 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Restoring with Windows 98 Bryan Leech bryan@melbpc.org.au |
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0nce you have a backup of your files, or of your complete system (described in a previous article), you need to know how to restore them. A partial Restore, say of your data, is simple. But using the Windows 98 Restore program, a total Restore has a few quirks that can make it a slightly trickier process than the backup. At least there is no pre-planning - you have already chosen your backup method and medium - but there are other complications we will meet as we explore this procedure.
Restoring Onto Existing Files
From the Start menu, open Backup. You again have the option of using the Restore Wizard, or of performing the operation manually - a more flexible choice. If you wish to avoid the manual approach, select "Restore backed up files" and follow the Wizard. What follows below in describing the manual method will help you in some of your choices for using the Restore Wizard. If you wish to Restore manually, click on Close in the Wizard panel.
Now click on the Restore tab and answer No to the request to refresh the current view; we will do this in a minute. The screen has various areas that need attention before the restore process can be initiated.
First look to the "Restore from" area and select your backup source. It saves a step to already have the first piece of media in the device. If you choose to restore from a file, a further small window will appear into which you should enter the path and name of your backup job.
You may now click on Refresh. This allows Backup to build a catalog of the files available to be restored, an action that must be performed before you can restore anything. This catalog is a temporary disk file that lists the contents of one backup set - the set of files collected during one backup job It is possible to have more than one backup set. If your backup spans multiple media, you will be prompted to insert each in turn.
Under "What to restore" you may now choose the directories and/or files you wish to restore. The Window shows a directory tree rather like Windows Explorer, except that there are boxes that can be checked to affirm your choices for restoration. Under "Where to restore", for a partial restoration it is probably better to choose "Alternate location" as the original location may have been overwritten since the backup was made. For a full Restore, "Original location" is the preferred choice as all your old file are being overwritten.
As for the section "How to restore", accessed by pressing the Options button, it is generally best to go against the recommended option and select "Always replace..." as this will consequently replace any damaged or corrupted files with pristine ones. Remember, you are probably performing the Restore operation after something has gone wrong with your system and so the system is likely to contain damaged files.
Under the Report tab, select "Perform an unattended restore", otherwise the process will be halted at time when files that could not be properly backed up (index files which will be recreated when the relevant programs are used) are met. This means you would need to be sitting at the computer to click OK when these messages appear saves time and your patience to allow unattended restoration.
Finally comes the difficult choice - whether or not to restore the Registry. This option appears under the advanced tab currently displayed. For partial restore operations, not restoring the Registry is probably best unless you have any reason to believe it may be damaged. If you have made ANY changes to the system since your last backup, then definitely DO NOT restore the Registry when performing partial restorations as the copy of the Registry contained in your Backup files will not reflect the current status of your system. For full system restorations, you would choose to restore the Registry, as you want the Registry to reflect the status of your system at the time the backup was made.
You are now ready to perform the restore process, so click on Start and let it all happen. If your data are spread across multiple media, you will need to be on hand to swap media from time to time, otherwise the process is automated from here on.
Restoring Onto A Clean Drive
If your system was reduced to such a state that you decide it is better to start from scratch, reformat the hard drive and fully restore a total backup, the process will, of course, take longer. For a start, you must have a complete system backup (unless you have just the data backed up and want to reinstall all your programs one by one instead: this is a longer process!). You will also need that Windows Startup disk mentioned in my article on Backup procedures in this issue.
First, boot from the Startup disk in drive A choosing to start your CD-ROM. Then format your hard drive C by typing, at the DOS prompt, FORMAT C: /S and responding Y to the following query. It is always a brave step to take. Depending on the size and speed of your hard drive, this could take a little time.
Windows provides a system recovery routine, so insert your Windows 98 disk into your CD-ROM drive and switch your active drive to the CD-ROM. Remove the Startup disk from drive A. Next, type \TOOLS\SYSREC and press ENTER to get to the required sub-directory of the CD-ROM. Then type PCRESTOR and press ENTER. This commences a process in which a large chunk of Windows is installed to your hard drive. When the Setup process is complete, the recovery Wizard starts automatically. You can close this and proceed manually, similarly to the procedures described above, or you can allow the Wizard to follow its course. Select "Restore backed up files" and make the relevant choice from the "Restore from" drop down list. At this point, I prefer to click on Close and use the manual route.
From here, the process is similar to that described for partial restoring. although there are some differences:
- for "What to restore", check the drive or drives being restored. The default is for the most recent file versions to be restored
- for "Where to restore", you should now choose "Original location"
- for "How to restore", choose "Always replace"
As a rule, always make a new backup when you alter hardware, then you will not be faced with this problem.
Complete the Restore process as before and the job is done, but for one additional chore. You will be asked if you wish to import mail files. Answer YES, but then answer NO to the further request to import from Netscape (unless you are moving from Netscape to Outlook Express). Later, you will find that you need to restore all your ISP connection settings in Internet Explorer. For Melb PC members this just involves running the MPCInter program, electing to retain your mail settings.
Restoring Onto A New Drive
Recently, I upgraded my system and was faced with restoring to a new, and much more commodious hard drive. Having a recent backup, I though this should be straightforward. I was wrong!
For a start, the Startup disk will not work if no viable C drive exists (which is the case when you have an unformatted hard drive sitting in the system). So, while you still have the old computer system, you will need to have prepared an extended boot disk.
Format a floppy with system files, then copy FDISK.EXE and FORMAT.COM to this disk. Boot the computer containing the new hard drive with this disk. Run FDISK to set up any partitions on your hard drive and to create an active partition. Then use FORMAT to format the partitions you have created, not forgetting to use the /S option when formatting drive C, which must be bootable.
Now replace the floppy with the Windows Startup disk and reboot, choosing to activate your CD-ROM drive. The restoration process now follows that described in the last section, except DO NOT RESTORE THE HARDWARE PART OF THE REGISTRY unless the size of the hard drive is the only hardware change that has occurred. (This change is handled by the BIOS and is not reflected in the Registry).
In my system, there were wholesale changes in hardware, so I dutifully did the right thing with the Registry restoration and chose not to restore the Registry hardware information. However, when it came to installing the new hardware drivers, nothing would work: no fancy AGP 3D accelerator graphics card; no high-performance sound card; no scanner, etc.
It turned out, that much of my hardware information had been returned despite the correct handling of the Registry restoration, and this information all had to be deleted manually. This was done by booting in Safe mode, going to Start | Settings | Control Panel System I Device Manager, and physically deleting every device that did not actually exist. As a simple example, even though the BIOS knew that there was no 5.25 inch floppy drive, the Device Manager thought that one still existed. The system was then rebooted, and Windows 98 systematically found what hardware was actually there, and allowed me to install the relevant software drivers for the more specialised devices. Nevertheless, all was still not solved!
When I went into Control Panel I Add/Remove Programs, none of my programs were listed other than the newly installed software drivers for my hardware; the pre-existing Remove data had all been - removed. Reinstating that is another story. Let us hope that I was just unlucky and that this is not a common occurrence for other users.
Tidying Up Mail Accounts
Now that just about covers the essentials for various situations of the Restore process. Not every step has been mentioned as there is much that is obvious. However, just one matter occurs when you do a full restore to a clean or new hard drive, and that is the matter of mail accounts if you use Outlook Express. There is more than one way of handling this minor problem, but what follows is my preferred method.
In Windows 98, mail data are stored in a set of .dbx files in the subdirectory, \WINDOWS\APPLICATION DATA\ IDENTITIES\XXX\MICROSOFT\ OUTLOOK EXPRESS, where XXX is a long alphanumeric string arbitrarily concocted (as far as I can tell) by Windows. Windows 95 had a more indirect structure. When the full restoration process involves installing part of Windows, a new mail account is set up with a full set of blank .dbx files. When your old files are transferred in the restore process, you will find that your old mail account appears as well (I am assuming you do not have multiple mail accounts: if you do, you will already be familiar with methods of dealing with the appearance of an extra account). How do you tell which is which? It is easy.
Open Outlook Express and see if your mail files are there. They probably will not be, but do not worry. Now open Windows Explorer, and look in the IDENTITIES subdirectory described above. You will see two subdirectories of long alphanumeric names. One is the new subdirectory created with the fresh installation of Windows, and is the active one. The other is your old mail file. Look in the OUTLOOK EXPRESS subdirectory of each identity and find which contains the larger INBOX and SENT ITEMS .dbx files; this is your original mail collection. If you had created personalised folders, you would see them here too. Note the IDENTITIES names (the long alphanumeric string) for each identity and note which one is active and which is the one holding your original mail. Copy all the files from your original mail collection to the active sub-directory, overwriting all files. Open Outlook Express again and check that all your mail is now there. If we were not planning to clean up our directories this could have been achieved more easily within Outlook Express just by switching identities.
However, I do not like having clutter on my computer, so now go back to Windows Explorer, and delete the inactive XXX subdirectory, and the subdirectories contained beneath it, that held your original mail files. You should now have a clean installation, with no unnecessary clutter. It all seen complicated on first reading, but, with little practice the procedures becomes second nature. For most people, partial restorations will be most common. It only if the system gets completely wrecked that a major system restoration is needed. This is tedious, but not difficult.
There are various points in the processes described where some read may prefer different options or procedures to those that I have chosen, but what I have described is what I have found works best for me. I play around with my system a lot and have needed to make many backups and restores, mainly using tape. The above is the outcome of my experiences.
Reprinted from the March 2000 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
