Vista Backup and Restore Center - only last DVD is usable
Using Vista Backup and Restore Center, I did a full backup to DVD which required three DVDs. I did not receive any request to burn the DVDs at change of media. However, only the last DVD appears to have been written with the appropriate label and is the only one from which I can restore files. I have done this backup twice in case I had made an error. The first two DVDs are shown as being full when I display Properties. I use Windows Vista Home Premium (Version 6.0, service pack 2) and have applied all the important Microsoft Updates. What am I doing wrong? ( Up to now, I have manually copied important files to DVD but thought that using the Backup software should be better.)
August 29th, 2010 11:03pm

Hi, When you say full backup do you mean a system image which is a copy of the hard drive?When restoring a Complete PC Backup it is important to know that the restore process will erase all of hard disks and all of the user data and programs will be erased and replaced with the data and programs from the backup. If so, you need to start the restore process from the System Recovery Options menu in the Windows Recovery Environment. Please follow the steps described in Make system repairs from the Windows Recovery Environment. Regards,Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.
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August 31st, 2010 10:32am

Here is a blow by blow account of what I did. Via Windows Help and Support, entered Backup and Restore Center. Via wizard, selected Start a new, full back up. Selected DVD RW Drive (F) to copy to and to copy from C drive, but not E drive Selected everything except Music, Videos and TV shows. Selected Monthly frequency and “Create a new full backup now in addition to saving settings” Pop up “Label and insert blank disk” with “computer name/date/time Disk1” Query – I assume that this does not mean initialising the disc with this label since I would expect the wizard to do this for me – rather, I assume that it means marking the disc with pen. Query – I also note that in going through this process now that I was told that I could not do the backup on battery power; it is by no means certain that I had it on mains power throughout the previous backup attempt but I didn’t receive any messages – could that be the cause of not being able to restore from Disks 1 and 1? I was then asked if I wanted to format the disc – I selected “Format” System went through stages: Created a Shadow Copy Scanning files to backup – Preparing to back up ..... Copying files to F:\ My restoring attempts were by deleting two files from my hard disc, one of which was shown in the expansion of the zip on disc 3. The one on disc 3 restored satisfactorily but the other asked and for and did not recognise disc 1. Disc 3 contains folder which expands down to a series of zip files plus autorun.inf, autorun.wbcat, MediaID.bin and restore.ico Discs 1 and 2 contain desktop.ini but properties show no free space In order to verify the above, I have tried repeating this morning but it failed on the third disc with message: The backup did not complete successfully – an error occurred. The following information might help you resolve the error: The volume for a file has been externally altered so that the opened file is no longer valid. (0x800703EE). Hope you can make sense of this. John
September 1st, 2010 1:40pm

Hi John, A couple of questions need your clarification: 1. Can the CD/DVD drive work properly on Windows Vista? 2. When did the issue begin to occur? Have any changes been made on the computer recently, such as an installation or upgrade? 3. Does the error message appear when copying all files or only certain files to the CD/DVD drive? Based on the current situation, I suggest trying the following steps to troubleshoot the issue: Method 1 If you have any third-party CD/DVD-burning software such as Naro or Roxio installed, please temporarily remove them from "Control Panel"-> "Programs and Features". Method 2 Delete Filter Drivers ==================== 1. Click Start, type regedit and press ENTER. 2. Navigate to the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} 3. Right click the {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} entry, choose "Export", select Desktop in the Save in box and type backup in File Name. Click Save. Please Note: The backup file is on the Desktop and named backup.reg. We can simply restore the registry by double-clicking the backup.reg file. 4. Highlight this key ({4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}), on the right pane, and then check if Upperfilters and Lowerfilters value are present. If so, please right click on the values and select "Delete" to remove them. 5. Restart the computer. Method 3 Reinstall the CD/DVD drive =============================== 1. Click Start, type devmgmt.msc and press Enter. 2. Expand DVD/CD-ROM drives. 3. Right-click the CD/DVD drive and click Uninstall. 4. Restart the computer. Then refer to the following article to burn files to a CD. http://www.vista4beginners.com/Burn-CDs-DVDs Please Note: Since the website is not hosted by Microsoft, the link may change without notice. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy of this information. Regards,Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.
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September 2nd, 2010 11:06am

Magon Thanks for your ideas. I decided to circumvent the problem by buying an external hard disc which is probably a lot easier and faster to use. The only disadvantage is that I can't easily post the backup to another town for storage but I am probably being paranoid because of my mainframe government disater recovery background; I'll ask a neighbour to keep the disc so if our house burns down, I am OK. We are not in an earthquake, flood or other naturall disaster zone! Regards John
September 6th, 2010 4:49pm

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