Fab's AutoBackup 7 Pro - a must have tool for techs

Barcelona said:
Just yesterday I had a client that had phone pics stored in the C:\Windows\Temp folder!
Had I not physically looked with my own eyes it would have been N&P'd!
Click to expand...
Sorry @Barcelona but I don't get paid enough to go above and beyond like this. A temp folder is for temporary files that by definition can be deleted. Program Files are for programs that can't be saved. The Windows folder is for the OS. If people use these locations for personal data and don't have a backup then their data wasn't safe, so losing those files has nothing to do with our work to fix their computer.

Each of us has there own market, rates and expenses. I couldn't stay in business if I had to image every system and check all the folders for user data.

This is why I'm looking forward to the proposed Fabs feature of looking for 'unusual' folders/files. This would improve my service without adding to my time or customer bills.

I already put much more effort into recovering user data than any other tech in my region.
 
I don't agree @fincoder. Clients trust and rely on us to put things right.
They don't store stuff in odd places knowingly and it's a very small percentage that do it anyway.

I have a flat fee for workshop, so spending ~15 minutes to go through folders or even just a couple of simple searches for *.jpg.*.mp3, *.mpg etc. to see what turns up is providing better service IMO.

It also saves the headache later when a client asks "where's my pictures of my deceased mother/father or worse baby/child?"
They don't/won't care when you tell them "hey, you shouldn't store your stuff in <insert location> anyway!"

They'll just spread the word that YOU lost all their treasured memories.

As for imaging drives? I don't image every (healthy) drive but when I know a client can be problematic, I'll image their drive just in case.
Any drive with problems gets imaged of course.
I use ODIN which is portable and very fast.
 
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i am with Barcelona on this one - I do ask customers about whats important on their drive - pictures, documents etc and if they know roughly what there is and when they put it there. For the 1% of customers that do put stuff outside the standard file tree ( tend to be either kids or professional people like creatives) its always worthwhile to ask and gives you a heads up whether you should do some spelunking before you run fabs. Its worth the few minutes - both from a customer satisfaction perspectives but also minimises the overall amount of time you might spend by avoiding the arguments in the first place.
 
Barcelona said:
They don't/won't care when you tell them "hey, you shouldn't store your stuff in <insert location> anyway!"
They'll just spread the word that YOU lost all their treasured memories.
Click to expand...

I understand this is the mindset of some customers, but the bottom line is it's not my fault and most people understand that. I ask the customer the locations of files they need to recover and I get all that they requested. I also recover any other data I can find using Fabs, and if the system is still running I have a quick look at recently opened apps and file locations.

My judgement is that I do a good job at recovering files. Loss of data is incredibly rare, maybe a similar number of occurrences that everyone else here has had. I believe I put all reasonable effort into recovering user data. My business survives only because of smart compromises to keep my rates affordable in this economically depressed area.

DavidH said:
i am with Barcelona on this one - I do ask customers about whats important on their drive
Click to expand...
So do I. This puts some responsibility back onto the customer, but I still make all reasonable efforts to find other data. Opening all folders in non-data locations is not reasonable in my opinion.
 
DavidH said:
i am with Barcelona on this one - I do ask customers about whats important on their drive - pictures, documents etc and if they know roughly what there is and when they put it there. For the 1% of customers that do put stuff outside the standard file tree ( tend to be either kids or professional people like creatives) its always worthwhile to ask and gives you a heads up whether you should do some spelunking before you run fabs. Its worth the few minutes - both from a customer satisfaction perspectives but also minimises the overall amount of time you might spend by avoiding the arguments in the first place.
Click to expand...

I 'Fab' every machine but do not image every one.

I have tweaked one of the Technibble Business Pack forms because I ask all customers where they save their Photos and Documents - and if they use any specialist programs such as Sage. They initial that part of the form that I have asked them and that I have noted what they say.

I'll check for "strange" folders up to a point but there has to be a limit.
 
Oops - I see it now. Thx!

Is it checked by default? I see it didn't pick up the mapped drives on the backup I just did.
 
Diggs said:
Oops - I see it now. Thx!

Is it checked by default? I see it didn't pick up the mapped drives on the backup I just did.
Click to expand...
Yes it is. You should had a folder like this in your backup: "E:\test\2018-06-22\HOME\FAB\archive\NetworkDrives" and a network.reg file in it.
You have to log out and log back on to see the network drives connections in the explorer
 
Hmm... I see what happened. It is a multi-profile computer and I only moved one profile to a new machine. It's an admin profile but the NetworkDrives folder is with the profile I didn't copy to the new machine hence no network drives.

@edit - I see I can move that folder into the other profile and all is good. Thx again!
 
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Fab's AutoBackup 7 Pro V7.0.4.32732 has just been released.

Change log:
Added:
- 3D Objects Windows 10 user folder.
- Ability to transfer Windows 7 sticky notes to Windows 10 sticky notes app. Caution: all the existing sticky notes are lost in the process on the Windows 10 app if there are, so be careful!

Fixed:
- The order information was shown in clear on the main app when clicking the "key" icon on the upper right corner.
- Sometimes, cloud files could not be copied when dealing with another user profile due to missing required NTFS permissions.
- There was a glitch with network places item that was checked by default but the tile remained disabled (greyed out).
- The scheduled tasks could not be created using the command line builder tool on workstations not using 24 hours time format.

Grab it from your orders history's details on the shop's website at https://store.fpnet.fr/account.php?language=en or using the bundled updater tool (click the "Download Fab's AutoBackup 7.X" link within the program and get the updated files).


Note : there is still no default settings or any odd folders support in this update.
 
Something happened and I haven't used this revision enough to figure out what the problem is. Several times I've tried to restore a profile on to a fresh N & P machine and after starting the restore I see the Public profile flash by and instantly done (because there was nothing in Public). The user profile failed to restore. I went back and tried to restore the user profile again and got pages of errors. Happened twice now. Each time I did another N&P and then just the user profile only and had no problem. Hmm..... Anybody else?
 
After some restore tests, it appears there is an issue when selecting the public backup and one or several users backups : all the users items remain in the "user data" tab remain grayed out.
This definitely needs to be fixed but looks a bit tricky at first sight. To workaround this until I release a fix, just do not select the public profile when you have to restore a user profile backup. The public profile will be implicitly selected: you will see a "public data" tab allowing you to restore or not the public stuff too.
If that can help...
 
Fab's AutoBackup 7 Pro V7.0.4.32750 has just been released.

Change log:
Fixed:
When running in command line mode and there was a windows.old folder on the source drive, the Windows.old folder was processed instead of the current Windows folder.
- Restoring user's data was not possible when public profile was selected too.

Grab it from your orders history's details on the shop's website at https://store.fpnet.fr/account.php?language=en or using the bundled updater tool (click the "Download Fab's AutoBackup 7.X" link within the program and get the updated files).


Note : there is still no default settings or any odd folders support in this update.
 
This ----V V V V
fabs said:
Note : there is still no default settings or any odd folders support in this update.
Click to expand...

So if YOU don't bother to image before that N & P or take the time to look at the filesystem for odd folders your clients may have hidden then YOU are the problem NOT Fabs Autobackup!
Fabs Autobackup is a lifesaver but it still requires some physical effort on the tech's part!
 
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