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» Jerry Lopper - Recover bkf files

My most recent backup will not restore. I use NTbackup on Windows XP. I've restored files in the past without problems, but my last backup won't restore with this error message:
The backup file contains unrecognized data and cannot be used.

I've tried three free programs advertised to solve this problem but non are able to read the files. They are "Repair my backup", "Disk Investigator", and "Nucleus Kernel BKF Recovery".

I appear to be having some hard drive problems at the same time, getting a caution message at boot-up that my drive is operating out of specifications.

Can you give me any advice?

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» khitan - Recover bkf files

In response to Recover bkf files posted by coachjerry:

coachjerry,
it is possible that with your harddrive "operating out of specifications" you may have created a corrupt .bkf. If that happened then your chances of recovering the file is low at best.

Im assuming several things here:
1) you are not creating or restoring a .bkf file across the network, the file was created on this machine and resides on this machine and you are trying to restore it on this machine.

2) that nothing has changed on the system or with the account you are using to restore from, since the last time you successfully did a restore.

3) you are trying to restore from a file that is on the harddrive and not on some other form of media.

If Im incorrect in those assumptions let me know. That having been said, I would run diagnostics on the harddrive to confirm that there really is an issue. If there is, then you have a bigger problem than the backup issue. If you can tell me the manufacturer and model of harddrive you have I can help you get the proper diagnostics.

The programs you have tried so far are the ones I would have tried. Would I be correct in assuming that you can't just restore from an earlier backup?

-- posted by khitan

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» Jerry Lopper - Recover bkf files

In response to Recover bkf files posted by khitan:

The bkf file that I can't read is on a DVD. The bkf file that resided on the hard drive is gone...long story, but in trying to get past a never-ending blue screen of death I re-loaded XP and in doing so formatted the hard drive. I was counting on having my DVD copy of the backup to restore my critical files.

I was able to restore an earlier bkf which is smaller and was on a CD, but there's lots of stuff I'm still missing that's on the DVD backup.

The hard drive is a WDC WD400BB-75CAA0 40GB drive.

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» khitan - Recover bkf files

In response to Recover bkf files posted by coachjerry:

This is a link to a daignostic tool for that harddrive http://support.wdc.com/download/index.as... .

Since you have the file on DVD I would say, copy it to the harddrive and then try to restore it. However, because of the way that NTBackup works, if the harddrive has physical problems its possible that the file itself is corrupt.

Most of the programs that claim to repair .bkf files are really just looking at the index of the file, if it is corrupt they will repair it. If the backup file itself is corrupt and its not just the index then nothing can fix them.

Run the diagnostic and let me know the results.

-- posted by khitan

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» Jerry Lopper - Recover bkf files

In response to Recover bkf files posted by khitan:

Hi Michael

I couldn't copy the file to my hard drive. I got read errors. When I ran the diagnostic you recommended it failed almost immediately with read errors. So it appears my drive is suffering.
But I still have hopes of getting stuff off of the DVD backup file.

I found a program called ntbkup that seems to be able to pull some data off the DVD, but it's all command line oriented and I'm having trouble getting re-acquainted with that.

The data spews out to the screen and I can't capture it by redirecting with > to a file, nor can I pipe it to more.

Do you have any experience with this program? It's at www.fpns.net/willy/msbackup.htm

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» khitan - Recover bkf files

In response to Recover bkf files posted by coachjerry:

I dont have any experience with that particlular program. I am working with it now to see if I can find a reason for it doing that. Ill get back with you as soon as I can.

-- posted by khitan

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» Jerry Lopper - Recover bkf files

In response to Recover bkf files posted by khitan:

Thanks, I sure appreciate your help.

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