Introducing AX64 Time Machine - hybrid imaging/snapshot software

Very interesting. A while back I had a problem with an MS update and when I went to restore my PC my 2 most recent AX64 snaps had disappeared from the browser (or something like that). I wonder if I had booted into safe mode if I would have found them. Mind you, when I went to the snapshot folder on my external drive (via Win Exp) they were not there either,,,, but for sure if it happens again I will (hopefully) remember to try safe mode.

Thanks for the tip.

 

I believe you misunderstand! AX and MR are on a mounted and correctly partitioned and separate (physical) backup drive, not on my C: drive, as I believe you have inferred. AX images/snapshots are located on a partition labeled AX64 (X, while MR are located on a partition labeled Macrium Reflect (G. I also have a completely different SSD I keep a clone of my SSD C: on!
Relative to the incident prescribed, it for some reason erased the two application's files that contained the references to the images contained on the backup drive. When I opened AX it even stated (I paraphrase) it could not find any backups. MR may have said something like that too but I guarantee it was just blank.

 

Now I don't understand! lol By browser do you mean AX's? If so, that is what I did and there was no evidence/record of any backups. Like I said, it rendered some type of message about not seeing/finding any backups. Although, I can't recall if either program specifically said files or the drives the images were stored on. All I know is when I booted in safe mode, and I have no idea why I even considered doing that, AX was quite normal. If someone had asked me if that would make any difference I would have given a resounding NO, but hey, sometimes it's better to be lucky than good! I guess there is a connection though in the sense that I was updating drivers and Safe Mode loads essential drivers. Fortunately it hadn't touched them I guess!

 

Basic essential drivers are rarely ever changed, that's why BOOTing systems into SAFE MODE is usually a successful attempt (unless the BOOT structure has been damaged).

It's there for a reason... that's why Mr. Gates called it SAFE MODE

 

Way back during the days of Isso and AX64 v1 The Shadow discovered that Shadow Defender's shadow mode conflicted with AX64's sector-tracking mechanism. This resulted in AX64 taking as long to create an incremental snapshot as it took to create its first image and even worse, AX64 snapshots were sometimes corrupted!

A lot of AX64 changes have taken place since those days (Isso ->Waj and v1 -> v2), so I'm wondering if anyone knows for certain if the AX64 - SD conflict still exists?

Cruise

 

This may be a dumb question but, when you checked the browser did you have your exterior hard drive with the snapshots plugged in? If it's not, the browser is blank.

 

Simply because SD is 100% reliable, can that be said of AXTM v2 (i.e., your assumption that AX's hot restore will work 100% reliably).

 

Indeed it was as it's mounted in my tower. Bye the way, that is exactly what I was seeing, as in actually not seeing!

 

Has anyone been experiencing filesystem corruption after doing a restore using the latest version? Because I have been experiencing it almost every time I do that (Windows tells me that my Filesystem is corrupt along with random files being filled with gunk resulting in gibberish in text files, corrupt images, etc).

 

If you're using B528 (Default = WARM restore), no... if you're using B548 (Default = new HOT restore), absolutely (it's a BETA, remember). Haven't tested WARM restore with 548.

 

Just curious, how do you identify these files ?

 

MerleOne, If you <right-click> on the installer and select "Properties," then select the "Details" TAB, the file version will be there.

If the app is running, select the "Backup Tools" TAB then "About Time Machine."

 

Sorry, I was unclear. I was referring to the corrupt files, how to pinpoint which are damaged ?

 

By viewing some random files to see if anything is different in them.

 

So I guess many were corrupt because if there is just one or two, this can be tricky unless you keep a checksum of all files.

 

You are not going to be able to ID the damaged files, but if you have the same problem that I have, the backup images themselves are fine, you just need to restore them using a COLD restore... all should be fine after that.

Edit: To clarify... the images taken before the problem. If you did some HOT restores, then used your system and did some incrementals, the integrity of everything saved after that HOT restore will be in question.

 

I not only had many questionable files, but there was some REGISTRY damage and I lost my ACTIVATION on both MS Office and Windows itself.

 

Thanks. Actually it's not what I had in mind, just whether you had found a quick way to ID corrupt files. I have had such an issue recently with another wholly different software (encrytion à la TrueCrypt) and it was really painful to ID those that were damaged. I use various imaging tools, and there is usually one who works ok in case TM should fail.

 

so has there been any new updates since the beta update??

 

So what is a hot restore? And a cold restore?