Nero BackItUp11 Log and Restore

[pjfitzgerald]

I have recently upgraded from an older Nero version (6, I think) to 11 as I am now using a laptop with Windows 7 Home Premium.

I use BackItUp for a backup set that is currently about 360GB in size, backing up to external hard drives. I use different backup sets (containing the same files) for each external drive and all seems to work well with the old Nero version I was using. My only gripe with the old version is that a full backup takes about 40 hours to run but this is not a massive problem as I only run a full backup every three months or so. In between these, I run differential backups based on the same backup set.

Since upgrading to version 11, I have found two issues with BackItUp.

On both versions, there is a setting to specify the level of logging a backup - either as a summary or a detailed log that lists all files. I use the latter as I find it very useful. Again, this works well with my old version. However, I cannot do this with Nero 11. There is an option to include the log as part of the backup and if I select this option, I cannot find the log. What happens to it? If I do not select the option, I can save the log where I choose (as I did with the old version), but the so-called detailed log no longer lists all the files. Am I doing something wrong or is this a bug?

The second problem is more serious as I cannot restore any files. I encrypt my backups and I wonder if this is the cause. (Although encryption has never stopped me from restoring files in the old version!) I can select the files I want restored - I tested the restore process by moving one random file and trying to restore it. The process got as far as the BackItUp engine starting and the program crashes at this point every time. I wonder if this is due to the size of the backup.

I have tried logging this on the Nero support page but only get emails back saying that they cannot understand the problem!

Has anyone else had these issues - and how did you get round them?

Thanks in anticipation.

[wither]

I'm not sure what type of backup you made- file backup, drive backup, etc.

When you tried to restore the single file, did you enter your encryption password?

I don't mean by the Nero support page. Did you go to the standard tech support form and send the problem to them? If so, you should have received a automated response. Subsequently, you should have gotten an e-mail from tech support in regards to your problem. Did you get this? If so, what did it say?

[pjfitzgerald]

Thanks for replying.

It is a file backup I am making.

I have to enter the encryption password before I can select the file(s) I need to restore - so yes, I am entering the password correctly. The restore process always fails at the same point after selecting the file(s) when the BackItUp engine itself starts running.

And yes, I did send the problem to Nero tech support using the form and I did get an automated email as you described. This was followed by another email from support saying that they could not understand the problem. Since I cannot put it in English that is any plainer than the form I sent in, I have not sent anything since then, hence trying the forum to see if anyone else has had the same issue before I try support again.

[adrianob2]

Hi pjfitzgerald,

yes you're right: in Nero 11 the detailed log of file backup is a copy of summary log. I ask for the reason of this difference from previous versions (till Nero 10), the answer was: "it's a design choice, due to problems that some user had, doing very big backups."
I said that this has not been a correct choice, but anyway...

Regarding restore problems: I never used encrypted backup, so I have no experience.

Regards
Adriano

[wither]

As I asked, what exactly did tech support say?

Also, is the file you tried to restore a personal file or a system file?

When Backitup crashed, was there any error message?

The only thing I can think of is to try and run Backitup as the Administrator. You can select this in the properties of the desktop shortcut or the .exe file.

[pjfitzgerald]

Sorry I have not been on here during the week.

Adriano - thanks for your reply. TBH, I had suspected as much so it is good to get confirmation. On a similar subject, I notice that some of the functionality that was present in the old version of Recode that I had has also been removed from version 11 - but I don't think I would have much chance of getting support to understand a query based on this!

Wither - Everything in the backup is personal files. There is no Nero-generated error message - only the standard Windows dialog that appears when a program crashes and which says that Nero BackItUp has stopped working and that Windows is trying to find a solution to the problem. There is only one account on the PC, therefore the program is running with full admin rights.

One thing I have discovered during the past week is that the program will handle smaller backups - I made a smaller backup of different files - about 100GB in size - to the same external drive and under the same conditions, encrypted it in the same way and successfully restored a file. This suggests to me that BackItUp 11 is just not up to the job.

Unfortunately I cannot give you tech support's actual words as I did not keep the email. The gist was that they did not understand what the problem was and asked for a clearer explanation - perhaps their English is not very good. As I cannot explain the problem any more simply than I already had, I have as good as given up with version 11 and only use any part of it where my previous version does not work. At least I know I can rely on the old version of BackItUp - it's just lucky that I keep the last three full backups of my files!

Once again, thanks for replying - much appreciated.

Kind regards

Peter

[wither]

If you are running Vista or Win 7, the administrator is not active just because you have only one user account. "Run as administrator" gives you some additional rights. Thus, I recommend you give it a try.

I think the fact that it worked with smaller files is worthy of bringing to tech support's attention. Backitup should work as advertised and, if there are problems, they won't get fixed unless people, like yourself, persist in obtaining a resolution to a problem. Thus, I encourage you to continue working with tech support. I have my own issue with Backitup which I plan to bring to their attention next week.