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Restoring Files from DataSafe
I've read all the horror stories about DataSafe and am in the middle of my own nightmare. For unknown reasons, I had to reset my XPS 1530 back to factory settings yesterday morning and have been trying to recover as much as I can from various sources - of course, DataSafe being the main one, since that's been my only resource for backups. After doing a Select All, being told it would take 57 hours to restore my 25k+ files (a bit over 8gig), I went ahead and launched it. It ran somewhere between 6 & 14 hours before stopping for unknown reasons (it was running when I went to bed but not when I got up in the morning, with no messages). So I proved to myself I could restore files one at a time (ridiculous but at least I could get the most important ones). Now I'm trying to figure out how to find certain files (like IE Favorites and Vista Mail Contacts) and most importantly how to get the mail back. I can see countless winmail.fol files but I don't know how to get them loaded back into Mail. I tried restoring 3 and then using the "import" function of mail but it didn't "see" the files when I pointed at them. I read about the file type and it says its a 1st Reader Saved Message Folder file. But it looks like about half of the files in DataSafe are of that same file name (I do have lots of saved messages) so it looks like maybe each message is stored in a separate file. Anyway, does anyone have any advice on how I might be able to restore them to my Mail folders? Also, does anyone know file names for IE Favorites and Mail Contacts?
dsopro
97 Posts
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September 14th, 2008 05:00
Your favorites will be in a different place depending on which operating system you are using. Are you using XP or Vista? I don't use Windows Mail so I don't really have any good advice with regards to that.
Are you using the 1.1 Datasafe client or the 1.0 client? There appear to be some issues associated with attempting to continue to use the 1.0 client with the new 1.1 environment. I would recommend you download the new client and try again: http://delldatasafe.com/downloadDatasafe.aspx.
If you are having trouble restoring via the client, another option is trying out the website. The website was a little shakey in 1.0 but they have added a relatively interesting feature in 1.1: the files are actually restored on the web server and zipped up and sent over that way. I've only tried it once myself but it's an interesting way to handle it and may make your download a little smaller.
pkcweir
2 Posts
0
September 18th, 2008 21:00
I'm pleased to report that, after about 6 days, I have all my files back. I was using the client software and just kept plugging away. About halfway thru, I downloaded the new version of DataSafe and was pleased to see that they added the new options to restore by folder (or file type). That made the file selection much easier. But I'm still trying to figure out what to do with the mail. I'm using Vista and Windows Mail and now I'm not sure that any of my messages were actually backed up, even tho' the DataSafe set up said Email was included (maybe it wasn't set up to work with Vista) I have all these .fol files but didn't find any .eml files, which seem to be the actual emails. Has anyone else had success with locating backed up Vista Mail files? I'm also unable to import old Outlook Express emails that were also in the backup but I realize that's not really part of this topic.
By the way, I have the box checked to receive an email when someone replies to my question here but I didn't get one, even tho' I do find a reply to my question (and thanks, dsopro.)
dsopro
97 Posts
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September 22nd, 2008 16:00
The "email" file type includes the following email formats (currently; I don't know if this was always true?) pst, dbx, mbx, toc, fol, eml, and email. I wonder if in Vista the email files are stored in a particular place that it doesn't know to look for them. My Datasafe runs on an XP machine.
FYI: The way Datasafe determines which files to back up is it uses an XML file called rules.xml which can be found in the Datasafe working directory (in XP that is C:\Documents and Settings\ \Local Settings\Application Data\ DataSafeOnline\Users\ ). You can open that up and see exactly what it is looking for for each file type. I believe you can actually add a rule in there following the same format and it will incorporate it although I've not experimented with that personally.
Anyway sorry I can't be more helpful on the windows mail thing. I use Outlook for work and gmail for my personal stuff :-(
Edit: fixed a smiley
russdds
1 Message
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October 1st, 2009 14:00
I recently created a delldatasafe account and backed up my laptop. A week later, the laptop died. When I try restoring the data files to my new laptop, I get a number of errors:
a) If I use the web site to build a zip file, it says it will take a few hours and email me. I never receive an email. When I check the web site later, and look at the "Recently Accessed" files tab, the entry for my backup doesn't have any files in it.
b) If I try using the delldatasafe application on my laptop, and try to restore files, it says
"connected to Dell DataSafe Online"
"Files are prepared"
And then it tries to transfer the files. After about 1-2 minutes it gives me a the following error message:
"Access is denied". The log file shows
[09/30/09-23:03:49] Fetch Session Started
[09/30/09-23:04:35] Fetch Session Completed Successfully
[09/30/09-23:04:59] Fetch Session Started
[09/30/09-23:05:04] Fetch Session Completed Successfully
[09/30/09-23:06:02] Restore Session Started
[09/30/09-23:07:04] Restore finished with error(s). RW5: Access is denied (\\ds.local\0\116\757\597\OnlineBackup.REQ)
Any suggestions? I have about 4.5 GB of data in a multitude of directories.