Messages

1

Tweaking.com Support & Help / Re: Repair Reparse Points: Application Data junction repair - not

« on: July 12, 2018, 08:55:28 pm »

Thanks for letting me know it apparently is not a problem.  Why then was it reported as one?  In looking through the forums in search of some ideas of what to make of this, I discovered that the general impression when the WR repair doesn't repair the reported issue the behavior seems to be shrug and keep moving ahead with no understanding of what just happened.  I happened to come across one such posting where there was a reference to a "silent error", which got me looking at this more closely, and realized I can easily implement the related MkLink operation, feeding it the arguments provided in the (false, apparently) WR error report, and then see the MkLink request get promptly knocked back in no uncertain terms.  Would have thought that falsely reported errors then purportedly corrected (but in fact silently uncorrected) are anathema to a diagnostic and repair function.  Makes you wonder how many more there are, in what areas?

2

Tweaking.com Support & Help / Re: Repair Reparse Points: Application Data junction repair - not

« on: July 02, 2018, 11:35:03 pm »

Looking more closely, I see that C:\Users\User\ has both AppData\Roaming and Application Data directories.  The first is a normal-appearing directory structure, and the second advises that I don't have permission to access it (but can override that if desired).

mklink syntax is [options] <Link> <Target>, where target is the real directory, here User\AppData\Roaming, and User\Application Data is the link.

This appears to be set up correctly.  Why is WR reporting a problem to begin with, and what exactly is it?

Thanks again.

3

Tweaking.com Support & Help / Re: Repair Reparse Points: Application Data junction repair - not

« on: July 02, 2018, 11:20:01 pm »

Sallying forth with a manual fix per guidance elsewhere in this forum:

mklink /J "C:\Users\User\Application Data" "C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming"
errs out with "Cannot create a file when that file already exists."

Am imagining that the WR repair process did the same thing and silently encountered the same error.  Is this saying that the only problem is that there is no problem??

Thanks.

4

Tweaking.com Support & Help / Repair Reparse Points: Application Data junction repair - not

« on: July 02, 2018, 11:03:20 pm »

Scan Reparse Points

Problem - Missing Default Reparse Point
Repair To Do - Create [same]
Type - JUNCTION
Original Path - C:\Users\User\Application Data
Target Path - C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming

Repair Selected
Process steps are echoed to screen, all completed.

Rerun Scan.  Error persists.  Reboot for grins.  Error persists.

Am presuming that the reported (continuing) error is valid (until I hear otherwise from you) - am going to take a look at how to manually fix this.  In the meantime, this is to make you aware of the occurrence.

WR 4.22. Win 7 32 bit.

Regards,
George

5

Feedback & Suggestions / Various comments

« on: June 27, 2018, 12:50:16 am »

Hello again!  Am using 4.22 free and am disappointed that you steadfastly refuse to clean up the setup re preserving user-defined installation directories and the tray icon display and configuration logic.  Guess standing pat has now become a matter of pride - in what exactly remains unclear.

Had occasion to reach for WR after buggering up Win 7 Pro 32-bit while trying some things out during a hard-drive migration without being properly prepared.  Blindly shotgunning, elected a number of basic repair options.  Seems to have gotten me moving forward, but was surprised in troubleshooting a resulting new WMI issue that the "repaired" registry ImagePath for service Winmgmt for some reason pointed to netsvcs rather than winmgmt.  Following troubleshooting guidance and trying to start the service resulted in a run-time error 1083:  "The executable program that this service is configured to run in does not implement the service." (in retrospect: d'oh, really?)  Happily, editing the path with the appropriate service name was sufficient to get it working again.  I'd have thought this to be a basic function in a mature product.  I presume this resulted from the WMI repair but did not loop back to test it to confirm where it got broken.

On a cosmetic user-interface level, spent a little time pondering the System Monitor line at the bottom of the repair screen while chunking through them.  Isn't apparently why the gray and blue backgrounds need to jitter around, but it's visual noise (or else I missed the point of it, also a possibility).  The percent value jumps nonstop from whole numbers like 50 to four-place decimals like 3.1354 and everywhere in between, with a blue-gray divide typically on top of that somewhere partially obscuring the number.  A constant numerical presentation format without multiple backgrounds sliding around would be less tiring to accompany and more easily decipherable while admiring progress.  The Monitor subdisplay is a common denominator across the modules.

Thanks for making WR available!

Regards,
George

6

Tweaking.com Support & Help / Re: Windows Repair task 04 (Register System Files) clobbering Vista VSS??

« on: January 31, 2016, 10:33:06 pm »

Thanks very much to you and your team for your interest and support!

Will mention to close off my earlier comment in this thread about hoping to view (and log) all WR run-time errors - happened to discover while poking around in WR that CMD-window supressed output is a default WR state, and an option is available and readily accessible on the Settings tab under CMD.exe Options to see the "whole story" if desired.  Have not gone back yet to see if it captures both the STDOUT and STDERR streams, hopefully chronologically merged.

7

Tweaking.com Support & Help / Re: Windows Repair task 04 (Register System Files) clobbering Vista VSS??

« on: January 26, 2016, 10:12:23 pm »

Re-examination suggests a corrupted junction point.  NTFS Links View (attached) suggests bad first junction, creating recursive situation that is consistent with DIR errors and Win Explorer directory structure display.

Simple dump of system-drive junctions via DIR, with erred paths following (attached) provided for context.  Those junctions created 7/2015 likely resulted from running then-current WR pre-scan.

Located a sample script file http://pcloadletter.co.uk/2012/03/20/corrupt-windows-7-junction-points/ which appears suitable to manually fix the junction error(s).

Will reflect on this, poke around a bit more, then make NTFS adjustments.

Don't know that this has anything to do with the originally reported (and still existing) system save/restore checkpoint function getting broken, but am going to push ahead, attempting to fix and clean up as I go, see what happens.

Regards.

8

Tweaking.com Support & Help / Re: Windows Repair task 04 (Register System Files) clobbering Vista VSS??

« on: January 26, 2016, 05:40:39 pm »

In search of my unrecorded WMI repair run-time errors, turns out the DIR command (among others?) sends normal output to STDOUT and error output to STDERR.  The WMI repair command window errors that flashed by but didn't get logged appear to have resulted from a DIR (or DIR-like) command.  Running DIR from root-dir down, the errors are captured by doing an output redirect to 2> (rather than >, alternatively 1>).  Here's a brief related MS article: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/110930#/en-us/kb/110930.

Next step is to try to understand current situation and contemplate corrective action(s) while wondering how I got here in the first place.  The error output is attached for reference, if curious.

FYI, and regards.

9

Tweaking.com Support & Help / Re: Windows Repair task 04 (Register System Files) clobbering Vista VSS??

« on: January 26, 2016, 01:20:22 am »

Thanks for your reply.

Discovered NTFSLinksView, looked around a bit, don't see anything obviously untoward with the junctions.

Don't mind (with some level of confidence) throwing stuff against the wall to see what sticks, but would sure like to be able to capture the run-time errors encountered by a diagnostic routine, at least on request.  The errors may not be germane to the specific issue of interest, but can absolutely be of interest in detecting and perhaps later addressing other anomalies that happen to surface during the process.

Lessee, how does it go:  Why break it if it works?  To make it work better, right?

Just one person's viewpoint...

10

Tweaking.com Support & Help / Re: Windows Repair task 04 (Register System Files) clobbering Vista VSS??

« on: January 25, 2016, 01:20:12 pm »

Took another look at the WMI task reported path error to IE Recovery.  Determined that the proper directory structure appears intact and operational, judging from time-stamps - screen capture attached.  That said, don't know what was going on with the reported path-too-long error mentioned above - would seem either the reparse point junction ('AppData\Local' and 'Application Data') is messed up or else WMI repair took a wrong turn - just my uneducated guess but sharing if/as helpful.

P.S.  Reflecting a little more on this, then comparing with another Vista PC - appears 'Application Data' shouldn't even be appearing in Windows Explorer.

11

Tweaking.com Support & Help / Re: Windows Repair task 04 (Register System Files) clobbering Vista VSS??

« on: January 24, 2016, 08:11:54 pm »

Well, have worked on this a bit - have more questions than answers, both in relation to the status of affairs on my computer and what WR is doing or not doing.

As approximately suggested above, tried a relatively full repair set:  tasks 1,2,3,4,5,7,19.  Watching the CMD window, see a lot of errors go flashing by during the WMI repair.  The associated log file shows repeated occurrences of some same nature of error - don't know what's to be done with it.  Most of the log files, attached, show almost nothing and little detail (because "output suppressed to speed up execution" when in fact numerous errors were reported during execution of various repairs.  Interrupting the WMI execution, can't get Snipping Tool to save a capture so manually transcribe one line to a text file, attached.  System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local\Application Data\Application Data\Application Data ad nauseum is hosed (I presume) - directory capture attached.  So in the case of WMI, two different sets of errors that don't intersect - in the case of IE repair, "batch file not found" - which batch files?.  The VSC service repair log says the service is not started.  Check the Services viewer, see it's in manual - after running the repair?

Try running the same repair set one more time, this time adding task 26 wondering how this interacts with VSC service repair leaving it in manual and stopped.  Then checked again, is still in manual and stopped - the normal state?

So long story short, issues have cropped up in my system, from appearances over iterations with time.  WR isn't feeding through the run-time errors it encounters (may be operator error), system issues continue to exist and indications are discarded when abnormal things occur during repair.  Not sure how to best approach this, but sure wish I could get a report of all encountered repair run-time issues to at least get a feeling for scope of corruption.  Would appreciate any other thoughts on how to best proceed.

Thanks, and regards,
George

P.S.  Remembering the suggestion to try Beta Repair, looped back, read about it, ran it.  No change in system behavior re create restore point catastrophic failure.

P.P.S.  In looking through backups to see what was in Application Data previously, realize that AppData/Roaming and Application Data are tied together as/in (?) a junction, related to a reparse point (in my limited understanding).  I do recall on one or more earlier WR repairs having stepped through Option 2 Pre-Scan, and it once having mentioned something related to reparse point corrective actions.  Don't know if related to the oddball recursing hierarchy down to the System32 config etc. IE Restore folder.

P.P.P.S  Updated attachment to include omitted directory pic as intended.

12

Tweaking.com Support & Help / Re: Windows Repair task 04 (Register System Files) clobbering Vista VSS??

« on: January 21, 2016, 05:22:10 pm »

Correct - I first tried the fix approach described above and reported as successful, which was just the VSC Service repair.  I then looped around and tried the fuller sequence, i.e. (re?)break it by (re)registering all services and then fixing it.  Neither worked for me.

Thanks for your several suggestions re what to try next.  Will exercise this over the next several days and report back.

13

Tweaking.com Support & Help / Re: Windows Repair task 04 (Register System Files) clobbering Vista VSS??

« on: January 21, 2016, 03:11:55 am »

Thanks for having exercised this. The problem continues at my end.

- Updated to WR 3.8.1.
- Ran task 19 (repair VSC service) only, rebooted - initiating create restore point ends in same "catastrophic failure".
- Ran tasks 1-4, 19 for grins, rebooted - initiating create restore point ends in same "catastrophic failure".

vssadmin list writers still returns blank.

This is a docked Dell laptop E6400 running Vista Business with all updates.

Would be happy to assist with further information and/or actions if/as helpful.

Note that I received forum e-mail notification of Boggin's acknowledgement of my original post but none since - happened to revisit the thread and discovered the ensuing exchange.

Thanks all, and regards,
George

14

Tweaking.com Support & Help / Windows Repair task 04 (Register System Files) clobbering Vista VSS??

« on: January 15, 2016, 08:43:56 pm »

Ran the first four tasks in the repairs library (WR 3.8.0).  Believe as a result of that the Vista backup and restore function is broken.

Attempting to create backup in System Properties, System Protection says "The restore point could not be created for the following reason:  Catastrophic failure (0x8000FFFF)  Please try again."

App Event Log shows "Volume Shadow Copy Service error: The VSS event class is not registered.  This will prevent any VSS writers from receiving events. This may be caused due to a setup failure or as a result of an application's installer or uninstaller."

Searching for fix to register the VSS event class, find "Beginning with Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, Windows component installation is manifest-based, and most of the registry is locked down even to Administrator. ***However, the VSS binaries in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 still contain the code to perform self-registration. The code is removed in Windows 7 and 2008 R2.***  It is not recommended to re-register VSS binaries in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 or later operating systems."

Continuing, "Starting with Windows Vista and with Windows Server 2008, Windows component installation is manifest-based. Trying to manually register specific components, as described in the following steps, can have unexpected results that may require Windows be reinstalled to resolve."

That said - does task 04 re-register the Vista DLL's associated with the VSS event class, or does it exclude them from processing?

As a side note - now what??

Thanks,
George


P.S.  Realized that the same problem was posted on 1/9.  The additional information above may help to figure out what's going on.

In response to a query in a reply to that post -

   vssadmin list writers returns:  vassadmin 1.1 - VSCS administration cmd-line tool and copyright notice.  No values

   vssadmin list providers returns:  Name: 'MS Sfwr Shadow Copy provider 1.0'  Provider type: System.  Provider Id: <b5946137-7b9f-4925-af80-51abd60b20d5>.  Version: 1.0.0.7