O.T. Missing Folder/files

Robert in CA wrote:
I don't understand what it means that the restore must be
completed in the Windows PE rescue environment? I thought
I was in the PE mode when I connected the external hd?

I understand that the partitions don't match up but I'm not
understanding what you mean by a new full? If I drag and drop
from the external to the C: drive I have to do it for all the partitions ,
making each the same size, correct?

This is getting beyond me,.... I didn't realize I had to partition.

I'm not sure how to proceed at this point.

Robert

First, I was hoping you'd keep a backup of todays 780,
in case of trouble.

Main drive === USB external
|
booted from
anything with a copy
of Macrium on it (CD or C: )

The next step is the Restore of your selected backup
onto the 780 main drive.

Main drive === USB external
|
booted from
Macrium CD

You want to be booted from the Macrium CD for
the bare metal restore you're doing. You can
do any kind of restore you like - drag&drop a
single partition or restore the entire MRIMG,
your choice. The version of CD should be
recent enough, to match or exceed the version
that made the backup. Macrium will tell you
if you're using the wrong version.

Macrium will allow you to make boot media with
either a USB stick or a CD, whatever you have
handy or want to sacrifice for the job. If you
didn't have any CDs, you could use a USB stick
instead.

Paul

I did do a backup of the 780 today prior to
restoring just as you suggested.

https://postimg.cc/2bptKw4m

When you say Macrium CD I assume your referring
to the pop-up 'build Rescue Media' create one?

I'm going to try this again,..

Robert

I understand what the PE environment is now. When I compared partitions
it should fit. So I shouldn't have to adjust the size of the partitions from what I
see. I now seem to remember you showed me how to adjust the size of the
partitions on the 8200. I remember sliding it to the right to increase the size.

I said yes to the pop-up this time and everything is going smoothly,..... I

OK it did not end normally, I had to leave the room for a few minutes but when I
came back the 780 had rebooted and the messed up WBM has returned. Avast
virus definitions were not up to date and Macrium had an update and I had a
Windows update and a optional update so it did something but the backspace
key still does not function.


https://postimg.cc/vgKNpxc7

https://postimg.cc/dDzf6dMw

https://postimg.cc/hJPZv1mb

https://postimg.cc/JHb5PsJz

So what now? try it again but it should have ended normally and didn't.


Thoughts/suggestions?

Robert

Robert in CA wrote:
I understand what the PE environment is now. When I compared partitions
it should fit. So I shouldn't have to adjust the size of the partitions from what I
see. I now seem to remember you showed me how to adjust the size of the
partitions on the 8200. I remember sliding it to the right to increase the size.

I said yes to the pop-up this time and everything is going smoothly,..... I

OK it did not end normally, I had to leave the room for a few minutes but when I
came back the 780 had rebooted and the messed up WBM has returned. Avast
virus definitions were not up to date and Macrium had an update and I had a
Windows update and a optional update so it did something but the backspace
key still does not function.


https://postimg.cc/vgKNpxc7

"Unable to lock drive"

You tried to restore over the *RUNNING* C:

That's why I mentioned the usage of a CD for the "bare metal restore"
class of restoration.


https://postimg.cc/dDzf6dMw

OK, now I'm seeing the Macrium 7 CD booting in that picture.


https://postimg.cc/hJPZv1mb

Macrium CD doing a restore over C: of 156GB.
The empty space on the C: is quite large apparently.


https://postimg.cc/JHb5PsJz

Since it has Restored a copy of a backup made of that
machine earlier, the *earlier* boot menu returned. That
happened, because the System Reserved was restored too
(in the previous picture as item 1 of 2).

So what now? try it again but it should have ended normally and didn't.


Thoughts/suggestions?

Robert


The result is not unexpected. You've returned the 780
to the situation it was in a month ago, complete with
the boot menu it had a month ago. Sure, it will be
asking for updates and so on.

The backspace key indicates that the backspace problem
was there a month ago too.

You'll have to go back a bit further then.

If it was me, I'd leave the network cable disconnected
when it comes up after your next test restore, so it
does not immediately start loading up more stuff
and confusing the results of the test.

You can carry out your boot menu repair steps as before,
to get the (cleaner) boot menu. Macrium Reflect boot repair
for cleanup. That one command line with the displaybootmenu
in it, to return to the black colored selection screen
flavor of boot display.

I wouldn't say what has happened is "messed up". It
represents the level of work required to turn an
old restore, into a useful working environment.
There would only have been a free lunch if the
OS was "pristine" when backed up. That's the way
these things work, including having to find and
restore your Bookmarks file from the USB key.

And the reason you backed up C: *before* doing this,
is so, if you didn't like what happened, you
could roll forward again.

Welcome to Mars, astronaut. All is, as expected! :-)
Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Paul

OK Mission Control,.... copy

hmmmmm I think I understand, I've changed the boot menu back
as we did before , now I'll disconnect the internet connection and
insert the Rescue CD and then proceed to restore from that point
as a stand alone system. correct?

I'll give it another try with an earlier Mrimg (1-1-21)

Robert

The restore worked but the backspace keys on both the 8500 and
780 still do not function.


https://postimg.cc/LhV4fhHw

https://postimg.cc/sv6V68GJ

https://postimg.cc/zbFNnP1K

https://postimg.cc/QVSsCPmr

https://postimg.cc/rd627LV5

https://postimg.cc/Y41BHy0Z

https://postimg.cc/SXbHD7dr

I don't remember going for this long without a backspace key and I'm
wondering how far back we'll have to go? Perhaps just another month?
but I'm wondering about the 8500 now because that means it too would
have to go back that far.

I thought of another possibility since the new mouse corrected the problem
I was having with things opening etc. Maybe the problem however unlikely
is that the keys themselves are bad on both keyboards? I think I may have
some older working ergonomic keyboards left that I could try using one of
them to test it.

Thoughts/suggestions?
Robert

I forgot to add afterwards the messed up WBM reappeared and I had to
reset the boot menu again.

I did also some updates.

Robert

Robert in CA wrote:
The restore worked but the backspace keys on both the 8500 and
780 still do not function.


https://postimg.cc/LhV4fhHw Restore view

https://postimg.cc/sv6V68GJ Select image to load

https://postimg.cc/zbFNnP1K 1-1-21 image

https://postimg.cc/QVSsCPmr A 2TB image 156GB data 2 partitions

https://postimg.cc/rd627LV5 Replacing F: (system, the active boot thing) and C:

https://postimg.cc/Y41BHy0Z Restore running

https://postimg.cc/SXbHD7dr 2 hours 20 minutes (Optiplex 780, USB2, 21MB/sec )

I don't remember going for this long without a backspace key and I'm
wondering how far back we'll have to go? Perhaps just another month?
but I'm wondering about the 8500 now because that means it too would
have to go back that far.

I thought of another possibility since the new mouse corrected the problem
I was having with things opening etc. Maybe the problem however unlikely
is that the keys themselves are bad on both keyboards? I think I may have
some older working ergonomic keyboards left that I could try using one of
them to test it.

Thoughts/suggestions?
Robert

Well, sure, if you have another keyboard, like a USB one,
give it a shot.

But I really don't think that's going to fix it. You could
be running an image editor, where the backspace key has been
highjacked to do something like screenshots or the like.

Maybe an instance of AutoIT (a part of some other piece of software
you loaded). But if so, we should be able to break this habit if
going back far enough.

Have a think about what your Startup Items are. Perhaps Sysinternals
Autoruns, when it makes a list of Startup Items, it will include
in the list, the guilty party stealing your backspace key. I'm pretty
sure you have one of those by now - if not, it's here.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sys...loads/autoruns

*******

Some totally off-topic content...

The 780 could restore faster, with one of these in Slot 4
(the bottom PCI Express x1 slot). That's a NEC chip for a controller.
NEC was the first company to make a working USB3 (first cards $25).
I have a NEC chip and card, in the machine I'm typing on. That
would cut the restore time from 2 hours 20 minutes, to about
half an hour. Hard drives can go faster than that, but I find
my Macrium Restores never seem to be exactly Enterprise Warp 9.
More like Half Impulse Power. So this is about as much speedup
as would help, typically.

https://www.newegg.com/bytecc-model-...82E16815283031

There is at least one card that goes faster than the NEC, but
you'd need an unused video card slot to use it. It is a card
with an x2 wired interface instead of x1, and it makes a USB3 interface
that does the full ~500MB/sec. I have one of those here, but
don't have enough slots in my other machine to be leaving the
card in the machine. The chip on this is Asmedia, and it uses
MCCI (contract-written) drivers. The x4 sized connector, won't fit
in your slot 4, but fits where the video card goes in slot 1.
The physical connector is x4 sized, but only x2 of the lanes
are wired up (that's all Asmedia put on the chip).

https://www.newegg.com/startech-com-...82E16815158472

Your 8500 probably has USB3 (blue connector tab), and doesn't
need such frippery. But I did add one of those to the typing
machine, because all it had was USB2. The NEC has WinXP drivers,
the Asmedia chip, driver coverage for that one starts at Win7.

That's one way to make a USB3 external drive go a bit faster.

Paul

I tried another Microsoft 4000 keyboard I had that I replaced
because the spacebar is sluggish after I tried to clean it (big
mistake). Anyways the backspace key still did not function on
the 780. I didn't want to try this on the 8500. We can keep restoring
further back but what if they all are the same and I've lost the
back space function? Is there no way to recover it?

I did a search on the subject and these came up:

Solution 1: Turn off the Sticky Keys and the Filter Keys feature
1. Type ease in the search box from Start. Then click Ease of
Access keyboard settings.
2. Make sure the status of Sticky Keys and Filter Keys are all set
to Off. If you see On, switch to Off.
3. Your backspace key should work now.

https://postimg.cc/y3yqkpCb

https://postimg.cc/zL2GfBFg

I noticed that only the 'turn on toggle keys by holding down the NUM
LOCK, or SCROLL LOCK was switched ON. Could this be the problem?
Sometimes the driver may be corrupted or outdated, and then the
connection between the keyboard and your operating system is corrupted,
leading to the issue – Backspace, Spacebar or Enter key not working.. ...
Next, click Uninstall and then restart your PC to check if Backspace,
Spacebar or Enter key could work.Dec 31, 2020

I don't understand his solution, if you uninstall the keyboard how will the
computer detect it when you re-start it? It has to have drivers to function..

1. Open the Hardware and Devices troubleshooter by clicking the Start
button, and then clicking Control Panel.
2. In the search box, enter troubleshooter, then select Troubleshooting.
3. Under Hardware and Sound, select Configure a device.
https://postimg.cc/G48jh8CW

I didn't start anything not without your saying I should.

Maybe I should try buying a new keyboard just to make sure?

I keep getting Malwarebytes updates free notifications. I think you explained it
to me once. If you click yes they stop until the trial runs out and then you have
to click yes again until it runs out again or buy premium outright, correct? It's a
lousy marketing scheme to annoy you into buying something.

Thoughts/suggestions
Robert

Robert in CA wrote:
I tried another Microsoft 4000 keyboard I had that I replaced
because the spacebar is sluggish after I tried to clean it (big
mistake). Anyways the backspace key still did not function on
the 780. I didn't want to try this on the 8500. We can keep restoring
further back but what if they all are the same and I've lost the
back space function? Is there no way to recover it?

I did a search on the subject and these came up:

Solution 1: Turn off the Sticky Keys and the Filter Keys feature
1. Type ease in the search box from Start. Then click Ease of
Access keyboard settings.
2. Make sure the status of Sticky Keys and Filter Keys are all set
to Off. If you see On, switch to Off.
3. Your backspace key should work now.

https://postimg.cc/y3yqkpCb

https://postimg.cc/zL2GfBFg

I noticed that only the 'turn on toggle keys by holding down the NUM
LOCK, or SCROLL LOCK was switched ON. Could this be the problem?
Sometimes the driver may be corrupted or outdated, and then the
connection between the keyboard and your operating system is corrupted,
leading to the issue – Backspace, Spacebar or Enter key not working. ...
Next, click Uninstall and then restart your PC to check if Backspace,
Spacebar or Enter key could work.Dec 31, 2020

I don't understand his solution, if you uninstall the keyboard how will the
computer detect it when you re-start it? It has to have drivers to function.

1. Open the Hardware and Devices troubleshooter by clicking the Start
button, and then clicking Control Panel.
2. In the search box, enter troubleshooter, then select Troubleshooting.
3. Under Hardware and Sound, select Configure a device.
https://postimg.cc/G48jh8CW

I didn't start anything not without your saying I should.

Maybe I should try buying a new keyboard just to make sure?

I keep getting Malwarebytes updates free notifications. I think you explained it
to me once. If you click yes they stop until the trial runs out and then you have
to click yes again until it runs out again or buy premium outright, correct? It's a
lousy marketing scheme to annoy you into buying something.

Thoughts/suggestions
Robert

I've seen the advice about Sticky Keys and Filter Keys,
but there's never any root cause, any authoritative evidence
for it.

It's well worth turning them off, as a test.

https://download.lenovo.com/km/media...0108031137.PNG

*******

We know it's not hardware, because you plug in a different
keyboard and the same thing happens. That says it's software.

There is not likely to be a "new driver" for the keyboard.
It's a generic driver for the HID device, using files
that are as old as the hills. If installing a "new driver"
is to do anything, it would be a side effect, of perhaps
causing the filter driver to be removed (filter drivers
sit in the stack of some device and don't talk directly
to hardware).

But generally, I would assign a very very low probability
to an "Update driver" attempt from Device Manager doing
anything. First off, it'll tell you "you already have
the most recent driver", so it's not even going to be
tempted to change a thing. How do you get that status
to change ?

Maybe deleting the entire ENUM registry key would work.
I've tested that on Windows 10 and it still works. That
causes all the drivers to reinstall. It's a way to
clean all the stacks, forget about all previous USB devices
and so on.

At this point, I want to keep the experiments simple,
to reduce collateral damage. And Sticky Keys and Filter Keys OFF
is a simple experiment to try.

If something is "watching" the keyboard, then even using
the ENUM trick isn't going to help, because once all
the devices have drivers again, the watcher will be armed
and waiting, to eat the backspace key.

Paul

I tried downloading autoruns but its a zip file and I don't have
7Zip (even then I don't know how to use it) otherwise how do
I open it?

I'm not too worried about the speed of the backups but I would
like to upgrade the 780 in anyway to make it better. I have (3)
available slots for cards in the back of the 780.

https://postimg.cc/rD1fD5kR

Are you saying for me to turn on the sticky key and filter key boxes?

Robert

What about setting up the sticky and filter keys?

https://postimg.cc/zbwLWwj6

https://postimg.cc/hQPGdkhQ

https://postimg.cc/6y8WxLZK

Robert

I thought Autoruns sounded familiar so I checked my
downloads and sure enough I already had it.

https://postimg.cc/SnQGKRym

https://postimg.cc/MMB7LjYm

https://postimg.cc/342G1QKL

https://postimg.cc/qgXbB98X

https://postimg.cc/bsy6Z3gX

Robert

Here are the Autoruns for the 780

https://postimg.cc/Fd9Ymdb4

https://postimg.cc/2qY6FbKZ

https://postimg.cc/t7Jg5H22

https://postimg.cc/DSrfZfwy

https://postimg.cc/TLwTCrqp

https://postimg.cc/TK6GZ8J8

https://postimg.cc/2bMNGgSK

Robert

Robert in CA wrote:
Here are the Autoruns for the 780

https://postimg.cc/Fd9Ymdb4

https://postimg.cc/2qY6FbKZ

https://postimg.cc/t7Jg5H22

https://postimg.cc/DSrfZfwy

https://postimg.cc/TLwTCrqp

https://postimg.cc/TK6GZ8J8

https://postimg.cc/2bMNGgSK

Robert

Try unticking "aswkbd" in the second last picture, then reboot
and test the backspace key.

Apparently aswkbd can cause keyboard failures, but
no one lists the backspace key as the problem. But
it's the only keyboard-specific thing I can see.

The "BVTCons" in the last picture looks suspicious,
but Avast is likely to have removed that for you.

Paul