Rollback Rx problem: Update MBR failed!

Short version: Rollback Rx 9.1 used to work fine, but now I get "Update MBR failed!"

Any ideas how to track down the culprit that's blocking Rollback from modifying the MBR? (I've tried turning off my anti-virus and firewall of course, the usual suspects, but that didn't help).

Long version: I've used Rollback Rx 9.1 for a while now, maybe about 6 months. I do an uninstall-reinstall of it about every three weeks (on average) to defrag and backup my system partition. Recently I've had it uninstalled for a bit longer to test the new UltimateDefrag 3. When I tried reinstalling Rx this time, I got the message "Update MBR failed!" (see attached pic).

I get the same message on my virtual (VMware) XP machines on their latest snapshots (reflecting similar software updates I've instituted on my real computer as I first test things out on the virtual machines). If I go to an earlier VM snapshot, Rollback Rx installs fine again, but I haven't been able to figure out what I did between the snapshots that caused the problem. I've tried uninstalling all the software I was testing as well as my anti-virus and firewall software, and I re-defragged the drive with Puran and MyDefrag, but Rollback still won't install. Going the other way around, I started with the earlier VM snapshot and installed things like Windows updates and UltimateDefrag 3 on it before trying Rollback, and that way it does work (no MBR error). In other words, I haven't been able to pinpoint the problem, but if anyone has any ideas I can test them out on these virtual machines without risk to my real computer.

 

You probably should post this on Horizons own forum. Or better yet send an e-mail to support. I suspect that a normal end user would not have any idea as to what the problem may be (but of course I could be wrong about this). I certainly don't.

At least you got it working again,,,,,, and your experience highlights why its very important to regularly image your drive and not to rely on RB (or any single solution) alone.

 

I've found that AppGuard with MBR Guard enabled will present a problem with ISR apps installing/uninstalling. I know you don't list that as part of your security but mention it just in case.

 

Something's preventing writing to the MBR, software, problem from uninstalling, installing, Rollback update gone awry.

Worth opening a support ticket and asking for the Rollback cleaner for your version.

 

I got Rollback Rx working again.

Short version: I had to decompress 'C:\Program Files' folder (i.e. run compact /u /s /i from the command line).

Long version: As mentioned before I was testing UltimateDefrag 3. Part of that involved compressing certain system folders per Disktrix's Ultimate Tutorial For Optimizing Your Hard Drive i.e. running "compact /c /s /i" from the command prompt. For some reason this action applied on 'Program Files' rendered Rollback unable to update the MBR during (attempted) installs of it on both my main laptop and also two virtual machines running Windows XP.

fwiw, with all contents of Documents and Settings and WINDOWS folders compressed and all exe and dll files compressed on my system drive (even within Program Files folder), I could still install Rx on a VM. On my actual laptop I just decompressed everything within Program Files (and I had to defrag again because it was a mess afterwards), but I suppose I could have left the exe's and dll's compressed.

 

Update: I believe I now know the real problem. I think Rollback Rx has a bug such that you get the "Update MBR failed!" error if you try to install it into a folder that has the NTFS compression attribute enabled.

Details: When the compact command is used to compress a directory and all its contents (i.e. no file filters, for example, "compact /c /s /i" at C:\Program Files> ) it changes the directory compression attributed so that files added to it later are automatically compressed, for example, Rollback Rx files when installed into C:\Program Files\Shield\. I installed Rollback into an uncompressed directory (C:\tools\Shield ) on a machine with Program Files and other directories from Disktrix's guide compressed: It worked fine.

From Microsoft's Technet library regarding the compact command:

 

Have you informed Horizon about this? If so have they replied?

 

No - I figured there was no point opening a support ticket in the first place because HorizonDataSys has known about this bug for 3 years and failed to fix it per Rollback Rx v8.1 Release Notes dated 10-Sep-2007. However, this thread shows up in google (for me at least... for now at least...) when I search for 'rollback update mbr failed' so hopefully it will help others with this same problem.

 

Understood, thanks.