nbi file missing or lost

[d2mrp0]

My company's servers (3) were hosted by a 3rd party. We asked them to burn off all software to DVD (OS, Apps, Data) and ship back to us. They had no DVD burner so we bought Nero 6.10w and a Sony DVD burner and shipped it to them - they burned the DVD's and sent them to us. We then closed the hosting account. We copied the DVD's to a backup server using win explorer.

Recently we received a request for a report on this data and tried to restore the SQL database from the windows folders. We found our SQL backups had extensions on them "nc_" .We soon realized the hosting company had used the Nero software to do the backups AND burn the DVD's (they neglected to tell us this). So we ran Nero restore and were able to restore two of the servers, successfully finding the .nbi for each backed up server on the last DVD. However, we got to the last server which has 14 DVDs, and there was no nbi file on the last DVD. We called the hosting company and they don't know how many disks there were supposed to be and besides "we shipped you everything."

So, I have one server that needs to be restored. I am holding 14 DVDs but no associated nbi file. The data is there but with this nero compression/extension nc_.

My question is: how do I restore my data without this nbi key? Is it possible? I am in a bind and would appreciate any help you can give.

Thanks,

Malcolm

[CCampbell]

Hi Malcom,

The NBI file would make things easier of course, but you can recover the data manually. Just double-click on any .NCO file and even without having Nero installed on the system, a windows Explorer window will open and allow you to manually restore the files. If the content was Password Protected, a window will pop up asking for the password, and then the windows explorer window will apear to allow you to manually restore the files.

As for the missing NBI file, I hope the last disc is not missing as you may loose some data if it's not just a case of our software not writing the NBI file to the last disc.

You could contact the company that did the back for you, and if they have not erased the system, they could go to the below directory and locate the missing NBI file as our Nero BackItUP software always writes the NBI file to the last disc, and it makes a copy on the C: drive in the below location as a backup, just in case.

C:\Documents and Settings\<Your Computers Name>\Application Data\Ahead\NeroBackItUp\Info Files


You need to grab the NBI file as well as the NB.txt file. You'll need need to do the followin steps...
1) Place the last disc in your Recorder
2) Copy the contents of the last disc do your Hard Drive by manually draging and dropping to a folder using Windows Explorer
3) Place the NBI and NB.txt file in the same folder
4) Now using Nero Express or Nero Burning ROM, burn the contents of this folder that contains the backup data and the NBI and NB.txt file to a CD or DVD.
5) Now try and restore selecting the NBI file from the disc you just created.

Regards,

Craig

[d2mrp0]

Hi Craig,

Thanks for the response. We've confirmed that there is no missing (last) DVD disk. I spoke to the hosting company and they provided disk space/usage reports that indicate that our data for this server would fit on 14 DVDs, not 15; I can definitely confirm this by looking at drive space reports that pre-date the backup. So it looks like the Nero backup didn't burn a .nbi file to the last DVD disk, but I don't think there is a way to confirm this or not.

I've checked the backup and there are no .nco files. There are however nc_ files. These tend to be large files, 2Gb. I suspect these are the .nco files you mentioned?

I double click on them in win explorer and get windows information messages, both with Nero Backitup Restore headers:

1) The folder does not exists, do you want to create the named folder?
2) Selecting YES gives the infomation message "Sorry, the folder cannot be created. The path is not correct."
3) Selecting NO opens up a SAVE FILE window, with options to save as file type NC_File and .nco file. Both save attempts fail with the message "Unable to decompress the file."

I also changed the file extensions from nc_ to .nco and got the same response "Unable to decompress the file."



Additionally I opened a ticket with Nero support and received a command to run from the cmd line, which also didn't work. Here's the command:

Backitup.exe /NEW:Restore /PATHLIST:"your_folder_1;your_folder_2; ...;" <return>

I tried these instructions on 3 different machines and got the same result, which was the Nero restore gui launching and a restore files/directory check box which I was unable to check. I had two other programmers follow the instructions to see if they got the same result, and they do. There are no error messages or error conditions, beyond the checkbox (that won't check). I've responded back and am waiting to hear if there are any other things. I've specifically asked how to decompress this .nc_ file. If I can decompress this one 2Gb I think I can get the data my company needs.

Thanks for any suggestions. I think this is a common problem because my original post has almost 100 reads!
Malcolm

[CCampbell]

Hmm,

Let me check with our Engineers. In all my backups, I've only had .NCO files created, none that were .NC_

Maybe an Engineer can tell me when a file with extension .NC_ would be created instead of the standard .NCO, and what the significance of it is.

I'll get back to you after I hear from Germany.

Regards,

Craig

[d2mrp0]

Great, Thanks Craig.

Malcolm

[CCampbell]

Hi Malcom,

I've recieved an explanation from our Engineers, and not that he's explained it, it's obvious to me.

The .NC_ file extension is actully splitted compressed file.
When an .NCO file is splitted because space on the media has run out, then both the splitted files have the extension of .NC_
It is restored by BackItUp when opened with .nbi file because information about splitted files is stored in the .nbi file.

However you can restore it manually in the following way...

Add the contents of second .NC_ file to end of first .NC_ file. Meaning you need to merge the two files.
After merging two split files it becomes a complete .zip format file. It can now be decompressed by using any .zip decompression tool.
If you change the newly merged file to an extension of .NCO, it can be restored by NeroBackItUp by double clicking on the file.

Regards,

Craig

[d2mrp0]

Craig,

Thanks, this is great info. I will try this and let you know!

Malcolm

[d2mrp0]

Hi Craig,

Well I wish I had some good news to report, but alas, I do not. We successfully joined all the .nc_ database backup files but get exactly the same results as previously mentioned (can't find path/unable to decompress file). I think we are out of options at this point, unless we can send the disks to Nero and have them take a look to see if they can restore this data? Do you know if they do this?

Thanks for all the help.

Malcolm

[CCampbell]

Hi Malcom,

Hmm, strange. I did the test here, merging 2 files and then opening them with WinZip worked fine for me.

You can send them to me, and I'll do my best to recover them. Just send me an Email at Techsupport4@nero.com and I'll give you my address.

Regards,

Craig