Author Topic: Registry Backup not always ending when run by Task Scheduler  (Read 11411 times)

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Offline bobn42855

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Hi, Shane. I've had Registry Backup v1.6.0 set up via Windows Task Scheduler to run twice a day, 12 hours apart, upon 10 minutes of system idle time for a couple of months. I'm using argument "-auto". I originally had it set up to run under my user account (which is administrator) but my experience has been that Task Scheduler does not pick up missed tasks after a restart for non-System user accounts. So, I changed it to run under user account "SYSTEM" and it's never missed being run when it should be (even after a restart after a missed task due to the idle condition not being met). I always have DriveGLEAM running which is wonderful for letting me easily see my CPU and physical disk usage at all times. It normally shows 0% CPU usage unless something I'm aware of is running. Twice now, I've noticed it sitting at 25% usage without anything obvious going on and when I check Task Manager I see TweakingRegistryBackup.exe running as a process using 25% CPU. When I check the backup files that it should be generating at that time, they are there and contain all the same folders and files as any of the other previous registry backups and the size of the entire backup is virtually the same as the previous one. I mean, it seems to have done its job but, for some reason, isn't ending. No other processes are showing any CPU usage whenever I look (other than Task Manager). I've let it go like this for over an hour each time and it doesn't end on its own so I kill it. I'm sure you are the one who may have an idea as to what may be going on. Thanks!

Addendum: Next time I ran the program directly after killing the process, it came up with a notice which I closed before writing it down specifically but it was something to the effect, "The last process did not end properly, would you like to revert to the fallback method?". I just answered "No" and did a backup (via VSS) which completed fine.
« Last Edit: May 27, 2013, 06:06:14 am by bobn42855 »

Offline Shane

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Re: Registry Backup not always ending when run by Task Scheduler
« Reply #1 on: May 27, 2013, 12:54:05 pm »
OK so the backups are working, but when the program goes to close itself it is getting stuck in a loop.

Similar to a few other people who have it crash when it tries to close itself.

Did they only happen when you run it from the system account? I have been trying to find the common factor of what is going on so I can replicate it. If I can replicate it I can fix it :-D

So far it seems to only have this trouble with closing itself when run under the system account. Can you confirm that?

Shane

Offline bobn42855

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Re: Registry Backup not always ending when run by Task Scheduler
« Reply #2 on: May 27, 2013, 06:41:21 pm »
Hi, Shane. I wish I could verify that this does or doesn't only happen running under the system account but I cannot. All I can verify is that it was running under the system account this last time it happened. I've only noticed that's it's happened twice since I've been having Task Scheduler run it twice a day for a couple of months. I don't remember when I changed the task from running under my admin account to running under the system account. I do know that this time (when it got hung), it was running as a catch-up task after my system had been shut down and started up again. In other words, the system was not idle long enough for the task to start at its scheduled time and before the system did meet that idle condition, I shut down the system. The task then was started after I started the system and got away from it long enough for the idle condition to be met. I know it has run as a catch-up task before without shutting down the system in between without the problem. I almost never shut my system off but had to a few times lately. It seems to me that that was the case the last time the problem occurred but I'm not sure. But, I'm pretty sure that I've had it run as a catch-up task after a restart and it didn't have the problem because I was trying to get Task Scheduler to start missed tasks after a system restart and, through my testing, found that the only way I could do it was to have the task run under the system account and during that testing, your program was started as a catch-up task and I didn't notice that it didn't finish on its own (and I would have had that been the case). Don't know what the difference (if any) might be for it or the Task Scheduler between a shut down and a restart. If I'm able to notice anything else that might be applicable, I'll let you know. Thanks very much.
« Last Edit: May 27, 2013, 06:45:47 pm by bobn42855 »

Offline Shane

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Re: Registry Backup not always ending when run by Task Scheduler
« Reply #3 on: May 28, 2013, 01:08:22 pm »
OK let me know if you find out anything else :-)

And start using new lines in your post, all those words together are hard to read lol :tongue:

Shane