Windows 7 clean install
Comodo Backup 4.2.2.15
THE SHORT STORY
Windows got corrupted so I did a clean install.
I installed Comodo again and I want to use it to restore a 39 GB files-backup.cbu
After a long day of failed restore attempts I figured out how to NOT select several items in the backup file so that the restore wouldn’t error out.
So I started the restore and I’ve been watching it for four hours and it got to 15% and stopped. It didn’t stop, pause or abort–it just is not doing a ■■■■ thing.
I get a Comodo pop up window that tells me: (i) Please provide path for chunk: files-backup.cbu"
WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?
There is an [ OK ] button as the only option. There’s no path browse option.
Am I on Candid Camera?
So i click OK.
And…? Now Commode Backup returns me to the first screen where my original backup file is located.
okay, now what? I can see it still is 15% done? … and?
I select the backup file and it tells me a restore is already in process.
I select ANY file location and it tells me invalid file location. You know what? When you give me a useless non-message message like that, tell me WHAT A VALID FILE LOCATION MIGHT BE!!!
So I am in a loop AGAIN.
I can click Abort and it will ask me, “Hey, are you sure you want to abort?” NO. I want the ■■■■ thing to continue! I can click Pause and it will pause (as if it wasn’t paused already), and a message will appear where the files should be restoring, and the message says, “The restore process has been paused by user.” Then I can click resume and I get the very handy message, “The restore process has been resumed by user.”
BUT IT AIN’T DOING ANYTHING!
BTW During the restore that started to work, Comodo Backup gives this message many times, "Processing reparse item failed. Skipping…:
What? What failed? Why is it skipping? So will I not have a complete restore now? Why does it give this engineer/developer/programmer message instead of something that makes sense to the end users?
THE LONG STORY
After a session with Comodo chat I was advised to pay $ 39.99 and install the Comodo security product just to get support for “Free” Comodo Backup. There is no information online for these errors (I got 50 something and 64 and a 40 something error today trying to restore a file that backed up really easily)–only lists of them. The errors included things like I need to have Admin permission (TIP: I AM THE ONLY USER ON MY MACHINE AND I"M THE ADMIN). And other errors included things like the files are in use (in the target directory). Yeah, if I’m restoring files that used to be there some of them are probably in use–don’t give me an error–make it restore around this issue.
In the first session Patrick asked me to accept a remote connection and the first thing he did was NOT tell me what he was going to do and he closed my web browser with lots of tabs open to pages where I was working. I disconnected my Wifi before he uninstalled Windows. Then I reconnected, reconnected the session with him and asked him why he closed my browser. Patrick’s answer: “So I could access the desktop.” I’m not kidding. Patrick didn’t know that you can minimize a browser and get to the desktop.
I said goodbye to wonder boy and disconnected and reconnected. Apparently GeekBuddy can only give you help if you give them control of your machine. But they didn’t wire in a way to talk to your new buddy so you have to watch them as they mouse around and do what they do wasting your time.
In the middle of the next Geekbuddy session I cut in and fought for control of the mouse so I could show the nice (actually very nice and helpful) Buddy where to click to reveal hidden system files. I thanked him and figured out how to proced on my own.
And now I find myself five or six hours later with Comodo Backup just sitting and using almost no processor and stuk at 15% doing nothing.
So what are my options?
Google? No. No answers about this one.
GeekBuddy? Hmmmmn… give another 13 year old a shot at killing another hour while they click around on my machine?
I’m not going to waste the rest of my evening with GeekBuddy. I’m aborting the “restore” and starting over again. I only hope it won’t choke when it finds that some of the files have already been restored, as in, “Comodo Backup cannot restore because files already exist in the target location,” or something like that. I doubt it has the smarts to ask if I want to overwrite filed. I REALLY doubt it from my experience so far.
In fact, I’m going to do a preventative work around. I’m going to restore only one folder at a time and I’m going to NOT restore it to the default location.
If you’re reading this and considering using Commode “Free” Backup I’d steer you away from it. There may be answers online for the problems you’ll have with it, but I can’t find any for these issues.
Chris
BTW I felt happy when I first installed Comodo backup and saved the files, it was fast, simple and it gave me (false) confidence–but now after a long day lost I’m mad as hell that it won’t restore what it so easily backed up.