restore SS backup to Vista over 3x DVDs

[bobman]

hi there, major problems with my back up and restore...

Just bought a new laptop with Vista, plus a new Sony Walkman N808 which shipped with SS4.3. Having read all the instructions to back up my old database on my old laptop, I have hit trouble -

- backed up database (about 10GB) to 3x DVDs from my old laptop running XP and SS 3.1. No problems at all.

- loaded SS 4.3 onto the new laptop running Vista. No problem again.

- opened SS4.3 on the new laptop and followed the restore instructions, all this went fine, it asked for the first backup DVD, it checked with the server for authentication and that was fine, and the process looked as though it had worked perfectly.

- however, at no stage did it give me any option to restore DVDs 2 and 3, so I had a look in SS and the whole library was mapped out and appeared to present as it should be, but most of the tracks 'couldn't be found' - which makes sense, considering 2 of the disks hadn't been restored.

- I tried going through the restore again, starting with disk 2 - but it wouldn't let me, saying that I need to start with disk 1.

- I even tried restoring from disk 1 again, and it all went fine again - working perfectly, but no mention of inserting disks 2 and 3.

So here I am, pretty stuck and no idea what to try next. Please can someone help - I have a new laptop and new N808 Walkman that I can't use!

cheers

[juli_]

- I even tried restoring from disk 1 again, and it all went fine again - working perfectly, but no mention of inserting disks 2 and 3.

So here I am, pretty stuck and no idea what to try next. Please can someone help - I have a new laptop and new N808 Walkman that I can't use!

I did a Google search to try and help you but came up with nothing!! It makes no sense why the restore feature would happily restore one disk - and reject the rest. Where's the logic in that?

I take it you hadn't lost your connection to the internet when you went to restore the second disk? Just a shot in the dark!

Anyway, sorry I couldn't be of any help. I just hope one of the more informed members can suggest something.

It would be awful if you lost your music after having used the backup and restore exactly the way SS wants.

It might also be an idea to call tech support and ask for advice.

[bobman]

thanks Juli, it's pretty annoying! it's as if, for whatever reason, there's nothing at the end of DVD disk 1 to tell SS's restore wizard to restore DVD disk 2 next; it just says it has completed the restore and to click finish. I even tried replacing DVD1 with the second one before clicking 'finish', but that made no difference.

the weird thing is that, when I insert disk 1, the restore wizard recognises that the full restored library is about 10GB. Also, throughout the restore of disk 1, the progress bar says how long has elapsed out of a total of about 30mins, and disk one says it's complete at around 14mins (just as you might expect: i.e. 14mins being just under 50% of the 30mins, just as the 4.7GB capacity DVD would be just under 50% of the 10GB library), so the wizard clearly recognises that there's more to come.

the one last thing i can think to try is to upgrade my old laptop from SS3.1 to 4.3 and start the back up again from scratch. No idea if/why they might make a difference, but that's all I can think of.

had a quick look for a support line to call - would this be the one you meant?

http://www.sony.co.uk/view/ShowArticle.act...;site=odw_en_GB

0800 169 5263 - but only open Mon-Fri, grrrrr!

thanks again.

[juli_]

It's really puzzling. If SS correctly recognises the size of your library from the backup tool, then why isn't it giving you the option to insert Disk 2? It must know that 10GB hasn't been fully restored??

As for uprading to SS 4.3, it's worth a shot I guess. When I did my most recent backup, I had 4.3 installed on my XP laptop. I backed up the library to an external hard drive, put 4.3 on my new Vista laptop, and restored the library onto it from the hard drive. The only differences I can see there, are: I used the same version of SS to back up and restore - and I restored from an external drive instead of a DVD.

I'm not certain if the SS version is relevant or not (someone else please??) - but it's illogical why SS should be unable to recognise the other disks. It would make more sense if none of them were recognised.

Did you notice if the backup tool had settings you could change? ie; a facility to restore from multi disks rather than just a single disk? I've never checked if it has settings on not - maybe it doesn't.

All the same - it's very weird.

I'll have a look in the SS help (oh, SS help, hahahahahaha!!) and see if I can catch something remotely related.

If I do, I'll tell you asap!

would this be the one you meant?

http://www.sony.co.uk/view/ShowArticle.act...;site=odw_en_GB

0800 169 5263 - but only open Mon-Fri, grrrrr! thanks again.

That looks like the number I called when my first backup failed many moons ago. I hadn't 'authenticated' the database I don't think (was still very new to SS and didn't know what it even meant!). But they did help me. If the first person can't help you, ask to speak to someone else. Don't give up until someone can explain why this happened - and how to fix it AND prevent it happening again.

[juli_]

The only thing of any minute relevance in the SS help was this:

Q. When using removable media as backup media, does the removable media have to be formatted beforehand?

A. Yes. Format the removable media before you start the backup.

Silly question, but if the second 2 discs weren't formatted - SS wouldn't have been able to back up the library in the first place would it?

[bobman]

thanks for all your help, Juli. On the basis that I can't call Sony until Monday, and this will drive me mad until then, I think I'll try installing SS4.3 on the old laptop and starting again. Although I think I remember reading from the help section that I can't use media that's been used before (re-writable or not) for some reason - so that's another tenner for more DVDs!

I certainly haven't noticed any settings that might affect things...

As for formatting, I was never prompted to format - to be honest, I'm not exactly sure what 'formating' of brand new blank disks means - but I suppose it could be the problem? To back up the laptop, I downloaded some free DVD burning software which is probably fairly rudimentary (http://www.burnworld.com/burnoncddvd/) so who knows if the problem springs from here?

[juli_]

I think I'll try installing SS4.3 on the old laptop and starting again.

Well, anything is worth a shot. Remember to let us know if it worked!

As for formatting, I was never prompted to format - to be honest, I'm not exactly sure what 'formating' of brand new blank disks means

I don't understand the format thing either. Each time I put a brand new blank DVD in my Sony DVD recorder - it has to 'format' it first.

I was under the impression that if it's blank - what's to format??

But your issue was that the first disc went through with no problems - and SS lulled you into a false sense of security by pretending it had completed the resotr when it hadn't. Is there anything else you can back up to?

Edited January 26, 2008 by juli

[bobman]

okay Juli, thought you were confused before? read on...!

just having a play with Vista organising other non-music files I've been transfering over on a 1GB USB, and I happened upon my music library, exactly where I'd saved it, in my music folder. So far, so sensible. I then noticed each music file (i.e. album) had been imported onto the new laptop in triplicate. Bit annoying, as I assumed each time I'd tried to import it had overwritten the previous attempt. But logical enough considering I'd had three goes.

Then I noticed that all of the first imported files were empty (as I thought they were - hence tracks being visible to SS, but not playable), but some of the second imports contained the tracks, and then ALL of the third versions contained tracks! I do not get it!

On further inspection, nothing at all was imported first time. Second time imported only the files containing MP3s, and third time reimported MP3 files and also imported ATRAC ones.

other odd things include that some of my playlists have seemingly been imported 4/5 times, with the tracklist being split over versions 4 and 5. I don't mind this too much; i half expect SS to get confused by tracks taken from albums within the library. Also, I've noticed that it's imported my albums starting with the oldest first.

So, I could wade through the folder, delete versions 1 and 2 of everything (for neatness, if nothing else) and that would leave me with a working library of all of my oldest music up to a certain point. Then hope Sony can help me restore DVDs 2 and 3.

Or, on the basis that each restore appears to have been more 'successful' than the last, I could delete the lot and start again (not much logic in that, but logic doesn't appear to be a factor!).

all very weird. Got a bad feeling that Sony are going to be stumped too...

sorry for the mini-essay!

[bobman]

sorry, didn't answer your question - no is the answer, nothing else to back-up to.

That said, I think I'll buy an external disk drive. never really backedup anything before, so always assumed it meant creating a library of DVDs. If i get a 250GB drive for 60 quid or so, I can regularly back-up the valuable stuff - photos, music etc - without messing around with removable media.

and presumably this will solve my SS issue... fingers crossed.

off to amazon for me!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Seagate-FREEAGENT-...5902&sr=8-7

will report back. thanks again for helping

[juli_]

sorry, didn't answer your question - no is the answer, nothing else to back-up to.

That said, I think I'll buy an external disk drive. never really backedup anything before, so always assumed it meant creating a library of DVDs.

That's a really good idea. I bought mine from Amazon a year ago and didn't regret it for a second. Before that I actually backed up to CD - can you believe it? How primitive!

It's so easy to back up the library to an external hard drive, although I never use the old backup. I always make a fresh backup (since you can't 'add' folders, you have to back up the entire library every time.

But it's really fast. It takes me about 10 minutes to back up 10GB, so it's no problem at all.

Re: your issues with the triplicate folders, how weird, and why why why?

Anyway, don't forget to say how you get on tomorrow.

P.S You haven't actually lost any of your music have you? It's all still in the SS library?

If so, just buy the hard drive and be done with it. I use mine mainly for music and photos - so easy and not stressful at all.

[bobman]

as I've ordered the HDD, I think I'll skip the adventure in call-centre hell for today. pretty hopefull the disk will fix my issues, so I'll see how I get on with it, and then call Sony if I'm still having issues...

will report back soon. And no, nothing lost so far. that would have made me VERY grumpy!

btw presume that 10m / 10GB transfer speed is a stansard HDD connecting via USB? (or techies may tell me we're on USB2 - which is probably faster!)

[juli_]

btw presume that 10m / 10GB transfer speed is a stansard HDD connecting via USB? (or techies may tell me we're on USB2 - which is probably faster!)

I've got the Western Digital 250 GB external hard drive and I connect it to my Vista HP laptop, so I assume it's on USB2.

Certainly, I've never had cause to complain about transfer speeds.

Probably a good decision to forget about tech support for now, especially as you haven't lost any music. I'd assumed you needed to recover the lost back up because most of your music had vanished.

As you still have it all (thank goodness) - the easiest route is an external hard drive.

[bobman]

sorry about the delay there...! but all sorted now thanks, the back up on the Seagate external disk went fine. Thanks for all your help... and a big PHEW all round!

really enjoying the new MP3 player - so much more tricks that the old one - playlists, album art, browsing by genre etc. And I've discovered the joy of shuffle!

only one niggle really, not sure whether/how I can automatically assign album cover artwork when I import into SS? any ideas? at the moment, it automatically finds it, but after the import I have to go and find it again and drag onto the album file...

cheers