Rollback RX v10.x (Home & Professional)

Black Friday SALE (1/2 price)...

 

After trying the SSDtool the problem is still the same: Originally the system drive is 43.8 GB free of 63.9 GB. (pagefile reduced to 800 MB and hyberfil.sys removed by disabling hibernation) then after some weeks it was down to only 37 GB free with no visual changes. And a rollback didn't fix it; it also has to update to baseline before it really goes back to original free space. If it is not done, it just keeps using up all free space.

The SSD system drive is split like this:
http://i65.tinypic.com/2vcf6yw.jpg

 

Well, the only other thing you should do regularly to get space back is to make sure you eliminate (delete) any unneeded snapshots, follow this up immediately with a Rollback defrag operation on your remaining snapshots then a RESTART on Windows.

The Rollback DEFRAG then RESTART is the main operation that FREEs up your old snapshot data that you've deleted along the way. Without that, the disk will fill up over time. And remember, deleting a snapshot doesn't necessarily delete all its DATA... if some of its DATA was valid in other non-deleted snapshots, it will remain. Rollback is a full PARENT-CHILD database system.

 

I don't really know if this belongs in the Rollback thread or if the Macrium thread would be more appropriate (maybe it's also hardware related)...

A short while ago some Wilders member reported that he managed to make his notebook dysfunctional after using some snapshot (or backup) software. He also said that this happend with more than one computer, and that these notebooks were almost new. Too bad I cannot find his posts any more.

A similar thing just happened to me, and so far I do not know what to make of it. This is the whole story:

While testing the current Macrium Reflect Free on my notbook (Win7 64bit) with Rollback Home installed I made a full Hot backup under the control of Rollback. Then I wiped my HDD (160 GB SATA WD) and booted using the Macrium recovery disk. When I tried to restore the full backup of the whole drive (two partitions plus the reserved partition) Macrium threw an error that the image was corrupt, and the restore process aborted.

No problem, I thought, because I still had an additional Acronis image which was current. But trying to boot using the Acronis recovery disk did not work. In fact I could not even get into the BIOS setup, and the boot device selection menu was also not accessible. Removing the battery and disconnecting from AC power for some time did not help. Since the notebook was already 7 years old and getting it repared would not make much sense I thought that this notebook was a case for the trash can.


It still seemed weird to me that the Macrium backup made under the control of the Rollback driver would be considered "corrupt" by the Macrium recovery disk. Hot backups made by Acronis and AOMEI under the Rollback driver always restore just fine. And after the failed restore attempt sure my HDD would not be bootable, but why couldn't I get into the BIOS setup and/or boot from a different bootable media?

After some research I did find instructions how to take this notebook apart. After removing the HDD I could get into the BIOS, and I also could get into the boot device selection menu. I believe that this should not have happened. How can a non-bootable HDD prevent the computer from booting from other bootable media?


Since I am quite sure that the HDD is not physically damaged, my next step will probably be to connect the HDD to a desktop computer and try to restore it using the Acronis image. Hopefully my notebook will then boot from this HDD...



Cheers
manolito

 

Mab, that can happen but it usually takes an HDD firmware problem to cause it. When you attempt to get into either the SETUP or BOOT menus of your computer... the BiOS needs to read all connected devices so that they may be configurable either via SETUP or selected for BOOT in the BOOT menu. The interrogation process used by the BiOS is not smart enough to properly handle any and all possible failure modes of those devices being interrogated... it can sometimes HANG waiting for a response. If this happens, you will not be able to get into either of those menus.

I find it pretty hard to fathom that either Reflect or Rollback can affect the operation of the device's firmware... but I guess the firmware might be able to hang if something strange happened while talking to it. If so, I would s'pect the "hang" would clear with a complete power OFF/ON of the device.

Strange...

 

Froggie, you were absolutely right, it is an issue with the firmware of this old notebook. I was able to fix the HDD by putting it into another laptop (an older ThinkPad T410). Of course the Thinkpad also would not boot after the aborted restore, but I could boot from a rescue CD and restore a working Acronis image. I could not find a newer firmware for this old MSI notebook, so I will have to live with it...

But I did learn that a Macrium hot image made under the control of the Rollback driver will not restore from a Macrium rescue disk, it will be recognized as "corrupt". Too bad, because the Macrium feature to fix Windows boot problems is exactly what I need after such a restore. So it's back to Acronis or AOMEI together with BootICE.


Cheers
manolito

 

Froggie was talking about the firmware of HDD but HDD seems fine as it worked in other machine. There is nothing like a fimware of a notebook. Seems some other issue with the old notebook.

 

Alright, when I was talking about the firmware of the notebook I was of course talking about the BIOS software of this notebook...

From http://superuser.com/questions/879908/what-is-the-difference-between-bios-and-firmware

And obviously this BIOS hangs when the HDD is connected after a borked Macrium image restore. The image was a HOT image taken under Rollback Home, trying a Bare Metal Restore caused a "Image is corrupt" message and the restore attempt aborted.

While this older MSI notebook would not let me boot from a rescue CD and not even let me get into the BIOS setup when this HDD was connected, a Lenovo Thinkpad T410 notebook would start from this HDD showing the Rollback pre-boot screen. Right after this screen it would of course hang due to the incomplete restore, but I could access the HDD from an Acronis rescue disk.

Next time this happens I will know what to do about it. What puzzles me more is that the Macrium rescue CD considers such a HOT backup taken under Rollback as corrupt. Other backup software like Acronis and AOMEI can restore such an image without problems.


Cheers
manolito


//EDIT//
Just retested Macrium Free and Rollback Home under the same conditions as before, and this time everything worked. I have no idea what could have been different compared to my earlier failed attempt (maybe Macrium Free was slightly newer). Anyways, this combination is a winner for me. Rollback for fast snapshot switching, and Macrium as a safe backup solution (I have no need to include the Rollback snapshots in my backups).

 

It appears their Forums have been belly-up for the past 2-days or more... is the Company still around?

 

Forums are still down. Hmmmmm... maybe it was time for HDS to eliminate all that negative press once again like they did a few years back when the Forums changed to Forums-2 and eliminated all the bad comments

I hope not... or there went all my discussion about their non-TRIMming SSDs and the "Rollback RX - The 'unOfishul' FAQ" document

 

Yes, this was my first thought also - it would really look like HDS...
But I hope that you have your 'unOfishul' FAQ" archived, so you can just post them again and see what HDS does about it.


Cheers
manolito

 

It would be a real pain for them to keep throwing up a new Forum every few days or so just to get rid of a post

It would probably be easier to just "accidentally" delete my account...

 

They haven't done that to date... but ya never know.

I try to help users on that Forum as well as provide as much product understanding as possible for them. If I ever detected something "sinister" on the Forum's part, I would, indeed, stop wasting my time there.

For now, their Forum is but an anomaly... and very broken, of course.

 

"we are testing some functionality"

translation:

CEO of HDS : "why i paid you for ! you can't get rid of this Frog-something !!!! we lose customers everyday because his posts !!!"
Forum admin : "sorry boss, but if we delete his posts , we will admit we are faulty"
CEO: "find a way or you are fired !!!"
Cleaning guy passing by: " maybe we can pretend we do a forum upgrade and we accidentally lost his posts?"
CEO: finally someone with resources ! you are the new admin of the forum, congratulation !"

 

They're baaaaaaaaaack....

 

Hehe, I like these theories about the forums being down. Sadly, it really was just a technical hiccup. No posts/threads are gone. Thanks for the chuckle before Christmas break!

Just FYI, I would never allow anyone to delete posts there while under my watch (and I haven't since taking over) unless it was just intentionally cruel/hurtful and/or not relevant to the section (in which case I would just move it over to a different thread). I'm not about censoring open discussion about the company/software, good or bad. That wouldn't help anyone.

 

*Jots down note...*

 

Sam,

Looking forward to rollback rx version 11.x in January 2016. Is that still on track?

 

Yes!

 

Be gentle...

 

So today, can you restore an image with Macrium with RBX in the MBR? I remember old versions of RBX 10 (10.1, I think) where it would go haywire and trash the HD upon booting up (RBX that is). Got me to abandon RBX entirely.

Is it still an issue today?

For reference, check this post:
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/rollback-rx-v10-2-released.351608/page-3#post-2269384

 

This behavior has not changed for the current version. Version 9.1 was the last version where restoring a HOT backup made with Rollback installed would restore an MBR which booted the machine correctly.

Today Windows will not boot after such a restore because the backup contains a Rollback MBR, but the pre-OS part of Rollback will be gone. The workaround is to restore a working Windows MBR after restoring the image.

There are several ways to do this. The easiest way is to use Macrium (free or paid) to do the restore. Macrium has a feature to fix Windows boot problems, the link is right on the main screen of the software. Do the restore first, then fix Windows boot problems and then reboot the computer.

The other method when using a different backup software is to save the MBR to the external backup drive without Rollback installed. Then install Rollback, make your hot backup. After restoring the backup restore the saved MBR. There are several tools to achieve this, my preferred tool is BootICE.


Cheers
manolito

 

It's on time based HDS time. Which means it will be VERY late and HDS will not comment.