Windows Vista Unable to install backup on my hard drive

[cinque8]

Hi,

I am running Windows Visat on my HP laptop. I have backed up my hard drive to an external hard drive using the Control Panel. But when I tried to use the Restore option in the Control Panel, it instructed me to restart my computer and click on the F8 key. But when I did that I didn't see any options that would let me replace the data on my hard drive with the data on my external hard drive. I do understand that my hard drive will be reformatted and all data will be lost, but I keep getting the BSOD and I would like to install my backup copy.

Thanks!

 

[kemical]

Hi,
apologies as it seems your post has been missed.

I think the reason why the control panel is sending you to the advanced Boot options (via the F8 key) is that one of the options after a blue screen is to use the setting 'Last good known configuration'. It basically means your operating system will return to a time when the system considers it ran best. Usually an early restore point.
It may help if we could read your dump files which are created when a computer blue screens.
The Dump files are found in a folder marked Minidump. This folder can be found in the main Windows folder. If you can't find it or no dump files are present then you probably need to change settings so they get created:
Go to Start and type in sysdm.cpl and press Enter
Click on the Advanced tab
Click on the Startup and Recovery Settings button
Ensure that Automatically restart is unchecked
Under the Write Debugging Information header select Small memory dump (256 kB) in the dropdown box
Ensure that the Small Dump Directory is listed as %systemroot%\Minidump << where your .dmp files can be
found later.
Click and apply to exit the dialogs.

Once you have some dump files read this thread which helps you post the info we need:
http://windowsforum.com/threads/how-to-ask-for-help-with-a-bsod-problem.38837/

 

[Saber Lancer]

That sounds complicated. I also encounter same problem. Is there other way to backup safely with central report telling if backup success or fail? If failed, what's failed in backup? Thanks.

 

[Saber Lancer]

Sorry, I have found other suggestions from other threads which suggests solution likes cloudbacko, sync, xcopy. I will try these out. Thanks

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

I have found over the years, that any and all Microsoft built-in backup programs going all the way back to Win95 are pretty much unreliable in terms of commercial usage. I my repair business, I use other programs to do this, along with a mind-numbingly complicated process of manual copying via Windows Explorer. If you wish to do a FULL DRIVE IMAGE BACKUP, there are other tools which work pretty good, but, yet are still not 100%. The 2 best out there, IMO, are Macrium Reflect, and Acronis TrueImage. I've used both with the Vista system I still use (and am writing this post on). And they are both free; they have paid versions, which I haven't tried due to costs; but colleagues tell me they are also tops.

Lastly, it's a good idea to TEST any external hard drive you intend to use for data or image backup copying to make sure it has no hard sector flaws PRIOR to doing backup. Most home users totally miss this step, as they never knew to think about it. But, it's the old saw: "GIGO", which stands for Garbage In, Garbage Out. This means that the integrity of the data you backup to any external device or hard drive is only as good as the condition that hard drive is in. If it's flawed, faulty, or otherwise has issues, restoring your data back to your main C: drive can be corrupted, or in some cases even cause Blue Screen crashes. Word to the wise.

Cheers!
<<<BIGBEARJEDI>>>

 

[Neemobeer]

I've never really used the Windows backup utilities either. Even when you have a backup running if you're only making one copy then you never know what your backing up. You may end up overriding a good backup with trash. You may want to invest in a decent backup service like carbonite http://www.carbonite.com/. I personally run a RAID 6 on my main desktop and also run a free BSD NAS running with ZFS RAIDZ3 for heavy duty fault tolerance.