A hidden feature of windows 8 is windows 7 File Recovery. Search for Recovery in Settings to find it. It will make a system image to store on the ext drive.
The Windows 7 File Recovery option is what I tried first. I found it on the Control Panel / File History screen. That is the one that failed because the WINRETOOLS partition was 500 MB and didn't have 320 MB of free space for the snapshot.
I am in the same boat. The Dell backup software hangs on the spinning clock if I have any external drive connected. The software never appears to be actually hanging, just doing nothing. If I force quit the app, unplug my externals, the start it, it opens quickly, no problem.
Thinking it perhaps didn't like 4TB drives, I also tried it with my 256GB USB 3 SSD and it didn't like that either. In fact it didn't like anything attached, including a 32GB USB stick. It is disappointing that after paying for the upgrade (since it worked fine before I plugged a drive in) that the Dell software won't run on a Dell's own machines.
I ended up just using File History in Windows 8 and the included free backup solution from Seagate.
File history is good, but I also want a system image backup, so I can quickly recover without haveing to reinstall applications, configure applications, etc.
You could trying disconnecting the 4 TB drive, then starting the backup software, then plugging in the drive after the software has started, then doing a backup. Hopefully this will allow the creation of a system image backup. I think I'll pay for the upgrade and try this. But I am still a bit worried even if this works that the restore may not work with this solution.
Does anyone from Dell have any input on why the Dell Backup and Restore software hangs like this?
I have a Dell XPS 8500 running Windows 8 and want to create a system image backup, and am running into much frustration.
My first attempt was to use the Microsoft Windows File Recovery “create a system image” option. This tries to backup of the “EFI System Partition”, “OS C:”, and “WINRETOOLS” partitions. Unfortunately the Dell WINRETOOLS partition is 500 MB in size with 229 MB free and Windows requires 320 MB of free space on partitions 500MB or more (but only 50 MB on partitions smaller than 500 MB) to initiate a volume shadow copy snapshot. I read that some people had success using Partition Wizard to reduce the size of the partition down to 490 MB and thus only require 50 MB of free space, but I don’t know if I would trust doing this to my system, at least not without a good system backup as I am not sure if Dell requires the partitions to be laid out the way they are to function or to have a system image restore function correctly.
Then I thought I found an answer, the “Dell Backup and Recovery” program. By what I read, if I upgrade to the Premium version I can create full system backups. But unfortunately when I try to run Dell Backup and Recovery with my external USB drive connected (a Western Digital My Book 4 TB drive - 3,725.99 GB) the backup program gets stuck on the screen with the clock and rotating hands. I left my system like this overnight to see if it would eventually get by this screen, but the next day it was still stuck.
I disconnected the USB hard disk and connected a 16GB USB flash drive and tried to create a Rescue Disk, but the Dell Backup and Recovery program wanted a USB hard drive, not a USB flash drive so that didn’t work either. So I thought I would see if the Dell Backup and Recovery program would work with an old 320 GB USB drive that I had. The program started fine (although a bit slow with that rotating clock hands screen). I was able to create a Rescue Disk on it without a problem. Kind of waste of a drive which is much larger than needed for a rescue disk but smaller than needed for a system backup.
So why would Dell Backup and Recovery hang on startup when I have my 4 TB drive connected? Is there a bug in the software when large drives are connected? I could disconnect the drive, open the software to get past the rotating clock screen, then plug in the drive and do a backup. But would this work for manual or scheduled system backups if I upgrade to premium? Would this work with system restores? What strange thing is going on when the rotating clock screen is displayed before the main window of the Dell Backup and Recovery system appears?
I am not feeling very comfortable without being able to run a system backup and don’t want to upgrade to premium if it won’t work correctly with my external hard drive.
So after no answers to fix my problem, I decided to spend the $39.99 for the premium version of Dell Backup and Recovery. I wanted to be able to manage (delete) my data backups (that I created by plugging in my external drive after starting the Dell software started) to save space as the basic version let me create backups, but the manage button that said it could delete backups was non functional until I upgraded. And I also wanted to try the system backup.
It turns out that after I upgraded to the premium version today, I could press the delete but after pressing it, I was only given the option to delete system backups, NOT data backups. Needless to say I wasn't happy. It felt like Dell allowed me to create the data backups without telling me that there was no delete option, and then when I tried the delete option, they said give us $39.99 ransom to delete what you were tricked by us into doing and then only after paying was told that now we can tell you that the delete won't work.
So then I thought that at least I could run system backups and manage them. But no I was fooled by Dell again. When I ran the basic version there was no indication that my external USB drive to create system backups on could not be 3TB or larger. Only after paying the $39.99 did the system backup option indicate that drives 3TB or larger could not be used.
So I have spent $200 on an external hard drive, $40 on a software upgrade, and now need to spend another $130 for a 2TB drive and I am not feeling very confident that the Dell software will even work with this. And when I looked at the 2TB (Western Digital) drive it said that it comes with system imaging software. So now it is like "spend $130 more and you can use the Dell software, but you won't need to use it".
So I am looking the answer to a couple of questions:
1) How do I remove my Data backups and along with the useless Dell Backup and Recovery software from my system. 2) How do I return my software for a refund because it is useless to me as I was not told that it wouldn't work with my setup with an external 4TB drive. I didn't see any phone number to call on the receipt or any number to call to complain in the software either. They sure did make it easy to spend the $40 from the software though.
Mary G
4 Operator
•
20.1K Posts
0
June 16th, 2013 15:00
A hidden feature of windows 8 is windows 7 File Recovery. Search for Recovery in Settings to find it. It will make a system image to store on the ext drive.
chrisb2
4 Posts
0
June 16th, 2013 16:00
The Windows 7 File Recovery option is what I tried first. I found it on the Control Panel / File History screen. That is the one that failed because the WINRETOOLS partition was 500 MB and didn't have 320 MB of free space for the snapshot.
skeechan
2 Posts
0
June 22nd, 2013 05:00
I am in the same boat. The Dell backup software hangs on the spinning clock if I have any external drive connected. The software never appears to be actually hanging, just doing nothing. If I force quit the app, unplug my externals, the start it, it opens quickly, no problem.
Thinking it perhaps didn't like 4TB drives, I also tried it with my 256GB USB 3 SSD and it didn't like that either. In fact it didn't like anything attached, including a 32GB USB stick. It is disappointing that after paying for the upgrade (since it worked fine before I plugged a drive in) that the Dell software won't run on a Dell's own machines.
I ended up just using File History in Windows 8 and the included free backup solution from Seagate.
chrisb2
4 Posts
0
June 24th, 2013 14:00
File history is good, but I also want a system image backup, so I can quickly recover without haveing to reinstall applications, configure applications, etc.
You could trying disconnecting the 4 TB drive, then starting the backup software, then plugging in the drive after the software has started, then doing a backup. Hopefully this will allow the creation of a system image backup. I think I'll pay for the upgrade and try this. But I am still a bit worried even if this works that the restore may not work with this solution.
Does anyone from Dell have any input on why the Dell Backup and Restore software hangs like this?
peter fulton
1 Message
0
July 2nd, 2013 01:00
chrisb2
4 Posts
0
September 29th, 2013 21:00
It gets worse...
So after no answers to fix my problem, I decided to spend the $39.99 for the premium version of Dell Backup and Recovery. I wanted to be able to manage (delete) my data backups (that I created by plugging in my external drive after starting the Dell software started) to save space as the basic version let me create backups, but the manage button that said it could delete backups was non functional until I upgraded. And I also wanted to try the system backup.
It turns out that after I upgraded to the premium version today, I could press the delete but after pressing it, I was only given the option to delete system backups, NOT data backups. Needless to say I wasn't happy. It felt like Dell allowed me to create the data backups without telling me that there was no delete option, and then when I tried the delete option, they said give us $39.99 ransom to delete what you were tricked by us into doing and then only after paying was told that now we can tell you that the delete won't work.
So then I thought that at least I could run system backups and manage them. But no I was fooled by Dell again. When I ran the basic version there was no indication that my external USB drive to create system backups on could not be 3TB or larger. Only after paying the $39.99 did the system backup option indicate that drives 3TB or larger could not be used.
So I have spent $200 on an external hard drive, $40 on a software upgrade, and now need to spend another $130 for a 2TB drive and I am not feeling very confident that the Dell software will even work with this. And when I looked at the 2TB (Western Digital) drive it said that it comes with system imaging software. So now it is like "spend $130 more and you can use the Dell software, but you won't need to use it".
So I am looking the answer to a couple of questions:
1) How do I remove my Data backups and along with the useless Dell Backup and Recovery software from my system.
2) How do I return my software for a refund because it is useless to me as I was not told that it wouldn't work with my setup with an external 4TB drive. I didn't see any phone number to call on the receipt or any number to call to complain in the software either. They sure did make it easy to spend the $40 from the software though.