Problem with Retrospect and Windows 10 Fall Creator's Update

[meld51]

In the last week I have installed the Fall Creator's Update on one of my two PCs. I am a user of Microsoft Onedrive so that I can keep my files in the cloud and also keep my 2 PCs synchronised. I also perform a monthly backup of both PCs to a hard disk drive using Retrospect. This is so that I can keep  a reasonably current file set offline where Ransomware is less likely to get at it.

On the Updated PC I have invoked the new Windows Explorer "Files  on Demand" service, which allows online files to be visible in Windows Explorer. They can exist as permanently local as well as online, temporarily local as well as online or only online.

The other PC does not have FOD.

I have found that Retrospect will no longer back up my Onedrive folders on the PC with FOD invoked. During the backup dialogue in the Preview Pane, the Onedrive folders remain unselected (by a tick/flag) and I am not able select it manually. I am still able to back up my Onedrive folders on the other PC which does not have the Fall Creator's Update.

Is this the expected functionality for Retrospect? This is a real problem for me so I hope this problem can be resolved.

Has anyone else experienced this?

PC1: Windows 10 Ver 1703 Build 15063.726

PC2: Windows 10 Pro Version 1709 Build 16299.64

I use Retrospect Ver 11.5.0.190

[Lennart_T]

Retrospect 11.5 is not supported for Windows 10 Fall Creators update. You need Retrospect 12.

https://www.retrospect.com/win10

[meld51]

Thank you.

However I have downloaded latest free the free trial of Retrospect (12.6.1.101) and it still doesn't work. Is this a limitation of Retrospect?

A screenshot of the preview pane is attached showing the Onedrive file structure still unticked. It cannot be ticked manually.

Any further comments gratefully received. 

[Lennart_T]

Sorry, I don't use Onedrive and I don't have FCU installed, so I can't help with your specific problem.

 

[meld51]

I raised a problem ticket for this problem: Here is the dialogue so far:

Agent Response:

Hi

Retrospect will not see any files that are not stored locally on the hard drive. We do not currently have the ability to support the FOD setting. If you right click on your OneDrive, and choose "settings" you should be able to disable this option.

We are investigating the possibility of adding FOD support for OneDrive in the future.

Please let us know if you have any additional questions, The Retrospect Support Team

 

MY RESPONSE:

Thank you for your response. However the situation is not as you think. When FOD is invoked in Onedrive, many files are resident locally on my PC. Others are online only. Retrospect can deal with none of them it seems, neither the Online files or the permanently offline files. I will turn FOD off and see if Retrospect 12 springs into action.

[Scillonian]

I can confirm that Retrospect 12.6 can backup a OneDrive folder structure where FOD is not active.

My current understanding of how FOD works is that when enabled changes are made to NTFS that are only understood by Windows 10 1709 and later. Systems that multi-boot with Windows 7, Windows 8.x and Windows 10 1703 and earlier will have problems with OneDrive files.

Those with good memories will remember the problems that the similar Placeholders feature in OneDrive's predecessor SkyDrive caused Retrospect and other backup applications.

[meld51]

Thanks. 

I have a further and rather irritating problem now. When you turn Onedrive FOD off, Onedrive insists on downloading the whole file system stored in the cloud. This is not possible for me because there is far more material than this Surface Pro PC can hold so I can't do it! It is impossible to switch FOD off, once it has been switched on! I am unable to return to the situation before I switched FOD on.

I have an open forum post about this in Microsoft Communities but I'm not confident of a useful outcome.

As far as I can see (unless anyone has a better idea) I will have to perform a clean installation of the laptop so that I can select the files I need most from the Onedrive cloud. Of course all my files are also kept on my larger desktop PC.

Not a good situation, but I can't run Retrospect until I've solved this problem...

[Scillonian]

I have just done a few quick tests in a Windows 10 1709 virtual machine. When Files on Demand (FOD) is enabled the normal OneDrive folder and its contents are converted to reparse points. Trying to find where these reparse points point to returns 'UNKNOWN MICROSOFT REPARSE POINT' as the target. (This is possibly why Retrospect can't backup the OneDrive folder when FOD is enabled.)

What I did to return the OneDrive folder to a normal folder was:

1. Right click on the OneDrive icon in the system tray and select Settings
2. On the Account tab select Choose Folders
3. Uncheck Sync all files and folders in OneDrive the check the folders and files you want to sync
4. Select OK to close the dialog
5. Disable the Files on Demand feature

EDIT: The key point is to ensure that you have selective folder and file syncing enabled before you disable FOD.

I did have to do some manual cleanup of some sync error in the OneDrive folder after disabling FOD but that have been due to what I had done during my tests.

Edited November 20, 2017 by Scillonian

[meld51]

Hello,

I have decided to change the way I do Retrospect backups.

I will use Windows 10 "Files On Demand" on my laptop so that I can see the online files as well as the local files. This is useful to me. My laptop is synchronised with my desktop PC which has ALL my files stored locally AND in Onedrive. There is therefore no need to use FOD on this machine.

I will use Retrospect on my desktop machine only. This way I have a full Retrospect backup of the PC. There is no need to do a full backup on the laptop since they are synchronised with the PC.

However, I would urge Retrospect to ensure that R12 works with Windows 10 fully, including FOD.