Test Build of Rollback 9.0 was not Good!

[backupordie]

The DevTeam was kind enough to send me a test build
of Rollback. My first attempt after I purchased the app
had problems. Unfortunately, the test build was a train
wreck!

There is only one thing that really matters with registry
cleaners or apps like Rollback that can easily hose your
system. Did you make a fresh image backup before installing
or using any app that might damage your system, and are
you sure that your boot cd or usb stick can successfully
access an external hard drive where your backups are
stored.

The DevTeam sent me a test build several weeks ago. It
was only yesterday that I had a chance to try it. I'm a
partner in a small business. I've been away from home for
many days making our clients happy.

I want the DevTeam and all you forum members to understand
that I very much want this app to work perfectly! I was a GoBack
addict for many years. When GoBack faded away I was more
than happy to find Rollback, which I thought would be an easy
replacement for GoBack.

Here is part of an email I sent to the DevTeam:


My friends and business associates think I'm a little nuts for constantly
reminding them to make multiple image backups several times each
day. I'm glad I followed my own advice. This test build of Rollback
hosed my system! I had created a fresh image minutes before I ran
the install, so there was no problem restoring the system.

During the install a 16 bit MS-DOS box appeared on the screen, along
with a complex error message. I should have taken a screen shot of
the error message, but I didn't. The error box contained a lengthy
alphanumeric string with two buttons - "Close" and "Ignore." That
incredibly weird DOS box was blank. I'm using the 32 bit version of
XP Pro_SP3. I've installed many thousands of apps over the years.
This one wins the prize for illogical and baffling problems!

When the system rebooted that "magic data transfer" appeared
again, like it did with the previous version. The system would not
continue booting so I hit the reset button. After XP loaded that DOS
box and the error message popped up again. I immediately checked
the start menu. Sure enough, there were several critical system items
missing from the menu like "shutdown" and "logoff."

Within seconds of seeing this mess, I plugged in my BartPE USB stick
and rebooted. I restored the system using the Acronis True Image
plugin for BartPE.

Hey guys, this game is too dangerous to continuing playing. I hope
you agree. I suppose you could send me another "fixed" version
of this app. I could always restore the system again if something
goes wrong!


Most software can fail and not damage your system. Backup and
cleaner apps don't have that luxury. What else is there to say?

[backupordie]

Here is the reply from Horizon:

Our developers had a discussion about this issue and then they
came back and told me that they think this Magic data transfer
issue is not only caused by Rollback. There should be some
program that has conflict with Rollback. And that error message
"Magic data transfer" is not our error message. Now the only
way out is to rebuild this PC, to make a clean install of your
windows, then reinstall Rollback onto your PC.

WOW! I can't imagine dumping a perfectly good system just to
find out if a freshly installed copy of XP would fix the problems
I'm having with Rollback. There could just as easily be a hardware
conflict that only rears its ugly head when I attempt to install
Rollback.

If someone would pay me the hourly rate I charge my clients I might
consider starting from zero and install XP fresh. No single app ever
created is worth hundreds of hours of my time!

[nexstar]

Sorry to hear about your problems! At least the experience has confirmed that you are right to keep on preaching about backups .

I'm guessing that you had the same problem installing the demo and that's why they sent you the test version? I can understand your reluctance to spend a lot of time rebuilding the system as I know how long this can take and, if it is a software conflict, then you could just end up in the same situation again having rebuilt it as it was before.

Being a bit of a geek, I tend to try to track these things down and I think that the first thing I'd try is, using a utility, looking for the error message which came up by searching within all files (including system and hidden files) as, if it's not a Rollback error, then it is most likely a conflict with another driver or application. Of course, the message may not be stored in text form, in which case nothing will be found but it is a relatively quick and painless way of possibly finding the culprit.

Graham

[backupordie]

Thank you Graham!

I don't know anything about the folks at Horizon, but what
I discovered about this problem totally contradicts the reply
I received! I wish I had remained blissfully ignorant about this
error with Rollback. Now, I'll never trust anything these guys
say to their customers.


Here is the email I just sent to Horizon support:

The following statement is simply not correct!

"And that error message "Magic data transfer" is not
our error message."

Magic Data or Magic Data Error is listed three times in
your shield.dat file. The attached file was converted to
a Word document. I highlighted the three "magic data"
error lines in red.

I have an excellent freeware app called "Seeker."

Here is the URL:

Seeker: Fast advanced file search and replace utility (v3.10.0.1)

Seeker can find any word(s) inside a file. I had Seeker
scan all the files on my system. It did not find a single
instance of "magic data" in any of the XP files or the
installed programs.

I extracted the Rollback Rx files. In a few seconds it
found "magic data error" listed three times in the
shield.dat file.

The most important of the three Seeker found says:

Magic data error 0x%x

The error line that appeared after installing Rollback and
rebooting displayed "0x%x" after "magic data."

Obviously, this error line is very much part of the shield.dat
file text.

I'm an advanced pc user, but I'm certainly not a skilled
programmer like your DevTeam! If I'm able to easily
find this text with a simple app like Seeker, how can
you possibly tell me that this error line "is not our error
message?"


I don't have to upload that Word document if anyone wants
to see the "magic data error" text for themselves.

Simply extract the files from the Rollback 9.0 copy you
downloaded. Open shield.dat with a good text editor and
select "find" from the menu. Search for "magic data." It's
listed three times, as I said in my email to Horizon.

There must be a complete disconnect between the folks
who reply to us and the Horizon programmers. What other
explanation could there be when they tell me this "magic data"
error message has nothing to do with Rollback?

[nexstar]

Originally Posted by backupordie

Magic Data or Magic Data Error is listed three times in
your shield.dat file. The attached file was converted to
a Word document. I highlighted the three "magic data"
error lines in red.

I think that's a bit of an 'oops' moment . I'm glad you found it but it is a bit disappointing to have been so close to 'home'! I think that it is not always appreciated at the other end of the keyboard that 'misleading' information can involve the end user in hours of unnecessary investigation. I've experienced this myself many times, not with HDS, but it can be very frustrating.

No sensible end user expects software to be 100% bug-free and there is always the possibility of some strange conflict with another application which can come about. But the support need to work with the end user (who is often prepared to put in a considerable effort to track down issues) so that neither waste time on 'red herrings'.

In fairness to HDS, I have always found them to be pro-active in trying to resolve problems (as witnessed by the test build they sent to you) and I suspect that this may have been a front-line member of support not taking the time to check what they were actually telling you as I would hope that the actual development team would recognise one of their own error messages.

If you persevere then I hope you/they manage to find the problem as , when it does what it is designed to do, Eaz-Fix/RollBack can be a life-saving application in itself.

Graham

[backupordie]

You're obviously a bright guy, Graham.

By any chance are you a technical writer for any trade publications?
I'm asking because many years ago I was a regular contributor
to several electronics magazines. It paid lousy, but it certainly
was a lot of fun!

As I get older I find that I have less patience for stupid mistakes,
including the ones I make myself.

I can see the that HDS makes a real effort to help their customers.
Frankly, when I received a test build of Rollback I was surprised, to
say the least! Most software or hardware companies don't even
bother replying to their customers emails. I stopped phoning or
emailing tech support departments years ago, because it's usually
a waste of time.

I suppose I would rather not receive any reply to my query, unless the
person replying knows something about the subject.

Thanks again, Graham.

[Dallion]

Nightmare!! Good job you are one of the few people that have a usable backup/restore system.

But have you considered that your backup solution might actually be the cause of the problem?

Do you know at what point during the boot process your PC accesses the boot (MBR) record ? Is that when you get the message?
As I'm sure you know, RB modifies the MBR.
I notice that Acronis True Image Home 2009 contains the utility Acronis Startup Recovery Manager
"Boot your computer after a failure to start the recovery process simply by selecting the F11 key, even if your operating system has failed."
To do this it probably needs to modify the MBR, especially if the dual boot option is used.

I found the following comment at http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=233711

"The Acronis MBR contains a few hundred bytes of code that attempts a jump to the Acronis Secure Zone when the PC is booted. From there, if successful, it displays a message "Press F11 for Acronis Startup Recovery Manager...", which will give you the opportunity to boot into the Acronis Recovery Environment.

So if Acronis changes the MBR maybe it's incompatible with RB?

On the other hand there's evidence that the two can be run together ok
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=243277
but also in this thread can be found the comments
"According to Horizon if you image with other software with RX installed you will need to fix the MBR after you do a restore".
"FYI, as I understand it if you restore and image that was made with TI after you installed RX you need to fix the MBR when you restore the image and this can be done using a Windows install disk."
and
"It seems TI & Rx may conflict, after installing RX on this machine where TI 10 was already installed, I started getting frequent "Improper Shutdown" errors & chkdsk being invoked."

Also I know RB has problems if anything changes the disk that it can't log. Maybe booting from a CD or USB can cause this sort of thing if RB is not loaded first?

Finally, on a different tack, do you have an Iphone, touch phone or Ipod that you connect to your PC?
All of these seem to be linked to Google search results for "Magic data transfer".

[nexstar]

Originally Posted by backupordie

You're obviously a bright guy, Graham.

By any chance are you a technical writer for any trade publications?

Ah, you flatter me but, I'm afraid you are wrong on both counts .

As a matter of interest, when did you get the error report? Was it on installation and did Rollback actually function at all?

Graham