Rollback RX v10.x (Home & Professional)

How is Rollback these days? Stable? When I last looked at it years ago I know there were a lot of complaints.

 

My guess, users that continue to use Rollback RX must be pretty happy... those, like myself, have since abandoned it due to the problems/complaints you mentioned above.

I assume by now, the most recent version (v10.7) should be a lot better than when I stopped even playing with it (v10.1).

 

55% OFF for the next 14-hours!

 

WARNING!! Please see THESE POSTS in the HDS Forums for important Win10 FALL CREATORS UPDATE information (remember, the update starts TODAY!)

 

Holy Cow!! They're at it again... BLACK FRIDAY SALE for 1-week only!

 

+1

 

+2

 

So I stumbled upon this forum by chance. I'll begin by saying that I have realistic expectations to my situation, and that most of the answers will be "no", but as the saying goes, the answer to any question not asked is no. LOL

So, for a couple of years I've been using RollBack Rx Home and for the most part was happy with it. I was using it on a Dell desktop that originally had Win7 on it, which I upgraded to Win10. After upgrading it to Win10, I noticed that for some reason the shadow copy/file version feature built into Windows wasn't working, nor was System Restore, so not wanting to do a full/clean reinstall, I set off looking for an alternative. Came across RollBack Rx, it seemed to fit the need, so I installed it. Since, I've used it maybe 5-10 times, but only to do a selective file restore from a snapshot from within the full program GUI under Windows, and that has worked great.

So, on to the present issue. This past weekend, after installing a Windows update, the machine reboots, then "blue screens" with an 0xc000000f error. Power cycle the machine a few times, same thing. Tries to boot, blue screens. So, I figure, well, I'll just restore a recent RollBack Rx snapshot. So I boot into the pre-OS GUI (hitting the Home key after the power on post). It sees all my snapshots (three in total). I select my most recent one, from two days ago, tell it to restore, it progresses through the percentage bar at neither a slow or fast rate, but one you would expect, then the machine reboots. Same thing, tries to load Windows, blue screens. So, back into RollBack I go. This time, I restore it back to my oldest, full snapshot, from April of '17, thinking that if that works, I'll get back into Windows, then I can selectively restore whatever newer data I want/need from the two day old snapshot from the main program GUI.

After restoring the oldest snapshot, no change, still no boot.

At this point I pull the HDD from the machine and connect it to another via a USB adapter. The disk comes up as RAW file system, with Windows asking me to format. Obviously I didn't do that. At this point I start researching the RAW issue and discover apparently this is a somewhat know problem with Windows 10 updates sometimes doing this. The recommended fix is to run chkdsk on the drive which will convert it back to NTFS without any loss of data. I do this, and then I can access the disk as expected. All my data is there, except it's my data from April of '17. Ok, not totally shocked since my last action was restoring that snapshot with RollBack. I stick the HDD back in the desktop, still bluescreens on boot. Boot back into pre-OS Rollback GUI, this time telling it to restore my most recent snapshot from two days ago. After it completes, I power the machine down. Pull the drive, connect it back to my other machine, comes up RAW again, run chkdsk again, flips it back to NTFS again, all my files there again, but it's still my April of '17 data, nothing newer.

So....at this point I think I'm at a wall and have the most amount of data I'll be able to salvage. I can't boot the OS on the HDD as every time I try to is when it flips it back to RAW. Again, apparently this is a known thing with Windows 10 that can happen. So, my only access to the RollBack snapshots is from within the pre-OS GUI which sees them all still, but from within that GUI you have no ability to browse the snapshots or do any type of selective restore.

I did reach out to Horizon DataSys support to ask if there was any way to access those snapshots without a bootable OS on the disk and they said there wasn't.

I think best case scenario, it wasn't a COMPLETE loss, but I have lost everything back to April of '17.

I'm not expecting any magical solution or fix, but there does seem to be some some people here with good knowledge of RollBack Rx, so again, never hurts to ask if anyone has any tips, tricks, insight, or advice that might help.

Thanks for taking the time to read, and thanks in advance for any assistance offered.

 

Your snapshot data, everything since your 2017 baseline, cannot be seen by any Windows System regardless of where you plug that drive into (it's not part of the FileSystem anymore). If your Rollback-enabled System cannot be brought back alive (it's the only one that can see that DATA), all your snapshot DATA following your baseline (your 1st snapshot) is basically toast. If you've run Chkdisk on that disk on another System, there's a good chance that even if you get your trashed disk to BOOT once again, your snapshot DATA will have been altered by the Chkdsk procedure run on the non-Rollback System (ChkDsk CANNOT SEE Rollback snapshot DATA on any System but the Rollback System).

Horizon DataSys has a tool called "Scavenger" but I have no idea how up-to-date they have kept it. People have had mixed results in using it as far as salvaging any of that snapshot DATA. I would not hold up high hopes of recovering any of that DATA.

...and a reminder, Rollback is not and has never been a System Restore type of tool. System Restore uses real FileSystem snapshot DATA to store all those changes, Rollback does not. The closest thing to a real System Restore tool would be a good imaging System for your important DATA. Examples... "Macrium REFLECT" from Paramount Software or "Image For Windows" from TeraByte Unlimited. Both use a Rapid Restore algorithm to allow recovery to recent snapshot data that is reasonably quick. At the same time, either may be used for Disaster Recovery of failed disk drives... something Rollback has never been able to do.

 

Yeah, I have zero expectations at this point, but also nothing to lose to keep throwing darts at it and see if something hits. Haha..

I did some Googling and couldn't really find any leads on acquiring a copy of Scavenger. Is that something you have to ask Horizon directly for, or are there other sources?

 

I would contact HDS Support and see if they have a more recent version of the SCAVENGER. Explain to them your issues and, hopefully, they will provide, at least, what they currently have/use.

Your issues have happened to many Rollback users for a variety of different reasons, not just Windows updates. The ones hurt the most are users who have many year's worth of snapshots with very important DATA contained in them. That was the driving reason for creating "Rollback RX - The unOfishul FAQ" available in a sticky at the beginning of this thread. Almost all users of this application are bereft of the most important considerations needed to understand the possible affects of this software (HDS provides little if any of the info contained in the above referenced document)... it can be dangerous.

Wish I could help you more...

 

I honestly have no idea what I did, but I was able to get the HDD to boot into Windows, so there's a glimmer of light. It's still my OS as it was back in April of '17, but from within the RollBack Rx GUI I can see my more recent snapshot from 2 days ago and mount it and browse it. The data I really need/want is in the C:\Users\<username> folder. When I try to browse to it I get an access denied, so currently I'm in the process of resetting the security permissions on that folder and it's subfolders, which is taking FOREVER, but I guess the read/write speed is very bottlenecked when RollBack Rx has mounted a snapshot as a "virtual drive". Hopefully when done I'll be able to get to the data and copy it off to an external device. I'm reluctant to reboot the machine or try restoring it to the two day old snapshot since at least in theory I have a possible pathway to the data right now.

 

Tread carefully. The permissions on a mounted snapshot may be difficult to change (never tried it)... usually snapshots are READ ONLY (I could be wrong).

A reBOOT into that 2-day old snapshot may put you back into the BSOD... be careful. And remember, some of that snapshot DATA may be compromised by the ChkDsk operations that occurred while the HDD was connected to another System... check your DATA carefully if you're successful in getting your hands on it.

Best of luck!

 

Good point on the fact that mounted snapshots are read-only. They in fact are. I was not aware, but that is why I've been unsuccessful at resetting the permissions on the User data folder.

If I try to just do a restore of a file or folder from the snapshot via the RollBack Rx gui, it finds the file/folder I search for in the snapshot, I point it to a new location I want to "Save As", but then when I click finish it doesn't actually copy/restore/save anything.

I'm reluctant to reboot the machine at this point, or try to actually restore the entire snapshot from two days ago.

Also, on the topic of Snapshot Scavenger....according to Horizon DataSys support, it only works on the Pro version of RollBack Rx, not the Home version. LOL

From the beginning I had already accepted the fact that I my best expectations were that I at least had my data from April '17 and older. At this point, anything I'm able to recover newer than that is a bonus, but no harm in continuing to try.

 

Coucher, hold off on any further action... I may have some help for you. See your PMs (Personal Messages... go to "InBox" on your Forum MenuBar) in about 30-min.

 

It looks like you haven't enabled your Personal Messages on the Forum... you'll need to do that before I can touch base with you...

 

Looked through all the forum/control panel options, didn't see anywhere to enable PM's.

 

Sorry to clutter the thread with this, but I also don't see any way to PM you. Perhaps I'm restricted from PM's since I just registered for the site within the last couple of days?

 

Coucher, you may have to turn it on under your name/Contact Details in the menubar

 

Unfortunately I don't. If I click any member's avatar, I only get a popup card with a few details and the option to visit their profile back, Follow/UnFollow, or Block. No link/option to initiate a conversation. :/

 

Well, let's not waste too much time.

I did find an older copy of Scavenger and tried it on a 3-snap current installation of RBrx HOME... as support says, it does not work. Sorry...