Vista Business backup and restore

Lenovo 3000 N100 runs Vista Business, which I specifically went for because it features the Microsoft Vista whole machine Backup and Restore.

Before blowing the whole installation away to downgrade to XP Pro pending some applications becoming Vista compatible, I've been trying to test the backup feature, but it just simply doesn't seem to work.

Twice now I have made the backup DVD's, which the backup program appears to verify. The only odd thing seems to be that I only need 2 DVD's for this backup of the unsullied original Lenovo instllation, whereas when the backup program starts it says to have 3 to 5 dvd's ready.
I then insert the Microsoft autobooting DVD that comes with the machine and drive to "Repair" and thence to "Reinstall from backup dvd" (or similar wording) option. Change to my backup dvd's, and hit go, but all I get is a message that no suitable backup was found.

Lenovo support's advice was to use a commercial backup. Great!

Has anyone here actually restored a Vista installation using the inbuilt Vista software? Can anyone suggest what I am doing wrong?

 

Assuming you are using the "Complete PC" backup/restore feature of Windows Vista, as I recall, the restore routine was hardly intuitive and it wasn't apparent which disk was the one you actually needed to insert at the beginning.

It's been a long time since I tested creating and using the DVD media, but as I recall you boot with any Windows Vista genuine DVD, run the Complete PC restore and when it prompts for the location of the backup, you use the last DVD in the set you created first.

Regarding the size differences of the DVD sets, the Lenovo factory disk set is highly compressed.

If I were you, I would test the Lenovo factory disk set unless you've installed applications and data after receiving the unit.

 

I have used Complete PC Backup and Restore. However, I used an external drive instead of disks. I have restores nicely from an external drive.

I'm not clear on how you trying to restore. You have to boot to an install disk (I know the anytime upgrade, retail, or OEM installation disks will work) -> select repair -> then select the hard drive WHERE VISTA IS ALREADY INSTALLED -> then select Complete PC Backup and Restore. Click here for a Complete PC Restore Guide.

Maybe that is what you were already doing. Anyway that guide helped me.

 

Many thanks to Halobox and Stallen. I've achieved the restore successfully and, yes, it was a question of putting in the second (so presumably in future the last) backup DVD when the Complete Restore asks to choose the backup file. then almost immediately the first, then the second again.

I would restore from the factory disk set if I had them, but unfortunately this machine was just supplied with the "Upgrade your Windows Vista Experience" DVD.

I have been supplied with the XP Pro "downgrade" factory restore set which I had separate thread about some weeks back, but it appears that the sleeve for CD 1 of the product recovery set reads as it should, 39K9237, but the CD inside is 24R7734 and is a disk 2 of 7 of another set instead of disk 1 of 6. Inevitably, I discovered this 5 minutes after support embarked on their long relaxing weekend!

 

Like I said, in step 6 of the guide above when it is looking for backups on your Complete PC DVD media, you use the last disk written, not the first which is counter intuitive to most people. At least that what I recalled from my testing long ago... I too use external hard drives and switched back to my friend Ghost 12.

 

Cool. Glad you got that working. At least now you can load up a bunch of apps and data then take a backup. You would think the Complete PC dev team would have heard of linked list processing. Although thats an old array technique, the logic works for a spanned set. Basically, when the disk gets full, the backup/restore routine says we aren't done yet so request the next disk in the chain. This is a more intuitive approach than writing all of the information at the end of the chain (the last disk).

The only reason I remember this is because I tested it pretty extensively before Vista shipped last November and got burned by the first versus last disk. Basically I thought I had created several sets of coasters, but they were in fact good. Grrrrrrrrr....

 

Ah yes. It's all coming back now, linked list - doubly, not singly, for added (dis)comfort, depending on whether developing or just using.

Thanks for the tip re using the last disk, rather than the first, first. Intuitively, I'd have used the first disk too, then be left wondering why (or how) I'd created a bunch of coasters.

 

How confusing. MS should incorporate something into the utility so the user knows exactly how to label the disks during backup and then exactly what disk to insert to restore.

 

Well, I gave them pretty terse feedback on it long before they shipped. It was after beta 2 but long before the rc stages. I agree, the last disk is actually used twice. At the beginning and at the end so clarifying the dialog boxes and prompts would be one method, changing the freaking tool would be another.

Again, Ghost 12 is your friend. Get it on sale and be done with Complete PC.