2BrightSparks

SyncBackSE V4 (shareware) :: RE: Cannot open Destination folder

Author: dwilkins11c
Posted: Mon May 12, 2008 12:23 am (GMT 0)
Topic Replies: 1

Hi

One gotcha is that the Open command invokes your default (in Windows) application for handling Zips. If you have created multi-part Zips, and have installed a Zip utility that is incompatible with the naming system SBSE's compression library uses, you might well get that error. To quote the Help

The naming standard used by SyncBackSE for split Zip files is different from that used by WinZip and possibly other compression utilities. For example, the following files may be created:

Test.zip
Test.z02
Test.z03

If you attempt to open the Zip file using WinZip it will incorrectly report that the Zip file is corrupt. If you wish to open the Zip file using WinZip you must rename the files as follows:

Rename test.zip to test.z01
Rename test.z03 to test.zip (i.e. change the extension of the last file to .zip)

But it doesn't sound from your post that multi-part Zips are involved.

Another possibility is your default Zip handler is unable to handle the Zip64 archive SBSE has created. Some older Zip utilities cannot handle Zip64 archives (eg, WinZip lower than v9.1, I gather)...

The acid test is to try a Restore from that Destination, and it sounds as though you have already tried this. If this works (or,provided SBSE displays the file list to Restore from - you don't have to go through with it), but Open Right/Destination doesn't, I suspect it is your default Zip utility letting you down. You might want to look at upgrading that. I use AlZip which is free and has no problems with anything I've thrown at it, including Zip64

Re the Destination being the same size as the Source: it is possible that the Source contains files which SBSE by default* does not attempt to compress (such as JPG or MP3) because they are already pretty much as compressed as they are going to get, and trying to compress them further takes way too much time (and can even result in files larger than the original, by the time Zip header info is inserted as well). Does this sound like a possible reason? Only you can say...

Rgds
DW

*You can add or remove file-types from the default 'do not compress' list via Modify > Expert Mode > Compression > Compressed, but as described above, it is probably not all that good an idea to remove a file type from this list

SyncBackSE V4 (shareware) :: Cannot open Destination folder

Author: sharrowm
Subject: Cannot open Destination folder
Posted: Sun May 11, 2008 5:38 pm (GMT 0)
Topic Replies: 1

I am in the process of evaluating syncbackSE and have done some testing using fast backup. It seems to backup, compress and restore my files fine. However, when I choose "open right/destination" from the "tasks" drop-down menu I get the following error message:

"The compressed (zipped) folder is invalid or corrupted".

Is this normal? I think it is important to be able to open and view the contents of the compressed folder so I certainly hope not.

One other question: Even though the backup file is supposedly compressed, the destination folder seems to be exactly the same size as the source. ???

FYI: I am running XP Media Edition and backing up to an external USB hard drive.

TIA, Marc.

SyncBackSE V4 (shareware) :: RE: Feature request concerning folder selection/access

Author: zaphod
Posted: Sun May 11, 2008 10:28 am (GMT 0)
Topic Replies: 4

Hey,

I just bought a license

Cheers
Manfred

Help files, documentation, translations, etc. :: RE: Spanish lenguage

Author: Inodoro Pereyra
Posted: Sun May 11, 2008 9:53 am (GMT 0)
Topic Replies: 2

Thank for your replay!

I was looking for a "compatible" solution, but I can not find it.

Regards

SyncBack V3 (freeware) :: RE: Replicate folders?

Author: dwilkins11c
Posted: Sat May 10, 2008 9:16 pm (GMT 0)
Topic Replies: 3

I haven't used NTbackup in anger, as it makes its backups (including data backups) in a proprietary format which (AFAIK) nothing else can read without spending serious money ($150 or more IIRC).

And to restore from a BKF file (which NTbackup produces) AFAIK you need to have a working version of Windows already (to run NTbackup); so you'd need to re-install Windows first anyway. At least, I think you do. Windows Help is strangely silent on the subject of rebuilding a melted PC and assumes Windows is already running (so you can read the Restore instructions fromthe Help, maybe )

And NTbackup is no longer present in Vista (so I'm told), which I find suspicious.

The Help for this utility is horrendous, with charming little statements like This example pulls a tape from the Backup media pool Eh? Media Pool? Tape?

And I can't recall ever hearing anyone have a good word for NTbackup (outside a server farm. maybe).

Compare this with a drive-image program (with Wizards...) that can back up a 10GB system(-only) partition in about 5 minutes (to another internal disk; to an ext USB disk will be abt 4x slower); with a bootable rescue-disk on CD handy to reinstate the image, at approx the same speed it was made. I don't think there's any contest, personally

You can usually find a drive-image program on the cover-disk of one of the mags every other month if you want one for free with those capabilities. There is a freeware program called DriveImage XML but IIRC it doesn't have the the 'boot rescue disk' facility, so I'm not clear on how you are supposed to Restore an image - and as I had a working program already (c/o PC Pro mag, in 2006), I didn't look too hard. You can currently get the latest Personal Edition of the one I got (and use) for �20 if you're in a hurry - just google 'paragon drive backup'

Other forum contributors doubtless have their own favourites and opinions (don't be shy, folks - pitch in!)

Rgds
DW

BTW, with Paragon DB (and many others, I guess), you can also make image backups direct to raw DVD (split/spanned if/as necessary). I have enough hard disks not to bother, but I've tried it out of interest and it works. I've also tried the Restore, and so does that

SyncBack V3 (freeware) :: RE: Replicate folders?

Author: artemis2007
Subject: Relicate folders
Posted: Sat May 10, 2008 8:03 pm (GMT 0)
Topic Replies: 3

Thanks for your very thorough answer, dwilkins11c. I've got My Documents backed up without any trouble.
What about using NTbackup for the entire disk? Would that avoid the copying issue?

Help files, documentation, translations, etc. :: RE: Spanish lenguage

Author: dwilkins11c
Posted: Sat May 10, 2008 1:07 pm (GMT 0)
Topic Replies: 2

Hi

Try the links in this post http://2brightsparks.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=19322

I have no experience in using non-English versions of SBSE (or anything) but these links seem to have helped others in the past. Don't be shy posting back if they do not, but you might need to wait for someone else to help, as I can't help further myself

Regards
DW

Ideas and general discussion :: RE: Save log File In Destination

Author: dwilkins11c
Posted: Sat May 10, 2008 12:58 pm (GMT 0)
Topic Replies: 1

Hi
I agree this would be a nice touch, but even better would be an option, in conjunction with the ability to

a) store (all) logs where you like
b) email them to wherever (profile-specific)

to do so as an optional copy of either (a) or (b), so that you can also check from 'centre' when the last backup was (and what happened); given that a careful man with multiple portable backuo destinations might well store one or more of them off-site, making it hard to look at...

But can I address one slightly OT aspect of your post that you mentioned in passing? 400GB takes 4 days to back up? I have by no means the fastest PC on the planet (or the building, for that matter), but I achieve roughly the following test speeds, all using SBSE

5GB of MP3s copies to a 400GB ext USB HDD in 6 mins = ~ 0.83 GB/min
6GB disk image copies to the same USB HDD in 7 mins = ~ 0.86 GB/min

I also did a worst-case test which copied the entire contents of a system disk (copy) to the same USB HDD; this took 23 mins for 6GB*, giving a rate of 0.26 GB/min. It is probably the worst mix of files you can find (lots & lots of sub-1KB config files, for example, each requiring a start event, a stop event, a rename c/o SafeCopy...). Just about any 'usual' data backup set should achieve much better rates than this

Referring back to SafeCopy briefly, all these tests used it; it is 'on' in SBSE by default (so I guess you are using it). I also repeated the MP3 test with Verify switched on as well, which gave a reduced rate of 0.6 GB/min

You are achieving a rate per min of approx 0.07GB - I think something is wrong. You may only be achieving USB1 throughput. Do you get warnings from Windows when you plug the drive in that this would work better if you used a USB2 port? Maybe you are using a USB1 (or faulty) hub which is silently crippling your USB HDDs. I'm assuming the rate is the same across the multiple USB HDDs, so we can eliminate a fault with one of them, but OTOH if they are all the same make (or make of shuttle case), then you might want to look at that aspect - are they all in fact USB1 shuttles?

Which would you rather have - a backup which ran in 4 days or 0.4 days? If I were you, I'd be investigating...

Rgds
DW

* Why such a small system disk?
1) the usual filters are in place so (eg) HIBERFIL.SYS and PAGEFIL.SYS were not copied (actually, the page-file is on a separate HDD anyway)
2) to the best extent I can achieve, there are no data files on that partition at all; data is on separate partitions (by type, mainly)
BTW there were still 37500+ files in 4000+ folders left to copy!

Ideas and general discussion :: Save log File In Destination

Author: Brad
Subject: Save log File In Destination
Posted: Sat May 10, 2008 9:49 am (GMT 0)
Topic Replies: 1

I use SycBack to archive all my data onto various 400GB USB drives. I can create the destination folder to have the format dd-mm-yy but then each time i run the backup it takes 4 days to copy all my data across.

Solution: Be able to store the log file in the foot folder of the destination. This way in 3 months time I can quickly and easily see the last date of the software archive on any particpular disk.

Help files, documentation, translations, etc. :: Spanish lenguage

Author: Inodoro Pereyra
Subject: Spanish lenguage
Posted: Sat May 10, 2008 9:20 am (GMT 0)
Topic Replies: 2

Hello everybody! Hola a todos!
I have installed SB_ES in my computer but it is in inglish. I have Win Xp SP2 multilenguage ES/GE, this keyboard is GE-CH, I can see in the bar.

How can I change this?

Thanks a lot for your answer

Tengo un Win XP SP2 multilenguaje alem�n/espa�ol con teclado alem�n y necesito cambiar este programa al castellano (lo baj� en castellano, pero lo veo en ingl�s). Alguna idea?

Muchas gracias

Vielen Dank!

SyncBackSE V4 (shareware) :: synchronizing computers each time they are connected

Author: ssa
Subject: synchronizing computers each time they are connected
Posted: Fri May 09, 2008 8:12 pm (GMT 0)
Topic Replies: 0

I like to synchronize two computers continuously each time they are both connected to the network. How should I configure SyncBackSE? There are two problems.

Configuring SyncBackSE such that both are synchronized 'On change' results in flooding the Windows Application log with errors as long as both computers are not connected and starts as soon as SyncBackSE is started. Trying to prevent the errors by running a 'program before profile' doesnot work. How can I prevent these errors from occuring multiple times each second?

After the computers get connected I would like to run the profile once automatically and immediately because some files may have changed during the time they were not connected. The configuration 'On change' doesnot work because since they got connected nothing changed. Configuring Vista's task scheduler to restart the task if the tasks fails doesnot work either.

SyncBackSE V4 (shareware) :: RE: re-encrypt/zip on sync for security?

Author: formatdynamics
Posted: Fri May 09, 2008 5:06 pm (GMT 0)
Topic Replies: 4

yeah, i've already done it..there are some gotchas which i'm still trying to figure out, like when you have a profile set to run on shutdown the TrueCrypt program exits before Syncback does, generating an error that the drive/directory doesn't exist for syncing (since it's been dismounted). I even tried installing TrueCrypt as a service and that even shuts down before SyncBack does. Then I thought I'd do both as services with dependencies on each other, but to make them desktop-interactive they had to be run under the SYSTEM account, and i didn't really want to do that.

-Tony

SyncBack V3 (freeware) :: RE: "Access is denied" errors have randomly started oc

Author: dwilkins11c
Posted: Fri May 09, 2008 4:32 pm (GMT 0)
Topic Replies: 4

Having given it some more thought (and read it again - now I'm not trying to do it in my coffee-break)

Your original post / thread title is "Access is denied" errors have randomly started ... - but now you say the backups fail everytime on the exactly same files and folders. So which is it - 'random' or 'the same every time'?

If we remove any random element, this definitely now suggests file access/privilege issues. Without much more detailed description of which files are changed/created, in which direction, by which process(es) I don't think anyone can help you. But your statement I've literally changed nothing on either PC except the contents of the folders that get sync'ed suggests (if true) that these changed contents are causing the issues. As just mentioned, I don't know how, because I don't know enough about them and their creation/change process(es). You have to supply more info or figure it out yourself. It is possible, for example, that the user whose network credentials SyncBack is using (having been told to do so) has dropped out of a Group (on one PC or the other) that the files/folders use for access-control. Or it could be the process that is changing/creating the files is assigning permissions differently

Some simple tests...

If the user-credentials supplied to SyncBack are not the same as you usually log in with, try these two tests under both your usual login and the network one (creating it on the PC you are 'driving' if necessary). Start from the PC running SyncBack...

Can you copy the same files manually into the folder that fails?
Can you create a sub-folder in the folder that won't let SyncBack do so?

Spot any differences? Now try and pull those problem files across the network by switching to the other PC (the one without SyncBack running) under the login whose credentials you are supplying to SyncBack (and the normal log-in, if different). Try and spot a pattern...

To help you any further I think I (or anyone else) would need much more info (eg, the results of these tests, in detail). Don't be shy about supplying too much info - it's better than too little, any day

As I seem to recall is mentioned elsewhere on the 2BS site, "Windows file & network security is a minefield"

Good luck
Rgds
DW

SyncBack V3 (freeware) :: Question about aborting in the middle of the Sync process...

Author: DPR250R
Subject: Question about aborting in the middle of the Sync process...
Posted: Fri May 09, 2008 12:51 pm (GMT 0)
Topic Replies: 0

Hey guys... I tried searching but could not find a definite answer...

I had to abort in the middle of a sync process. I realized I chose the wrong profile and had the source and destination backwards.

I am a DJ and use yor software to backup music and to sync my music with a portable drive that I bring to work in case I have some free time to make needed changes to ID3 tags, add, delete tracks... etc... etc...

The question is... if I abort does Syncback finish copying/deleting the file it is working on before closing?

I ask because I am wondering if I now have a file that is cut in half or corrupted because I hit the abort button. I have a gig tommorrow and don't want a song to stop midway through or something...

Thanks... great product by the way!!!

SyncBackSE V4 (shareware) :: RE: question about restore with versions

Author: wibbly
Posted: Fri May 09, 2008 11:41 am (GMT 0)
Topic Replies: 15

As I mentioned above in the middle of it all, the Mozy UI stuff is quite good I think too. Might be worth a look for ideas.