the USB
drive.
Any help or info on this would be appreciated.
Click to expand...

The reason is because the NTBackup program is intended to be used with tape
drives or second hard drives that are physically attached. Your choices are
to either get a decent backup program - I recommend Acronis TrueImage but
there are others, or removed your backup drive from it's enclosure and hook
it directly to the motherboard as a slave device.
 
Harry Ohrn said:
ALH said:
I do a full system backup using NTBackup in file mode to a Western Digital
USB 250GB Hard Drive. It looked like a satisfactory way to backup 38 gigs
in
less than an hour, and recover it using Automatic System Recovery (ASR).
The
problem is when I tried to recover the backup I found that my USB drive
was
not listed as a possible source for the backup file. Anybody know why? Is
it
because the drivers aren't installed at that point? I ended up installing
a
default copy of XP Pro, copied the USB backup file to a D:\ partition,
then
restarted the ASR recovery, pointing to the D:\ drive for the backup file.
What a pain in the backside! It would be so easy to simply use the USB
drive.
Any help or info on this would be appreciated.
Click to expand...

The reason is because the NTBackup program is intended to be used with tape
drives or second hard drives that are physically attached. Your choices are
to either get a decent backup program - I recommend Acronis TrueImage but
there are others, or removed your backup drive from it's enclosure and hook
it directly to the motherboard as a slave device.

--


Harry Ohrn MS MVP [Shell\User]
www.webtree.ca/windowsxp
Click to expand...

I tinkered a bit with a demo copy of TrueImage. It appears that when one
must recover the full system disk, you boot up using a bootable CD that
recovers the disk image. My system uses a RAID controller to control the SATA
disks. A driver must be loaded before Windows can access the drives. This
happens shortly after booting from the Windows install disk (F6). Do you know
if TrueImage recovery has provisions for such drivers?

Thank you for your help.
 
ALH said:
I do a full system backup using NTBackup in file mode to a Western Digital
USB 250GB Hard Drive. It looked like a satisfactory way to backup 38 gigs in
less than an hour, and recover it using Automatic System Recovery (ASR). The
problem is when I tried to recover the backup I found that my USB drive was
not listed as a possible source for the backup file. Anybody know why? Is it
because the drivers aren't installed at that point? I ended up installing a
default copy of XP Pro, copied the USB backup file to a D:\ partition, then
restarted the ASR recovery, pointing to the D:\ drive for the backup file.
What a pain in the backside! It would be so easy to simply use the USB drive.
Any help or info on this would be appreciated.
Click to expand...

It appears that the USB drivers are loaded during ASR recovery. Recently I
experienced a (complete) loss of hard drive data. The fact is my two drive
partitions vanished (virus?), probably making the data irretrievable. I
started the recovery figuring I'd have to recover it as before. This time,
however, the usb drive was available. This made it much easier to do. Also,
this time Windows also reformatted the D: drive as well as the C:.
 
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