Tales from the toolroom - fun with backups

AlbertLionheart

Posts: 1,997   +3
It all started when the NAS drive failed. This was replaced under warranty by Freecom but of course the replacement came back with a new drive in it and our backup files were lost. Being a good scout and thinking ahead I had lent the user a little 20Gb 2.5" drive in an external USB caddy to keep him going.
When I reconnected the replacement NAS drive and set up up with the same mapped drive letter I blithely thought that it would work - not a chance!
The first backup run worked fine but the second incremental backup fell over with a message saying that ""Backup Monitor. The job failed to load due to naming or permission errors. Please check that the job exists with the created name and of your account settings."
Hmm - thinks: the drive is new and will accept not only the first backup in a set but also any files copied to it via Windows Explorer. The software might be at fault so I removed it and reinstalled it. I also sent a message to Genie-Backup telling them of the fault - they were singularly useless and failed to respond despite several reminders. Anyway, after a reinstall I tried again but no improvement. I tried the uninstall routine using Revo-Uninstaller which found a whole load of stuff in the registry that should have been cleared away but wasn't - tried again but still no good.
Reinstalled the backup software again and also remapped the drive to a different drive letter - still no good.
This is really beginning to hack me off, especially as it had got to the point of my professional reputation being at risk on this one, and I had stopped the charges clock at 2 hours. Bear in mind that every time I reinstall the software and run a backup it takes at least 45 mins.
Sorry if I am beginning to ramble, but we will get there soon. I did fix it in the end. Eventually.
Having checked as best as I could that all the hardware was OK and that the software was the latest edition despite the stunning silence from Genie, I tried again and this time instead of hitting the backup with a full set of files I added a few folders at a time before running the incremental backup. It kept working right up until it fell over when backing up the (Genie) preselected set of Windows Explorer files. Woops - there it goes - take them off the backup file list and everything is hunky dory. Yippee!
Moral - the first: you can go on wasting time flogging a dead horse to the point of stupidity
Moral - the second: it is not always the thing under your nose that is the problem
 
We seem to be getting a large amount of these Tales from the toolroom
Where is this "toolroom" anyway? I'm picturing this big shed full of thousands of story tales :D

In line with thread, yes make sure you do backups ;)
 
I write these little tales occasionally and they are all based on the various bits of work I get coming into my small IT support business. They are all true and when posted on other forums they are generally well received as providing some education and also perhaps some light entertainment.
One forum liked them so much that it has provided a special thread for them.
If you imply that they are not welcome on Techspot please say so and I will stop posting them.
 
Not at all
I just noticed that they seem to be getting more and more regular
Anyway, yes they are interesting, I have about a thousand stories myself :)
Everyone giving a new and enlightened aspect on servicing with the customer.

Oh, backup regularly :D
 
I worked for a manufacturing company that paid a young lady several hours' overtime once a week to run a full back-up of the manufacturing and accounting file server. Long story short, she was starting the backup but never bothered to load the subsequent tapes, so when they had a failure and went to restore from tape, they had half a dozen copies of the operating system and practically nothing else. Luckily the computer consultant had previously made a full backup when installing a software update, but they still had to re-enter 2 1/2 months' worth of manufacturing inventory control and accounting data. Luckier still, the engineering server was a different computer; those backups (a full thirteen tapes when I left) I had done personally, including periodically renaming and restoring folders to test the system.

So sometimes you think backups are being done - but unless you do them or test them you're never really sure.

EDIT: I like the tales from the toolroom, personally.
 
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