Restoring a Windows partition: Misleading or incorrrect information in V.15 manual

[x509]

Earlier this year, I tried to restore my "production" system, following the directions in the V15 manual.  That system is Windows 10 Pro 64. 

The V15 manual states on p. 99 (my highlights)

So I blithely assumed that I could do a Restore of my C : partition, after it somehow got hosed.  Wrong!!  I ended up reformatting that partition, doing a fresh install of Windows, and then re-installing all the programs and doing all the config settings.  So I was pretty frustrated about the experience.  When I wrote a letter a few months ago to Retrospect management about a bunch of issues, I included this issue.

I got a detailed response to all my issues from Robin Mayoff, which I do appreciate.  However, it was very frustrating to read the following.

When you perform a restore of a Windows operating system with Retrospect, it is very important to perform this restore while booted from a Retrospect Disaster Recovery disk.  It is not possible to restore a modern version of the Windows registry or Windows system while booted from the C disk.   This is probably why you got some errors and ended up needing to reinstall programs.

Had I known this point, I could have saved myself several days of work.

Why am I posting this now, months after the fact?  I can't fully explain why, but "stuff" happened.  Still I thought this point is important enough so that the next person with this problem might find this post and save themselves a lot of trouble.  As the expression goes, I am "paying it forward" in appreciation for all the help I get in this forum.

Edited August 21, 2019 by x509
spelling

[Lennart_T]

1 hour ago, x509 said:

Still I thought this point is important enough so that the next person with this problem might find this post and save themselves a lot of trouble. 

Thank You! I didn't know that.

[Nigel Smith]

On 7/3/2019 at 4:29 AM, x509 said:

Still I thought this point is important enough so that the next person with this problem might find this post and save themselves a lot of trouble.

Very true -- I think this will catch out most people the first time they try it so thanks for the reminder.

The latest manual does include that information, albeit in the "Disaster Recovery" section. IMHO there should be a big banner announcing that fact in the "Restore" section as well, or at least the "If you have experienced disastrous data loss..." paragraph amended to "If you want to restore your System drive or have experienced disastrous data loss...".

[MrPete]

You might find this post from last year helpful...

 

[x509]

Mr. Pete,

Until I read your guide, I thought I now know everything to do a Windows partition recovery.  Now I realize that crucial pieces exist only in my mind, and that approach doesn't scale well with multiple systems or across time.  I've printed out a copy (PDF)of your post, which I'm saving in the same folder as my Retrospect user guide.  I'm sure that your post is still valuable, even though I am now on R 16.

x509

[MrPete]

AFAIK, R16 is essentially the same with respect to disaster recovery... although I admit I have not dug in as intensely yet...

[x509]

True, but the Retrospect 16 manual includes these paragraph, which I think was inspired by my support issue from earlier this year.  These paragraphs appear at the very start of the Disaster Recovery Chapter: