On Saturday I helped a friend restore an old W7 PC, which had developed
some fault - IIRR one of the symptoms was that "sfc /scannow" came up,
consistently, with an error at 67% through the first pass. It's a
dual-boot machine (P4 I think) - XP and 7. (On separate HDs, though
obviously wherever the boot part is is common to both [XP is on C:].)

Anyway, no matter - we eventually gave up, and reinstalled 7 (from the
valid Microsoft DVD he had).

The PC is not connected to the net.

He assumed the W7 would not be activated/authorised/whatever-the-term-is
- but, he has a system image (not a restore point) made way back in 2014
when he originally installed/activated/whatever, and thought by
restoring from that, the activation/whatever would be restored.

Even that's not what I'm asking about (-:!

(I know nothing of system images made with Windows' own tool - I've
always used Macrium for my own purposes.)

The question/problem (finally, I hear you cry!) is that the 2014 system
image - which is on an external drive - appears just as a folder (which
indeed it is). We can look inside it, but using Windows' own tool that
can restore from images doesn't find it.

When looked at, on either the newly-restored W7 machine or another
machine (W10, I think), another image on the drive - nothing to do with
the PC in question - appears (in file explorer) with an icon I haven't
seen before, but which Tony recognises as the icon for a System Image.
But the image made on this machine just has the same icon as any other
folder.

Any thoughts?

(While typing this, it occurs to me to wonder why he hasn't just tried
to activate [?] the newly-installed W7 using the key he'd noted down
previously, which I will now do; however, the puzzle of why it's not
recognising the old image remains, if only as a curiosity.)
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Santa's elves are just a bunch of subordinate Clauses.

On 11/16/2021 5:28 PM, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
> On Saturday I helped a friend restore an old W7 PC, which had developed some fault - IIRR one of the symptoms was that "sfc /scannow" came up, consistently, with an error at 67% through the first pass. It's a dual-boot machine (P4 I think) - XP and 7. (On separate HDs, though obviously wherever the boot part is is common to both [XP is on C:].)
>
> Anyway, no matter - we eventually gave up, and reinstalled 7 (from the valid Microsoft DVD he had).
>
> The PC is not connected to the net.
>
> He assumed the W7 would not be activated/authorised/whatever-the-term-is - but, he has a system image (not a restore point) made way back in 2014 when he originally installed/activated/whatever, and thought by restoring from that, the activation/whatever would be restored.
>
> Even that's not what I'm asking about (-:!
>
> (I know nothing of system images made with Windows' own tool - I've always used Macrium for my own purposes.)
>
> The question/problem (finally, I hear you cry!) is that the 2014 system image - which is on an external drive - appears just as a folder (which indeed it is). We can look inside it, but using Windows' own tool that can restore from images doesn't find it.
>
> When looked at, on either the newly-restored W7 machine or another machine (W10, I think), another image on the drive - nothing to do with the PC in question - appears (in file explorer) with an icon I haven't seen before, but which Tony recognises as the icon for a System Image. But the image made on this machine just has the same icon as any other folder.
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> (While typing this, it occurs to me to wonder why he hasn't just tried to activate [?] the newly-installed W7 using the key he'd noted down previously, which I will now do; however, the puzzle of why it's not recognising the old image remains, if only as a curiosity.)

The "sdclt.exe" file could be missing from System32,
or the desktop.ini file got zorched by the Daleks.

[Picture]

https://i.postimg.cc/h4zBz8jH/adventures-in-backups.gif

Use "Download Original" if the image is fuzzy onscreen.

*******

I hope the person doing the install, used ProduKey and
examined the COA sticker, for consistency. On a Dell, the
OEM OS image and its license key, would not match the
COA sticker, and the COA sticker is considered to be
"for emergencies", such as a destroyed hard drive and
no backup of the Recovery partition.

Paul

On Tue, 16 Nov 2021 at 20:15:52, Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote (my
responses usually follow points raised):
>On 11/16/2021 5:28 PM, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
[]
>> The question/problem (finally, I hear you cry!) is that the 2014
>>system image - which is on an external drive - appears just as a
>>folder (which indeed it is). We can look inside it, but using Windows'
>>own tool that can restore from images doesn't find it.
>> When looked at, on either the newly-restored W7 machine or another
>>machine (W10, I think), another image on the drive - nothing to do
>>with the PC in question - appears (in file explorer) with an icon I
>>haven't seen before, but which Tony recognises as the icon for a
>>System Image. But the image made on this machine just has the same
>>icon as any other folder.
[]
>The "sdclt.exe" file could be missing from System32,
>or the desktop.ini file got zorched by the Daleks.

(-: Would that explain why we can see another image on the same drive
(as an image), but the one we wanted to use appears just as a folder?
>
>[Picture]
>
>https://i.postimg.cc/h4zBz8jH/adventures-in-backups.gif
>
>Use "Download Original" if the image is fuzzy onscreen.
>
The image is clear - just way above my understanding (-:
>*******
>
>I hope the person doing the install, used ProduKey and
>examined the COA sticker, for consistency. On a Dell, the
>OEM OS image and its license key, would not match the
>COA sticker, and the COA sticker is considered to be
>"for emergencies", such as a destroyed hard drive and
>no backup of the Recovery partition.

The PC is an Evesham (UK [I think] maker). Tony tells me there was/is an
upgrade key in the box with the upgrade-to-7-from-XP DVD - though I
don't remember us using _any_ key (or being prompted for one) when we
redid the upgrade on Saturday.
>
> Paul
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

We shall never - never! - allow foreigners to run our economy. They might cure
it. (George Mikes, "How to be Decadent" [1977].)

On 11/17/2021 4:12 PM, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
> On Tue, 16 Nov 2021 at 20:15:52, Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote (my responses usually follow points raised):
>> On 11/16/2021 5:28 PM, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
> []
>>>  The question/problem (finally, I hear you cry!) is that the 2014 system image - which is on an external drive - appears just as a folder (which indeed it is). We can look inside it, but using Windows' own tool that can restore from images doesn't find it.
>>>  When looked at, on either the newly-restored W7 machine or another machine (W10, I think), another image on the drive - nothing to do with the PC in question - appears (in file explorer) with an icon I haven't seen before, but which Tony recognises as the icon for a System Image. But the image made on this machine just has the same icon as any other folder.
> []
>> The "sdclt.exe" file could be missing from System32,
>> or the desktop.ini file got zorched by the Daleks.
>
> (-: Would that explain why we can see another image on the same drive (as an image), but the one we wanted to use appears just as a folder?
>>
>> [Picture]
>>
>> https://i.postimg.cc/h4zBz8jH/adventures-in-backups.gif
>>
>> Use "Download Original" if the image is fuzzy onscreen.
>>
> The image is clear - just way above my understanding (-:
>> *******
>>
>> I hope the person doing the install, used ProduKey and
>> examined the COA sticker, for consistency. On a Dell, the
>> OEM OS image and its license key, would not match the
>> COA sticker, and the COA sticker is considered to be
>> "for emergencies", such as a destroyed hard drive and
>> no backup of the Recovery partition.
>
> The PC is an Evesham (UK [I think] maker). Tony tells me there was/is an upgrade key in the box with the upgrade-to-7-from-XP DVD - though I don't remember us using _any_ key (or being prompted for one) when we redid the upgrade on Saturday.
>>
>>   Paul

The folder which appears as "just a folder", the desktop.ini
may not match my example, and it might not have a reference
to sdclt.exe. That program has something to do with
the controlling of backups. There is also wbadmin and
wbengine, which are also part of it, but one of those
is a command line thing. The engine likely does the work.

Look at my picture again, just above

"Details of the magic icon"

and you can see the desktop.ini is a custom
folder definition. The desktop.ini is just text,
but as files go, I think you may need to tick the
"Hidden" box to match how it was originally, from
an attribute perspective. I don't think it has
any other attributes. File Explorer sniffs for
desktop.ini in any folder it looks at, and if
there is a custom definition, the "view" of the
folder changes according to the details given
in the file.

It might be a wee bit hard to work in there, due
to permissions. It'll put up a prompt, you click OK
(as a member of the administrator group), and you
should be able to get in.

if the user account was a limited one, but that
user belonged to the Backup and the Restore group,
then you may be able to gain entry with that level
of elevation.

Paul

On Thu, 18 Nov 2021 at 04:42:33, Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote (my
responses usually follow points raised):
[]
>>> The "sdclt.exe" file could be missing from System32,
>>> or the desktop.ini file got zorched by the Daleks.
>> (-: Would that explain why we can see another image on the same
>>drive (as an image), but the one we wanted to use appears just as a
>>folder?
>>>
>>> [Picture]
>>>
>>> https://i.postimg.cc/h4zBz8jH/adventures-in-backups.gif
[]
>The folder which appears as "just a folder", the desktop.ini

So that should just be a file, called desktop.ini, in that folder, that
looks like the one in your image. Understood.

>may not match my example, and it might not have a reference
>to sdclt.exe. That program has something to do with
>the controlling of backups. There is also wbadmin and
>wbengine, which are also part of it, but one of those
>is a command line thing. The engine likely does the work.

There is something on the machine in question which does find backup
images - just not this one.
>
>Look at my picture again, just above
>
> "Details of the magic icon"
>
>and you can see the desktop.ini is a custom
>folder definition. The desktop.ini is just text,
>but as files go, I think you may need to tick the
>"Hidden" box to match how it was originally, from
>an attribute perspective. I don't think it has
>any other attributes. File Explorer sniffs for
>desktop.ini in any folder it looks at, and if
>there is a custom definition, the "view" of the
>folder changes according to the details given
>in the file.

I will ask Tony if (a) there is a desktop.ini file there, (b) if it
looks like the one in your image. If there isn't - or it doesn't - (i)
any thoughts on how it got corrupted/deleted, (ii) will recreating it
make the folder look like an image?
>
>It might be a wee bit hard to work in there, due
>to permissions. It'll put up a prompt, you click OK
>(as a member of the administrator group), and you
>should be able to get in.
>
>if the user account was a limited one, but that
>user belonged to the Backup and the Restore group,
>then you may be able to gain entry with that level
>of elevation.
>
> Paul
>
I will report back what he says.

And thanks.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

And perhaps that's the scariest thing about the modern mob. In social media,
we haven't created a monster. We are the monster.
- Jonathan Holmes, RT 2015/3/28-4/3