Re: Pegasus-need additional help on backup issues like Alabama Jim

Yes, you are absolutely right about everything you said. I guess it is now
the time to bite the bullet and do the long overdue reorganization of all my
drives, and i will use all of your suggestions when i do the complete
overhaul. I will seperate windows and apps and do complete backups once I
start again. Thanks very much for your patience and help and suggestions.
Take care.

"Pegasus (MVP)" wrote:

Here is my understanding of your current situation:
- You wish to back up your system drive.
- You have numerous incremental backup files.
- You cannot get ntbackup to work.

The problem with ntbackup can be difficult to resolve.
I recommend you walk around the problem by using
a different backup utility. Using TrueImage from Acronis
would let you create a full backup file of drive C: with
a compression rate of around 50%. This would create
a file of about 40 GBytes which you could park on drive
M:. After checking its integrity, you could delete all
incremental backups of drive C: in order to create some
space to manoeuvre.

On a general note: I think you are doing yourself a disservice
when storing data on drive C:. Since you have several other
drives, put all data there and keep C: free for Windows and
for your applications. 20 GBytes would then be ample!


"titanrep" <titanrep@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:74982DC5-FEE8-4EA7-80A0-174A7332C307@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Most of the questions you just asked me are either in my posts so far or
are
most likely irrelevant to my problem. However i will answer all of your
questions:

I have 3 internal and 2 external NTFS drives. The 2 external are my backup
drives.
My drives are as follows:
C drive: 80GB-75GB used with about 5GB remaining. This is my primarily
used
drive.
D drive: 250GB-200GB used with about 40GB remaining. This is storage&needs
work
E drive: 60GB-56GB used with about 3 GB remaining. This is an old storage
drive.
I drive: 250GBExternal-220used with 30GBremaining. This is a backup drive.
M drive: 320GBExternal-250GBused,with 50GB remaining. This is also a
backup
drive

Windows resides on drive C right now. There is aslo poorly running
versions
of windows on the E drive and on the D drive, but I use the windows on the
C
drive to control everything. I intend on reorganizing all 5 of my drives
in
the future with fresh installs of windosw on the 250 GB D drive after I
move
stuff I need off it and wipe it down and do the same with the 60 GB E
drive,
but that is in the future and not part of what I want to do right now. The
drives have no other partitions on each.

I want to backup data, applications and settings on my C drive the 80GB
drive. Since I have already done a complete backup of that drive in the
past
and have done incremental backups of that drive since then, and since I
only
have room to do another incremental backup not another new complete
backup,
that is why I want to just do an incremental backup of the c drive at this
time. I could not do a complete backup even if I had the room to do so
because the backup utility does not run. I could use a different app but
since I have never done a complete backup with them and do not have
room(75GB) that is not an option. So to protect my newly downloaded
documents, applications, etc. that i have added since my last incremental
backup, I need to do this incremental backup. I do not necessarily need to
back up windows too.

I know but many people say having incremental backups are the way to go
and
that is how I have done it all along.

I cannot wipe the lot and do a new full backup because the backup utility
does not work-that is my problem!!!!!! I could do that with a different
backup utility but that would require me to do the complete reorganization
of
all my drives right now which I really do not have the time to do at this
time because I have to go through all my data on 5 hard drives totaling
960GB
of data some of which is duplicated and needs to be sorted out. That
however
is my last resort if I cannot get this problem fixed with the backup
utility.

There is no backup log generated at all for the last 2 days since I have
tried to use the backup utility, even though a process for ntbackup.exe is
running in my tast manager. There are only entries for my last backups
many
months ago.

I do not have backup scheduled to run at any time in the scheduled tasks
pane. I just run it when I feel i need to.

I hope this answers your questions and can provide me with some direction.

As I stated eariler I tried to reload the backup.msi file, I tried to
start
it from administrator, from all users, from command line from r/c
properties
on the c drive and going to backup, and nothing works. it acts like it is
starting, it opens a tiny blank box, it shows a process running in the
task
manager and that is it- it does nothing else. Thanks again.





"Pegasus (MVP)" wrote:

I'm afraid I still don't understand what you're trying to do.
Here are the things that I do not know:
- What is your drive structure? Where does Windows
reside? Where does your data reside? What are the
drive letters? What are the partition sizes? How much free
space on each partition?
- What do you want to backup? Your OS? Your data? Both?
- Why do you want to rely on "numerous" incremental
backups? Wiping the lot and doing a full backup would
be far more reliable.
- What is your ntbackup command line? You can see it
in the Task Scheduler.
- What is in your backup logs? You can see them here:
C:\Documents and Settings\titanrep\Local Settings\Application
Data\Microsoft\Windows NT\NTBackup\data

"titanrep" <titanrep@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:C3C7451C-DAEC-4951-872B-435F363A1AD6@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I want to run an incremental backup of my c drive. I have 5 hard
drives, 2
are external for backups and very full-too full to run any complete
backups
now. I am intending to wipe down some of my drives and reorganize all
my
data
in the near future just not now. I need to run one last incremental of
my
c
drive to catch all my recently downloaded items since my last
incremental
backup. I have backup assist and retrospect express backup apps and
they
both
work but since I have never done original backups with them and I do
not
have
enough room to do a new complete backup with them, I need to only do
an
incremental which I have room for so it has to be with xp backup
utility
since I have already done my complete and numerous incremental backups
with
it.

Using the run box I typed "ntbackup.exe"

How do I get and record the contents of the backup log file,
especially
when
backup never runs to give me a log file?

Thanks a million for you help and patience with me. I read and tried
your
suggestions in Alabama Jims thread-his issus sounds very much like
mine
too.

"Pegasus (MVP)" wrote:


"titanrep" <titanrep@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:09549EE4-58F8-44E4-AEDC-EFADAC8AAF75@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I normally have used the xp backup utility that came with my xp
pro
cd. It
has always worked fine until very recently. I tried to do a backup
and
it
would not work very much like Alabama Jim's problem. I tried to
start
it
from
the start menu in accessories, from backup in the list of apps in
startup
list, using r/c on properties on the drive, from run command line,
from
administator, from all users, and to no avail. It acts like it is
starting, a
small window eventually opens with backup utility on the top and
nothing
on
the bottom just like Alabama Jim described, It shows up in the
task
manager
as running in the processes, but it never starts. I have tired
chkcsk,
system
restore and reinstalled it per your instructions to Jim. I did the
thing
you
said in systemroot and tasklist and I get 2 instances of
ntbackup.exe-one
says 6480console and the other says 1692 console. I am going crazy
with
this.
I need help please. I can find no info on this problem anywhere. I
could
not
even find it in in the msft folder in my original xp pro cd. If in
the
end
I
have to reinstall xp on another drive will a new install of xp and
backup
still open my old backups created from my present backup cuase I
have
programs in those backups that I have no where else? Cannot backup
be
made
to
work some how?

A good starting point would be for you to post two items:
- What exactly are you trying to achieve?
- What is the exact ntbackup.exe command line you use?

It would also be a useful if you reported the contents of the backup
log file that gets created each time you run ntbackup.exe.









.

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