Restoring entire hard drive from HP Backup and Recovery

Problem: I cannot restore my hard drive to its previous condition using HP Backup and Recovery Manager. I would appreciate any help in this matter

Computer: HP 2710p Tablet/convertible.

Two weeks ago, I backed up my entire hard drive using the HP Backup and Recovery Manager choosing the "Back up entire hard drive" option. I backed this up to a subdirectory on an external hard drive. I figured that I could easily restore it back should it crash and have everything (operation system, applications, and documents) right where it was and as it was configured. I was running Vista Professional.

Yesterday I had some sort of problem that would not allow the computer to boot. Hardware diagnostics indictated that the hard drive was fine. I grabbed the recovery DVDs (these are Windows XP) that came with the computer and successfully was able to get the computer working again. So, now I have a working computer - though it is in XP not Vista. My intent was to restore the hard disk back to where it was two weeks ago.

I have unsuccessfully attempted to restore using the HP Backup and Recovery Manager. When I get use the "Start PC Recovery" option, it tells me, "The system does not have a recovery partition. The recovery process requires the recovery disc set or Rescue Disk." "Please insert disk 1 of the recovery disk set or the Rescue Disc." Here's the problem - I don't have these in Vista - only in the XP disks that I used yesterday to recessitate the computer. This is not what I want.

The other recovery option in the Backup and Recovery Manager is "Recover individual files and data" where can navigate through the directory tree to find the files for backup, but this does not work. The wizard does not recognize any of the files as being recoverable.

The backup information is stored as follows:

D: My Book HARD DISK DRIVE (the external hard drive)
.....- John's Tablet..........................................DIRECTORY
............-PRELOAD..........................................DIRECTORY
....................-ALL.CRC............51,253 KB..........CRC File
....................-BASE.......................1 KB...........DAT File
....................-BASE.WIM...24,676,277 KB...........WIM File
....................-CSP..........................1KB...........DAT File
................... -DATA.INP.................33KB...........INP File
....................-DESC........................1KB...........Text Document

Based upon the huge size of the BASE.WIM file, I beleive that it has the data I wish to restore.

The DESC file has the following text:

[Diff]
Time=20081215 06:05:27
Files=237717
Size=46446420195
FullImage=1

Any help in restoring this hard drive would be greatly appreciated.

 

I have a very similar problem. The hard disk on my mum's HP 6715b failed. I thought I would be able to restore everything back to when I lasted backed it up for her only to discover that the HP Backup and Recovery program won't recognize any of the files.

I've searched the forums on the HP website and contacted their technical support with no success.

Did you manage to solve this problem? If so, I would be very grateful if you could tell me how. Thanks.

 

I have a solution for all to recover their *.fbw hard drives backed on windows vista using HP laptops. I had same problem on my new Vista HP pavilion where i backed up the files using HP backup in an external hard drive and was unable to restore files.

After taking to numerous software programmers overseas, who informed me of this inherent problem with HP backup and restore software, Finally I have a software to restore files backedup with extension *.fbw from external hard disks and possibly DVDs.

I am an IT person myself, and will like to help all people who have been through this mess. Email me and I will respond back in 2-3 hours.

 

emaconsul
Why not post the how to here,
This way it will been seen by many over the years.

 

I eventually solved this problem. It seems that the HP software does not recognize any backups created prior to a restoration from the supplied recovery disks. The solution is quite simple, but it tooks me hours of frustration before the idea occurred to me.

Having restored the laptop from the recovery disks, I created a new backup in a different folder from the backup that I actually wanted to restore, i.e. 'Backup New'. Then, I simply swaped the names of the two folders so that when the HP software looked for the most recent backup it found the one I actually wanted to be restored.

What's astonishing is how badly designed the HP software is. This scenario is hardly that unexpected.