Mounted Backup - User Profile Access

Help - CB
1

Hi

I am testing Comodo backup as a worst case scenario backup so I could restore files that are in obscure places.

I have taken a backup image of the system to a CBU, this stage was nice and easy, fantastic.
I then mounted it on the PC I took the image from and it worked great, lovely, quick access to files.

I then moved the backup to a different PC and then mounted the backup… looking fantastic, until I tried to access my User Profile to see My Documents, My Pictures, Fovorites, etc. As I clicked on my username it said it couldn;t continue due to security settings.
I tried to take ownership… I couldn’t
I set the mouted drive configuration to NOT read only and tried again, still security blocked me and it didn;t allow me to take ownership.

This causes a problem, How am I supposed to be able to restore files from my backup as the main restore I would ever want will usually be if my PC breaks and I need to re-install things, even if I have the same UserName it will still have a difference Security code, which will mean I won;t be able to access these files.

Before anyone says surely I’d restore my whole PC to as it was. Well here are 3 situations when this would easily not be the case.

  1. If my PC crashes so I need to re-install everything, it is far better (with time) to re-install the software and latest versions from scratch (a good clean up) to keep the PC optimised ( a very good excuse when PC breaks)
  2. The above might be planned, a good wipe of everything, a fresh install of windows and only the used applications (rather than installed and uninstalled apps (leaving rubbish behind))
  3. Upgrading the PC OS, if I was to go from Windows 7 to Windows 8 it would be far better to do a fresh install rather than an upgrade.

Even through the Restore option it seems to want to do a partition restore i.e. restore all of the C backup to a C restore, rather than being able to restore all files and folders to a sub folder.

Finally before anyone says then just do a file and folder backup - the whole reason of doing a Partition backup makes sure that mothing is missed. If you do a file and folder backup, you may miss a file you need saved in an obscure location (may be not by any intention of your own, how many of you ensure your custom.dic file is backed up on a file backup, or any files from badly written applications that save certain files in program files etc.,) the idea of the system backup being to make sure you have everything …

Maybe I’ve missed something but I;ve been looking at this for 3 hours now and can;t see how to gain access to that data without restoring the system of my laptop and overwritting the system of my desktop.

Any help would be greatly appreciated
Thanks
Tris

2

I realize this is an old thread, but was searching for the same thing and wanted to know if you ever figured it out.
Thanks

3

Hi

Unfortunately Comodo didn’t seem to allow you to browse other profiles securely I hunted for other software

I found an excellent piece called Macrium Reflect
They give a free personal use that allows you to backup and then on any PC with it installed you can browse the backup (single file) and you can assign administrator rights to view everything and go everywhere.
The paid for version also allows you to create a Linux or Windows PE CD version… so you can backup a HDD that wont boot and with no need to install the Full Version on the PC. This is very useful… means I can backup all files on a broken windows install and do a new install fresh knowing I have all the files (although watch out for SSD Caching used on some laptops can stop the HDD being viewable as needs extra drivers)

This is know in my arsenal for PC rebuilds to make sure no files are lost and to allow me to have a single file image of the hard drive that can be mounted and accessed so easily