Need Help on Save & Restore

[Claude_Merger-S]

I am posting this thread here as I was told on the gost forum that this would be a better place to get some help.


I have been using S&R to back-up my disk without any problem for months.
Recently I tried to back-up my Data files on my D drive on an external USB drive. It seemed to work as S&R created a directory called "File Backup Data".
Now that I have reformatted my D drive. There is no way to recover those files. I really do not understand the logic of this program. The program keeps asking for a Restoration point which was not created at the back-up time ( I did the operation quite a few time to check it). When you try to tell the program where to search for the back-up directory, it does not see the files. When you try to import the backup place it hangs!

I am a professional translator and I have lost about a month worth of work. Plus a few pictures that I do no longer have on my camera.

Can someone help me recover my files!
Any help would be very muche appreciated.
Thanks
Claude

Since I have psoted this message on the Entreprise Forum I did a few additional tests which are making me very perplex.
I just took a new balnk 120Gb Hard disk, intsalled XP pro SP2 with the latest updates and installed S&R. That's all. Then I only backed up my favorites.
When I try to revover those files, S&R even does not find them!
Has anyone used that program? I really does not understand what's going on.

Thanks for any help.
Claude

[David_Stokes]

Hi Claude

I have also had the same problem, but my backups were made to DVD spanning 9 DVDs. The manual asked that the data from the DVDs be put onto a folder on my local drive, which I did. Then I ran the import, pointing it to that folder (which took about 20 minutes, so you'd think it had done something! Note that like you, I first thought it had hung, but it did eventually come back). But same as for you, it said that it couldn't find any files.

I got hold of someone from the Symantec support today and we worked through it and we managed to get some files to appear. But I haven't been able to get any more files imported!

Anyway, I've sent an email to the support person (Moharnab) to follow up on this.

If you have since found a solution, can you please let me know. Likewise, if I find out anything, I'll let you know.

Regards
David
dmstokes@xtra.co.nz

[Claude_Merger-S]

Hi David,
Thanks for your reply. It looks like there are not many users of this program!
I was able to contact the Amsterdam team European support) just before the Xmas break. They have no expert on board and they told me that I should not expect any help from them ! That's why I started to post messages on the enterprise forum and on this forum.
They even asked me to evaluate the cost of the damage in order to send me a check and close the case! Clearly this is not what I wish.

S&R is a new product! the ghost part works fine, the back-up data part does not! I even wonder if this part has been tested? We are soon going to be more and more customers in the same situation. They need to deliver on what they commit!

I wish I could make more noise about that bug in order to get some real consideration and support from the Symantec team.

Anyway thanks for your post. I feel better. At some point I was doubting about the issue.
Claude

[David_Stokes]

Hi Claude

Don't worry - I'm on their case!! If I can't restore my data I'm not going to be happy at all! I have been in the IT industry for 15 yrs, so I'm reasonably IT savvy. So when they told me I'd done the backup the wrong way and it wasn't possible to restore it, I had to control my temper (after waiting about an hour to actually chat to a support person).... but then they realised that something wasn't working right.

I did note that this is version 1.0 of S&R (released March 06), but it's based on Ghost which has been around a while (which if I recall correctly, Symantec bought from a New Zealand company a few years back). But as you say, I also wonder how well the S&R backup, or more importantly the restore was tested! I think there are quite a few users, but many people probably haven't had the need to do a restore just yet. But in the next 6 months or so, I'm sure many people will be impacted by this issue if it isn't fixed.

From my IT experience, I think it's just a problem with the import function which isn't picking up the files. Once it does recognise the files, then it should be able to restore them properly... so don't get too stressed...well not just yet anyway!!

I have received an email from Symantec tech support and they say they are researching the issue. I'll keep you up to date with the status.

Cheers
David

[Claude_Merger-S]

Hi David,

Thanks for your long message and glad to see that you want to bring the issue to the right level at Symantec.
You know, at one point I had the same comment from the support team telling me I was doing the wrong thing. Then I told them I've been working at Hp for more than 20 years. I was lucky as the tech I was talking to had also been working at HP. Then he changed his way of handling my call and let me unserstood that if I wanted a serious product I needed to switch to Back-up exec or Net Backup. He also let me undesrtood that, at least from a european side, they can't escaladate the issue at a higher level. That's why he proposed me a refund.
But this is not what I want.
If you need support from my side to escaladate the issue, just let me know. I was just thinking about writing a letter to the french "PC Magazine" who published a review of the product and complain about my problems and the quality of their review as they shoud have picked up the issue if they had done a usability test.

Looking to reading from you soon.
Cheers.
Claude

[David_Stokes]

Things aren't progressing as quickly as I would have hoped - every time I try and contact the helpdesk (4 times now), I end up waiting in a queue for over an hour and then they turn around and say I'm in the wrong queue (and it has happened every time) so then I end up waiting even longer!! So much for "support"!

I think the problem lies with the import function. On two occasions (after multiple attempts) we have been able to import some files from the backup, but I haven't been able to replicate it working properly.

I'll try again tomorrow to get the person on the helpdesk to work on this. If I have to wait again in another queue I'll ......................

BTW - when we get it going (I'm hoping it will be "when" rather than "if"), I'll be sure to let you know and ensure they look into your problem (which sounds like it is the same problem) as well.

Cheers
David

[David_Stokes]

Progress update - well, not much! The helpdesk wasn't able to help, so they have escalated it to the Research team. The helpdesk said I should expect a call early next week.

David

[Claude_Merger-S]

Hi David,
I keep an eye on the thread list. Thanks for your update.
It's amazing that we are the only one with this problem and the only thread I can trace on internet. Even worse, it looks like the Symantec people even do not have a look at the thread.
Let's keep our fingers crossed.
Claude

[Claude_Merger-S]

Hi David,
I was able to work on the issue today. So I tried to "import the export place" . But this time I let the program enough time to complete the operation. It ran for more than 4 hours! ( I have a pentium 4 running at 2.8 Mhz with 2 Gb of RAM. S&R was the only program running on the machine. It has been using about 1.2 Gb of RAM and about 60% of the processor resources.)
But now I do not understand the results!
My export place holds the file back-up I did on Nov 28. In the mean time I did reload a manual copy of my files I saved early november and which I have been using since the problem occured. Guess what. I now see all the files from my manual copy and all the file created early december, but not the files in between! Strange behavior! It can recover files which are not part of the back-up! But does not see the files I want to recover!

My understanding at this point is that this program looks at all the files present on the HDD, and tries to recover them from the back-up location. If the files are missing you can't recover them! I do not know what it will do if it tries to recover files which are not on the back-up. Unfortunately, I had to restart my PC and I was not patient enough to let the program run another 4 hours!

On your side did you come to the same conclusion about the logic of this program? If I am right, this program is a joke ( but a bad one!).

Cheers
Claude

[David_Stokes]

Hi Claude

There is definitely something wrong with the import function. You could be right on it looking at current files on the HDD, then looking at what corresponding files are in the backup. But that's stupid! I lost my original files and that's why I want to recover them from the backup.

Anyway, I'm still waiting on a response from them (I was meant to hear back by yesterday). I've already wasted a significant amount of time on this and they need to come back with a solution ASAP.

Cheers
David

[David_Stokes]

Hi Claude

I am writing this note as I wait on hold after already being in a queue for 45 minutes and for them to transfer the call then drop it!!. So I've had to ring the number again. This seems to be an ongoing theme with Symantec. I have given up on the online support - all you get are support people hidden behind a screen - they say the incident has been escalated over 2 weeks ago. The one and only correspondence I have had from then is an email from Kishan Tikandar, but as with the online help, he is hidden behind is generic email, ie: customerservice@symantec.iseva.net. It said if I emailed them back my phone number, they would give me a call....but nothing for over 2 weeks.

I've tried to find out the status of the incident through the online chat support, but all they say is that it has been escalated. But again, a black hole with no end in sight.

This experience has severely damaged my view of IT companies. I think customer support has taken a huge dive.

So as a last ditch attempt, I have rung their support number. I'm not holding out much hope. I have even started to to and find old backups (straight files backups I made prior to buying NS&R. But its means I'm going to be missing months worth of data.

Have you had any progress?
What does it mean to you If you aren't able to restore your files through NS&R?

David

[Claude_Merger-S]

Hi David,
I came to the same conclusion. At least the guy in Amsterdam was candid enough to let me understand that there will be no solution from Symantec on this line of product.

After a month of great disapointment I started to re-translate all the chapters of the book I had lost. Now that's done. But I am stil missing a month wortk of pictures (my fathers' 91 birthday) and I am keeping a copy of the backup just in case they come with a second release of the product which may correct the bug.

I still have made some new tests. As we concluded that in order to recover a damaged file the program needs to see it on the HDD, I tried to create some dummy files (the pictures I am missing) in the appropriate folder (with picture files it's easy, they are all stored in one folder and their naming is a something like img_xxx.jpg, where xxx is a number). But guess what! It did not work!
Then I treid to do the same with files that existed both on the back_up and the HDD, and then I got an error message stating that it could not recover the file!
Then I have given up!

Since I am completely upset with Symantec, I did remove all Symantec products from my PC and switched to competition. I can swear that those guys will not see one of their products on my PC anymore. They can go to hell!

The positive thing about this problem was our discussion on the issue. At one point I felt alone! But I am still wondering why we are the only one facing the issue.

Good luck and all the best.
Claude

[David_Stokes]

Hi Claude

I don't know whether you're interested in touching the Symantec products again, but there's a solution: what you need to do is run the import function at the lowest level folder in the backup location, eg: fbfFiles_1a2. It takes a while and appears when it's done that nothing has happened. But what you then need to do is click on the search button again and it should then bring up the files.

If you do want to try it, let me know if it works.

How amazing that it's taken this long for them to come back with a solution. And given that you were told there was no solution!! It's still only a work-around - it should automatically recurse each of the folders in the backup location and it should refresh the list as well, so it needs to be fixed.

I've lost count of the number of hours, or I should say days, I've wasted on this. My concern is that while for me, it was more the inconvenience than a total loss of data, for other people like yourself who is dependant on it for your living, it's unacceptable, especially considering that their marketing line is "Protect what you care about."

Cheers
David

[Claude_Merger-S]

Hi David,

Yes I did what you explained.
I have been able to see the files, but a few minutes after I started a restore I got an error message E09DF123 stating that the folder did not exist. I checked and that was right. That folder was not part of the back-up. Then I tried different files and I always got the same error!
Let me know if on your side have you been able to restore some files?

Something I do not understand. I did my backup on Nov 28. When I sort the backed up files by date, the latest filtes are dated dec 2nd! Strange!

Cheers
Claude

[David_Stokes]

Hi Claude

It sounds like your situation may be a bit more complicated than mine. I had a single backup whereas it sounds like you had a number of backups in the same backup location.

Earlier on when I did see it work (but then was able to replicate again), I tried to do a restore based on the part of the backup, ie: only imported one of the eight DVDs, I did get an error. But I thought that it was most likely because it was trying to restore a folder where the files spanned across more than one DVD, ie: some of the files were on one of the other DVDs. So the key point is that before you do a restore, you need to do a import from the backup location across the full set of DVDs to ensure that it can find all the files.

Hope this helps.

Cheers
David

[Claude_Merger-S]

Hi David,
I am giving up! I have lost enough time on this problem.
Cheers.
Claude