Backup, and this always

[Yves]

Salut chers amis

http://www.rejetto.com/forum/index.php?topic=5166.0
rejetto - Backup, always - Please, remember to backup your options and file system, especially if you use beta versions.
Could not answer there, and do it here.

Indeed, it is very important and useful to backup the hfs.vfs, hfs.ini and hfs.tpl, means to save a double of them in another harddive than that one with the operating system, and everyone in a special folder called for example "20080303lun0657" containing date and hour, as sometimes i create new files several times a day. So i have to do since version hfs2.2a124.

I use only stable versions, but suddenly after a Windows reboot the system tells me by this popup-window that hfs.ini and hfs.tpl have been evaporated: they aren't simply there any longer: C:\Program Files does not contain any longer hfs.ini and hfs.tpl and HFS has now standard options again. In most of cases the latest hfs.vfs is still there, but not always. 

Well, concerning the question "Do you want HFS in your shell context menu?" i say always "NO" (as i have put a shortcut of hfs.exe into the folder Documents and Settings\Administrateur\SendTo, called "- HFS" to make it appear in the first line of "SendTo"), i close HFS, copy last hfs.ini and hfs.tpl back into C:\Program Files\HFS and restart HFS. Done.

I have no idea why and how hfs.ini and hfs.tpl are deleted. This does not happen very often, just one time a week around. Very strange. 

[rejetto]

your hfs files are lost once a week, almost every week??

[Yves]

right, rejetto, this i wanted to say

[Fysack]

Hi Yves. Sounds to me that you got DeepFreeze installed on your computer. This program creates a virtual enviorment of your computer files and folders. Reboot and voilà! your computer goes back to its orginal state. ANY and ALL canges before reboot will be lost. This program is often used on public computers, and by people who like to explore potentionally dangerous software.

Try to hit <CTRL>+<ALT>+<SHIFT>+<F6> to see if the setting GUI appears, if not, .. you are in DeepShit 

This program is not uninstalled easily by killing processes and stopping services. We are talking physically mount harddisk on other computer and/or bootcd with import/export system hive..

[Yves]

Thanks Fysack, for your reply,

DeepFreeze is not installed on my computer.  I tried also by <CTRL>+<ALT>+<SHIFT>+<F6> to see if the setting GUI appears - but there is nothing.

Well, the problem is not that ennoying, as i use Acronis True Image Home 11.0.8010. So i can restore every hfs.ini, hfs.tpl and *.vfs within some minutes. Only, i find this strange .. 

[Fysack]

Salut Yves
Yea, a little bit strange yes.
Do you store your hfs files on a crypted(virtualdrive) drive by TrueCrypt maybe..?
I read some place that windows treat TrueCrypt as a floppydisk, and when TrueCrypt mount/dismount (unmount/remount) it self for some odd reason. Windows will look for the old path.. voilà! Files Gone! Drive is not!
Uppgrade TrueCrypt and enable the `never save history` option.

But this offcourse, only if you use TrueCrypt    ..i rather be safe than sorry 

[MarkV]

Truecrypt drives are by default treated like hard disks. And the Auto Dismount only occours after beeing idle for long periods.

[Yves]

Salut

No, Fysack, i do not store my hfs-files on a crypted (virtual) drive by TrueCrypt. They are stored in the operational drive C: where HFS.exe (now 2.2d152) is installed.
Well, saving a double of hfs.vfs, hfs.ini and hfs.tpl in another harddive is not that much an ennoying procedure, and quickly done. It's rather the question why these files have gone sometimes.
Almost the hfs.tpl is the most precious one, as i put much time working on it
Now for around 2 weeks i didn't have such a "loss", let's see what the future brings.

[Fysack]

Thx for clearing that up MarkV, and good luck Yves.

..maybe some sort of monitor program could help you, like eventviewer.. .?

[MarkV]

Blech, just happened to me as well... complete settings lost, no hfs.ini anymore, no hfs.ini.bak either... glad I had a backup.
It may be Vista's fault, it's filehandling is different.

Could we have a hybrid save mode, please? Save to hfs.ini AND to the registry, but only read from hfs.ini. If no hfs.ini and no backup found, try to reconstruct from the registry.

[rejetto]

i have an idea.
my guessing is that the saving is interrupted before it is completed.
i could save in a temp file, and when the saving is over, delete the original and rename the temp file.
this is simple and may solve the problem. it will be included in next beta.