WARNING TO ALL USER RUNNING 8.1 with Rollback Rx installed **Windows 8.1 Update 1 (KB2919355)**

In case it has not been posted here yet...I have just received the below from HDS.

**Windows 8.1 Update 1 (KB2919355)**



**WARNING**

This message is for all end-users that are currently running Windows 8.1 and planning to do the update Windows 8.1 Update 1.

Due to the fact that this update is not simple patches or service pack updates, this will require for all end-users to uninstall Rollback Rx BEFORE the update is done.

If you are planning to go through this update, you can look at the following link:

http://www.extremetech.com/computin...stall-windows-8-1-update-1-for-free-right-now

Thank you.

Horizon DataSys Team.

Hope that helps?

Regards


Baldrick

 

Well done, HDS. Way to be prepared for this and warn your users well in advance...

 

The first of many...

http://community.horizondatasys.com...vs-volume-shadow-copy-win-8-1?p=1416#post1416

 

Turns out Microsloth rewrites the MASTER BOOT RECORD during w8.1's Upgrade 1 installation, completely destroying the RBrx installation. HDS never knew that would happen until the update was automatically delivered to their own W8.1 platform.

Surprise, surprise! I hope they don't have too many W8.1 customers with MicroSloth AUTOMATIC UPDATES set to ON ("Hello, is this HDS Customer Support? Something very strange happened this morning... all my snapshots are GONE and my system is back to where it was 6-mo. ago!").

 

They rewrite MBR during Windows update? I wonder whose bright idea that was and if they still work for MS.

hqsec

 

I do not understand the excitement. By now everybody should know that one has to expect M$ doing stupid things.

And Rollback RX is not a backup software, it is a snapshot application. Whoever uses Rollback without making additional backups to an external HDD is asking for trouble.


Cheers
manolito

 

And try to restore an image that has Rollback installed and the MBR has been re-written. You think you're safe?

 

TRF,

Does that only apply to computers with Rx? My TeraByte MBR was unchanged after the Update. Well, BIBM still worked as before.

 

I never used snapshot program such as Rollback RX and never will. You are asking for trouble by installing such programs.

 

I have to plead ignorance here, Brian... haven't played with BIBM in a long time.

I don't think BIBM plays through the MBR, I believe it plays through the BOOTMGR in the PBR (Partition Boot Record) ... the same place MicroSloth plays.

Edit: Wrong again (it's been a while ) BIBM works though a standard MBR set up to use the EMBR (Extended MBR environment)... it plays with the EMBR (LBA1... same as GPT). It uses a "standard" MBR set up to use an EMBR environment... that was not affected by update 1 for W8.1. If an MBR existed to use an EMBR environment, it was replaced with the same for further use.

You can see what happened to Rollback's sub-console (which lives in the MBR) by W8.1upd1 rewriting the standard MBR... system = trashed, actually not trashed but back to the baseline which may be many months old.

 

TRF,

BIBM is installed into about the first 10 sectors. Those beyond LBA-0 are called the EMBR. But LBA-0 is quite different when BIBM is installed. It certainly is a custom MBR. I'm at the airport at present otherwise I'd post a screenshot.

 

Brian... yes, the MBR is different than a STANDARD MBR, but has a "standard" of its own when using the EMBR environment. The loader in the MBR, rather than vector off to the PBR of the ACTIVE disk for eventual booting, instead is structured to contain an EMBRI... an EMBR Initiator. This initiator vectors off to the EMBR area where an EMBRL (EMBR Loader) then does its thing.

An MBR supporting an EMBR environment is, indeed, different than a standard MBR... but both are standard in the eyes of Windows since the EMBR specification has been around since late 1999. BIBM chose to use that MBR extension for its implementation... a good choice since it's a well established standards specification and not something homemade like Rollback RX uses (its sub-console).

I suspect the Update 1 for W8.1 would have replaced a "standard" EMBR-enabled MBR with another of the same type with whatever change was required for W8.1Upd1 (I have no idea why M$ thinks they needed to even make that change). That way, anybody using the EMBR facility would not be affected.

Edit: It appears this problem has been in place ever since the upgrade to W8.1 was released last year. Tons of users who use non-standard multi-boot configurations got neutered when W8 was upgraded to W8.1 (probably using non-standard MBR loaders)... they wound up with Windows-only BOOTing, the multi-boot capability was gone. This sounds like the same type of problem.

It's clearly becoming a WILD WEST Show out there for those who are trying to stay with the Windows evolution path and add some additional sophisticated capability to their systems (multi-booting, Rollabck RX snapshotting, maybe even Grub is being affected by this).

 

Boy, after reading this I think Apple is looking good for my next PC. What a circus this MS Wild West show has become.