Accessing SRS Backup files from external HD

Hi, new member here. I have been doing a lot of reading lately because my Chronos Series 7 crashed again, for the third time. I get the dreaded loop with no access to F2 or F4. A little history of the machine.

My wife purchased this machine for me in Feb 2013. By October or November, the machine would not boot. I would have to press F4 and to get into SRS. From there I would exit out and the machine started just fine. The work around was not to turn off the machine but just let it sleep. In Jan 2014, the machine failed to even boot. Pressing F2 or F4 did nothing. So I sent the machine in for warranty repair.

I get the machine back and the problem was not fixed. The tech said he replaced the MoBo with a refurbished one. So back to Samsung repair it went. It was returned with a new MoBo and it worked just fine, until about 5 months ago. Problem started again.

A few days ago the machine failed again. No F2 access, no F4 access. No DVD access. No USB access. So now I have a boat anchor. I have decided to take matters into my own hands as I have no faith in Samsung. So before this current failure, I have been backing up my system onto a 3TB HD. The latest was just a few weeks ago. Now, I need to access some of that data so I can work on my HP laptop. Here is my question.

Is there any software that will allow me to look into the SRS backup files on the 3TB drive? I have searched high and wide and only found software to look into restore files on one's computer, but not backup files.

The laptop is with a friend and he will be giving me the HD so I can get files and data, but until that happens, I need to look into the SRS Backup Files for some of that data.

Any chance of that happening?

Thanks,
Brian D

 

I don't know the answer to reading files created by SRS (but I recall that Minitool Partition Wizard can see the files inside the recovery partition).

However, your symptoms with loss of the F2 and F4 functions are very similar to those discussed in this thread and you may want to explore some of the fixes. Some of our members have developed better understanding of the Samsung notebooks than Samsung's own technicians .

John

 

Thanks John. I have read and read and read just about every thread on the problem that NBR has to offer. I have even tried many of the tricks but have had no success. I will keep reading as I am sure I have missed something. My friend said he will start by removing both main battery and CMOS battery. This MoBo is less than a year old so I am sure it is not the issue.

 

Hi Brian, welcome to NBR.

I don't think I remember anyone having reported encountering that NVRAM corruption issue as many times as you describe here. I can understand how frustrating that must be.

It would be good to find out exactly what is triggering it on your system. It normally only happens when a new OS is installed (or occasionally a LiveCD/LiveUSB is booted) while in UEFI mode AND some other combination of factors that we haven't quite nailed.

Anyways, the solution for you is most likely in that thread John linked. I saw you since posted there, and I will reply after this.

Regarding your question of how to read inside SRS backup files, I am afraid I don't have a good answer to that either. 7-Zip and other trusty archive tools are unable to open them. However, I believe SRS uses Microsoft's ImageX, so conceivably it can be used to unpack them as well. I just never tried it and don't know much anything about it.

If you or any others respond in this thread, let us try to keep it on the topic of how to read external SRS backup files. We already have hundreds of other threads about SRS in general, and several about unbricking -- including our now preferred thread on the subject, linked again below:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/samsung-series-7-np700z5c-s03ca-my-last-hope.762595/

 

Well it looks like Samsung has done something proprietary here. No way to access the backup files. This is really too bad. They force one to use their backup and no way to retrieve it after the fact, unless one buys another Samsung computer.

Looks like after I get my HDD I will get some ghosting software. Maybe Norton Ghost. This way I will always have an accessible image.

 

It is proprietary for sure. SRS was actually developed by another Korean company called Clonix Co, from whom Samsung are licensing it.

But again, maybe ImageX can read it. Did you try that?

Otherwise you don't absolutely have to buy another Samsung computer. Member dosibox shared ISOs of different versions of Admin Tools in this post and so you could conceivably install SRS on any computer (although I haven't tried installing it on a non-Samsung). It will wipe the disk and put a new SRS on it -- but no factory image. You can then boot that with F4 and restore the external SRS backup you have.

I am bit uneasy about sharing those Admin Tools since they contain Samsung's copyrighted software. NBR has a zero-tolerance police on piracy discussion, which it is my duty as moderator to both observe and enforce.

OTOH, users who backed up with SRS already have a license for it, and I seriously doubt that Samsung would have a hard stance to prevent the user from restoring their own backups.

But let my uneasiness be noted for the record

Edit: Wait, if using Admin Tool to install SRS on a non-Samsung computer, F4 probably won't work to boot it, since that's a Samsung key. It's worth a try, though. And otherwise it can be booted with Grub or by adding it to a Windows boot menu, all as covered in this post.

 

Thanks Dannemand. I checked into the SRS 6 Admin Tool and got my browser hijacked. I recommend removing the link so no one else gets their browser hijacked.

I read up on Image-X but did not try it yet. I will also look into Clonix. I sent an email to Samsung Support but it was kicked back as an invalid email address.

I will eventually figure something out. Thanks again for your help. It is much appreciated.

 

Oh crap, sorry to hear that. Thank you for reporting it.

I just checked it now, opening the mega.co.nz link in a Chrome Incognito window (after seeing your warning). The files do indeed come up as indicated by member dosibox. I checked them and scanned for malware when he first made the post, and they were valid.

I wonder if you just happened to run into a nasty ad on that file sharing site. That happens sometimes (too often).

How far did you get? Did you actually get to download the SRS6 Admin Tool ISO?

I left a moderator note and warning in dosibox' post, but I am going to leave the link for now, since it is a useful resource, and I don't think the intent or the files shared by the member are malicious. I WILL be interested if others experience problems, though, in which case we'll have to remove the link.

 

Not your fault. I believe it was also not malicious but a means of trying to get financial support through ads and using browser control to "other" paid search engines. But at least the user should be made aware to be careful. I just needed to pay more attention and read what the "OK" and "CONTINUE" buttons are really doing.