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

[Haole Boy]

Been using Fabs for several years now. Wonderful tool! Today, I got some errors that I have not seen before. I think these can be safely ignored, but want to check. These occur during the file verification phase

First error. There are around 90 of these. I'm assuming I can safely ignore these as they all relate to dropbox.cache. Agreed?

[ERROR] 9/11/2020 9:36:51 AM : Saved file MD5 sum does not match with original file:
[ERROR] "C:\VSS_C_ShadowCopy\Users\Peggy\Desktop\Dropbox\.dropbox.cache\qebcobkqbgpbzfynfuwbof\placeholder.aep" ()
[ERROR] "D:\Customer_data\Peggy Hill\Fabs\2020-09-11\PEGGY-IDEAPAD\Peggy\archive\Desktop\Dropbox\.dropbox.cache\qebcobkqbgpbzfynfuwbof\placeholder.aep" (0F343B0931126A20F133D67C2B018A3B)

Second error: This time dropbox.cache is not involved. Can I / should I ignore this?

[ERROR] 9/11/2020 10:22:43 AM : Saved file MD5 sum does not match with original file:
[ERROR] "C:\VSS_C_ShadowCopy\Users\Peggy\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Themes\TranscodedWallpaper" (E64FCBD0D0B45417AF16ACDB34B889CF)
[ERROR] "D:\Customer_data\Peggy Hill\Fabs\2020-09-11\PEGGY-IDEAPAD\Peggy\archive\WallPaper\File\TranscodedWallpaper" (8A806C16FF8B453AE4E148821B607B2C)


Third error: Well, actually a Warning while processing OneDrive files. Again, I"m thinking these can be safely ignored. Agreed?

[WARNING] 9/11/2020 9:26:43 AM : Peggy : This cloud file may be online only and could not be copied "C:\Users\Peggy\OneDrive\Documents\2017-06-05 17.06 New Meeting.g2m"
[WARNING] 9/11/2020 9:26:43 AM : Peggy : Skipping file

Mahalo!

Harry Z

 

[Haole Boy]

A small low priority program feature request: on the last window before launching the actual data copy (when doing a backup), at the bottom is the option on whether or not to save the log file. And, if you do want to save it, where to put it. Would it be possible to add a check box to specify that the log file goes to the same directory where the backed-up files go? I realize it's not that much effort to navigate the dialog box to get to where you want it, but for some reason this bothers me.

Or, if you leave the destination blank, it will go where the backed up fies go.

P.S. this function does not seem to be documented in the User's Manual

Thanks for listening.

Harry Z

 

[fabs]

First error. There are around 90 of these. I'm assuming I can safely ignore these as they all relate to dropbox.cache. Agreed?

[ERROR] 9/11/2020 9:36:51 AM : Saved file MD5 sum does not match with original file:
[ERROR] "C:\VSS_C_ShadowCopy\Users\Peggy\Desktop\Dropbox\.dropbox.cache\qebcobkqbgpbzfynfuwbof\placeholder.aep" ()
[ERROR] "D:\Customer_data\Peggy Hill\Fabs\2020-09-11\PEGGY-IDEAPAD\Peggy\archive\Desktop\Dropbox\.dropbox.cache\qebcobkqbgpbzfynfuwbof\placeholder.aep" (0F343B0931126A20F133D67C2B018A3B)

Yes, that's a cache file that possibly changed a bit while copying as backed up file is from a VSS snapshot. This also happens while backing up Firefox profile while it's open but copied file is in a good shape. Anyway, that ".dropbox.cache" folder should be excluded anyway. I put that in To Do list so this will not happen again.

Second error: This time dropbox.cache is not involved. Can I / should I ignore this?

[ERROR] 9/11/2020 10:22:43 AM : Saved file MD5 sum does not match with original file:
[ERROR] "C:\VSS_C_ShadowCopy\Users\Peggy\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Themes\TranscodedWallpaper" (E64FCBD0D0B45417AF16ACDB34B889CF)
[ERROR] "D:\Customer_data\Peggy Hill\Fabs\2020-09-11\PEGGY-IDEAPAD\Peggy\archive\WallPaper\File\TranscodedWallpaper" (8A806C16FF8B453AE4E148821B607B2C)

This time, copied file has no reason to be different from original one. Is source or tharger file system corrupted ? No other idea so far. At least, it's just wallpaper. Just check content between
"C:\Users\Peggy\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Themes\TranscodedWallpaper" and "D:\Customer_data\Peggy Hill\Fabs\2020-09-11\PEGGY-IDEAPAD\Peggy\archive\WallPaper\File\TranscodedWallpaper" and see if saved wallpaper opens fine and is the same as the one in source if that matters.

Third error: Well, actually a Warning while processing OneDrive files. Again, I"m thinking these can be safely ignored. Agreed?

[WARNING] 9/11/2020 9:26:43 AM : Peggy : This cloud file may be online only and could not be copied "C:\Users\Peggy\OneDrive\Documents\2017-06-05 17.06 New Meeting.g2m"
[WARNING] 9/11/2020 9:26:43 AM : Peggy : Skipping file

Yes, this one can be safely ignored. There's no file corruption or copy error here. It just means that source file is not really on source drive but in the cloud. That "C:\Users\Peggy\OneDrive\Documents\2017-06-05 17.06 New Meeting.g2m" file is in fact some kind of shortcut to the file in the cloud, so, it is normal that Fab's could not get it.

 

[fabs]

A small low priority program feature request: on the last window before launching the actual data copy (when doing a backup), at the bottom is the option on whether or not to save the log file. And, if you do want to save it, where to put it. Would it be possible to add a check box to specify that the log file goes to the same directory where the backed-up files go? I realize it's not that much effort to navigate the dialog box to get to where you want it, but for some reason this bothers me.

Or, if you leave the destination blank, it will go where the backed up fies go.

P.S. this function does not seem to be documented in the User's Manual

Thanks for listening.

Harry Z

Yes, I have forgotten to update user's manual about this. And yes, just leave path blank and logs will be copied to default location, aka where the files are backed up (where there is the backup.conf file).

 

[Haole Boy]

Yes, that's a cache file that possibly changed a bit while copying as backed up file is from a VSS snapshot. This also happens while backing up Firefox profile while it's open but copied file is in a good shape. Anyway, that ".dropbox.cache" folder should be excluded anyway. I put that in To Do list so this will not happen again.

This time, copied file has no reason to be different from original one. Is source or tharger file system corrupted ? No other idea so far. At least, it's just wallpaper. Just check content between
"C:\Users\Peggy\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Themes\TranscodedWallpaper" and "D:\Customer_data\Peggy Hill\Fabs\2020-09-11\PEGGY-IDEAPAD\Peggy\archive\WallPaper\File\TranscodedWallpaper" and see if saved wallpaper opens fine and is the same as the one in source if that matters.


Yes, this one can be safely ignored. There's no file corruption or copy error here. It just means that source file is not really on source drive but in the cloud. That "C:\Users\Peggy\OneDrive\Documents\2017-06-05 17.06 New Meeting.g2m" file is in fact some kind of shortcut to the file in the cloud, so, it is normal that Fab's could not get it.

Mahalo for the response. I forgot to mention that these errors occurred when backing up data from a machine booted from a PE disk so nothing should be changing during the Fabs run. Does that make any difference in your answer?

 

[fabs]

Mahalo for the response. I forgot to mention that these errors occurred when backing up data from a machine booted from a PE disk so nothing should be changing during the Fabs run. Does that make any difference in your answer?

In a general manner, it does not change my answer. The explanation must be different then. The fact you were running PE makes it strange that files were copied from a VSS snapshot while this feature is designed to be totally disabled as it's useless. VSS point should never have been created. Which PE were you using ?

Envoyé de mon IN2020 en utilisant Tapatalk

 

[Haole Boy]

Which PE were you using ?

Gandalf’s Windows 10 PE x64 Redstone5 build77763 version 09-01-2019

 

[fabs]

Gandalf’s Windows 10 PE x64 Redstone5 build77763 version 09-01-2019

Thanks. Now I need to figure out a more reliable way to detect PE every time to disable that vss feature which is useless in this case

Edit : I've tested it using this Gandalf PE Redstone 5 and it detected it was running in PE. I guess I forgot to mention for some item that can use VSS to not do it if running in PE. I've added a single instruction in that function that will just ignore VSS snapshot taking instruction if PE is detected. This will prevent it in next version. That being said, I will not be able to release it for a while since there are many things to do on this build :
- Change the way driver handling works : it's not always needed (to no say almost never), so, I definitely need to change the way it works. It has to be an option and not selected every time. I guess I will put that on additional stuff tab and make it able to remember its last checkbox state.
- Add support for Zoom data
- Add support for MicroSIP softphone client.
- See if I can add ability to stretch customized logo
- Exclude dropbox.cache folder from file copy task

 

[Haole Boy]

New couple of questions / issues. I'm working on a Win 8.1 machine that is several kinds of messed up with the user profile stuff. A little background before getting into the Fab's specific stuff.

There are two userids:

- William

- William.workgroup

William seems to be corrupted in some way. If I go to C\Users\William instead of seeing the usual several folders, there is only AppData and My Documents folders. My Documents contains just 1 folder and a couple of documents. AppData only has a Local directory, and underneath that is just a Microsoft directory with a few more levels under it. Very strange. (Yes, I have turned on viewing hidden and system files). William is the user name used to logon to Windows.

William.worgroup has the expected plethora of folders and files at C:\Users\William.workgroup. Lots of documents under My Documents. There is no option to logon using William.Workgroup

When I run a backup in Fab's I get a message about some sort of registry error for William and literally nothing is copied for William

William.workgroup has lots of data copied, but in the backup under William.workgroup | archive | Documents, there is a @Recovered directory. This is not in the source hard drive, so where did this come from? (I did check the User Manual)

My goal here is to delete both William and William.workgroup and create a new user with the combined data from both userids.

Mahalo,

Harry Z

 

[fincoder]

there is a @Recovered directory. This is not in the source hard drive, so where did this come from? (I did check the User Manual)

It's mentioned in this thread:
https://www.technibble.com/forums/t...have-tool-for-techs.78308/page-29#post-659730

 

[fabs]

New couple of questions / issues. I'm working on a Win 8.1 machine that is several kinds of messed up with the user profile stuff. A little background before getting into the Fab's specific stuff.

There are two userids:

- William

- William.workgroup

William seems to be corrupted in some way. If I go to C\Users\William instead of seeing the usual several folders, there is only AppData and My Documents folders. My Documents contains just 1 folder and a couple of documents. AppData only has a Local directory, and underneath that is just a Microsoft directory with a few more levels under it. Very strange. (Yes, I have turned on viewing hidden and system files). William is the user name used to logon to Windows.

William.worgroup has the expected plethora of folders and files at C:\Users\William.workgroup. Lots of documents under My Documents. There is no option to logon using William.Workgroup

When I run a backup in Fab's I get a message about some sort of registry error for William and literally nothing is copied for William

William.workgroup has lots of data copied, but in the backup under William.workgroup | archive | Documents, there is a @Recovered directory. This is not in the source hard drive, so where did this come from? (I did check the User Manual)

My goal here is to delete both William and William.workgroup and create a new user with the combined data from both userids.

Mahalo,

Harry Z

Yeah, William profile seems to be corrupted for while. For some reason, Windows could not use C:\Users\William profile to store his files. When this happens, it often creates another profile with user name in it, a dot and domain name as suffix. In this case, then PC is not in a domain but in a workgroup called "workgroup". This is why Windows created "C:\Users\William.workgroup" and has stored user data here. First profile can be safely ignored as it's just garbage. When users logs in as William, his profile is William.workgroup.

The other question is well answered by @fincoder

 

[Haole Boy]

It's mentioned in this thread:
https://www.technibble.com/forums/t...have-tool-for-techs.78308/page-29#post-659730

Yeah, William profile seems to be corrupted for while. For some reason, Windows could not use C:\Users\William profile to store his files. When this happens, it often creates another profile with user name in it, a dot and domain name as suffix. In this case, then PC is not in a domain but in a workgroup called "workgroup". This is why Windows created "C:\Users\William.workgroup" and has stored user data here. First profile can be safely ignored as it's just garbage. When users logs in as William, his profile is William.workgroup.

The other question is well answered by @fincoder

Mahalo for the quick replies! Much appreciated. Especially explaining the .Workgroup username. That had me puzzled, and if you search on Workgroup you get a gazillion hits but nothing about this userid situation.

As an FYI... the @Recovered folders & files were originally located in C\Users\William.workgroup\Contacts No idea how they got in there, and the customer's main software that he uses is going to issue lots of error messages as it can't find it's files, and this customer can't handle stuff like this. The next few weeks are going to be difficult until he learns how to resolve the errors.

Again, Mahalo for the quick responses,

Harry Z

 

[Porthos]

I will give it a test on the next nuke and pave.

Driver restore works as advertised. Slow but that is just Windows installing the drivers.

 

[JoelM]

Is it possible to set the default setting in Fab's to NOT have the drivers option selected by default? I find that most of the time I do not want it.
If I want it for the occasional time I can then select it. I am often forgetting to unselect it.

 

[fabs]

Is it possible to set the default setting in Fab's to NOT have the drivers option selected by default? I find that most of the time I do not want it.
If I want it for the occasional time I can then select it. I am often forgetting to unselect it.

That will be the case for next release. This option will be unchecked by default and it will remember its last state.

 

[timeshifter]

Upgrading client to new computer. Used Fab's to backup data on old computer. Restored on new computer, running Windows 10 1909. Later I updated to Windows 10 2004. The Desktop lost the restored wallpaper and most of the icons that Fab's had restored under Windows 10 1909. So apparently the 2004 update did something.

Rather than trying to figure it all out I just re-restored from Fab's again and told it to overwrite everything.

Any reason this is not OK?

What did the 2004 update do?

 

[fabs]

It looks like upgrade process just did not put these back like it's supposed to do.

 

[timeshifter]

I'm trying to build a PE disk for Fab's. Following this guide https://forums.fpnet.fr/viewtopic.php?id=446

To get past Step 7 where you select the Windows 10 source files I had to extract an install.wim file from the install.esd. That seemed to resolve that. I'm using a 64 bit Windows 10 64 bit 1909 ISO I built using the Media Creation Tool a while back, the same ISO I've used on my iODD for lots of installs.

Anyway, later in the process, after I press Play it seems to build everything OK but I never find an ISO file in E:\WIN10XPE.

Not sure what I'm missing.

 

[timeshifter]

I think I got it working...

When I would click the "Create ISO" button I'd get an error about boot.wim not being in ISO\sources folder. So I copied the boot.wim file from E:\SourceWin10x64\sources to E:\Win10XPE\ISO\sources. Note that I had to create the sources directory under ISO. I was able to build an ISO. Now whether it boots or not is another adventure.

 

[NJW]

I'm trying to build a PE disk for Fab's.

The problem with this approach is that it's a pain to have to rebuild the .iso for a new version of Fab's AB (or any of the Nirsoft helper apps) – plus, you can't save changes to settings.

I did the same in my early days with Fab's, but nowadays I PXE boot to WinPE and use the external utilities from a USB stick – better workflow for me.