I'm here because the thread I attempted to attach as a URL to this post provided the most information of near a hundred links I investigated to determine the problem at hand and it was recent.
As per that thread, at least to begin with, ntbackup.exe fails whether run from the GUI or the command line. There is evidence that a process starts but it fails almost immediately. There are no obvious errors and no event log entries.
All the suggestions in the attached thread have been attempted as well as some investigation of apparently pertinent registry keys for which I can find precious little specific information in the public domain.
Other potentially salient information:
- ntbackup.exe worked just fine when directed to backup to an external drive connected to a server on the same network.
- the external drive morphed into a doorstop and was replaced.
- in the process of all of this, the replacement external drive was connected to a different server and associated with a different drive letter on the machine for which backups are now no longer working
- also during this time, a multi-card reader was connected to the machine for which backups are no longer working. (It has since been disconnected)
- The backup software choice is not an option and I have little previous experience with it in deference to better products out there (this is not my machine we are trying to fix.)
I'm interested in all helpful comments but the questions foremost on my mind at this point are as follows:
1. Where the heck are the relevant registry keys documented? (I did try changing the "...\Ntbackup\Hardware\Logical Disk File" key values to a valid destination but that made no difference)
2. How do I get something more out of ntbackup either in terms of event log entries or, shock, horror, an actual error message? Registry key "...\Ntbackup\Logging\Log Level" perhaps? (Current value 4...whatever that means)
3. If all else fails, what do I need to do to get this crap working the way it was before? I know I can reinstall it but I don't know if I can/should change or delete the entire registry key root before I do so. Again, no information that I can find in the public domain.
Many thanks in advance for any help, particularly anything I haven't already read (saves time .)
As per that thread, at least to begin with, ntbackup.exe fails whether run from the GUI or the command line. There is evidence that a process starts but it fails almost immediately. There are no obvious errors and no event log entries.
All the suggestions in the attached thread have been attempted as well as some investigation of apparently pertinent registry keys for which I can find precious little specific information in the public domain.
Other potentially salient information:
- ntbackup.exe worked just fine when directed to backup to an external drive connected to a server on the same network.
- the external drive morphed into a doorstop and was replaced.
- in the process of all of this, the replacement external drive was connected to a different server and associated with a different drive letter on the machine for which backups are now no longer working
- also during this time, a multi-card reader was connected to the machine for which backups are no longer working. (It has since been disconnected)
- The backup software choice is not an option and I have little previous experience with it in deference to better products out there (this is not my machine we are trying to fix.)
I'm interested in all helpful comments but the questions foremost on my mind at this point are as follows:
1. Where the heck are the relevant registry keys documented? (I did try changing the "...\Ntbackup\Hardware\Logical Disk File" key values to a valid destination but that made no difference)
2. How do I get something more out of ntbackup either in terms of event log entries or, shock, horror, an actual error message? Registry key "...\Ntbackup\Logging\Log Level" perhaps? (Current value 4...whatever that means)
3. If all else fails, what do I need to do to get this crap working the way it was before? I know I can reinstall it but I don't know if I can/should change or delete the entire registry key root before I do so. Again, no information that I can find in the public domain.
Many thanks in advance for any help, particularly anything I haven't already read (saves time .)