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R-Drive Image recovery disc and mapped network drives

Posted: Mon May 22, 2017 1:03 am
by eanderson-plex
I am having a small issue with R-Drive Image. I have used the product for many years, but I only really use the R-Drive Image recovery disc. I generate recovery images for my servers/workstations, and in one environment I create/restore these via a mapped network drive. I successfully did this using a 6.0 version back in Feb 2017. I am now using 6102 (I know there are newer versions available, but I'm not positive this is an R-Drive issue yet). I have also looked at the changelog, and nothing jumps out at me that says that my issue would have been fixed/addressed in a future version of R-Drive Image. My problem is that I cannot successfully verify an image created on the mapped network drive. I have attempted several troubleshooting steps:

- I can successfully create/verify using a USB Dock and a SATA harddrive.
- If I copy the images created via this USB Dock and SATA harddrive to the network share location on the server I can:
- Successfully verify the integrity of the images
- Restore from the images

I have implemented some security policies on my 2012R2 domain controller (where the shares are located), but if all of the above work, I'm not aware of anything that *should* prevent creating the images from working also. The images restored and/or verified range in size from 6G to 26G.

I have tried using multiple client machines, but the same primary network switch and server for all testing.

Also in testing, I can create an image of a single partition (very small) and it works just fine, but the larger image sizes 6G to 26G fail to verify.

Any help/guidance is appreciated.

Re: R-Drive Image recovery disc and mapped network drives

Posted: Mon May 22, 2017 10:13 am
by Alt
Any chances of disruptions in network while imaging?

Re: R-Drive Image recovery disc and mapped network drives

Posted: Mon May 22, 2017 7:42 pm
by eanderson-plex
I don't think so. I have tried (with identical results) over a clean network with no other systems on high-end fiber switches, and a SOHO ethernet switch. Also, this worked just a couple of months ago. Something has changed and I am trying to identify what (r-drive boot disc or my server setup).

I have successfully managed to get a 600MB image created/verified over a mapped network drive, but larger images (smallest I've managed to generate in a test unsuccessfully is 6GB) fail to verify. Again, if I copy a good image to the network share from the server directly, I can verify even a 26GB image over a mapped network drive successfully. I think this is something on the create side. I found an area where I can disable caching of files, and where I can optimize files on this share for "video"... so I think between those two options I might be on to something. I'll report back what I find.

Re: R-Drive Image recovery disc and mapped network drives

Posted: Tue May 23, 2017 12:54 pm
by Alt
What are OS of the client machines?
If you create an image over the network and them copy it to a USB drive, can you verify the image?

Re: R-Drive Image recovery disc and mapped network drives

Posted: Tue May 23, 2017 6:43 pm
by eanderson-plex
Update:

I use ONLY the System Recovery Boot Disc for creating/restoring images. They worked before, but not anymore-ish. I have attempted both CentOS7 and Windows 7 Client Images. Create directly to a USB/SATA dock, copy to the network share via the server OS and I can verify over the OS from any network-connected machine. So I think my network is stable.

I found an option to split my files (something I've never had to do before)... and did more testing:

512MB chunks worked and verified.
2GB chunks worked and verified.
6GB and 10GB images (whole files) failed to verify.

I still don't know what changed, but I have a work-around. It sounds like it is server-side or network policy... but I don't have a clue what would cause this behavior. The server OS has not changed (outside of GPO or something). NTFS filesystem, MS Server 2012R2 OS. I have not tried to copy the USB/SATA dock files over the network from a full OS, then verify with the boot disc... sounds like another variable to test...

Re: R-Drive Image recovery disc and mapped network drives

Posted: Wed May 24, 2017 4:52 am
by Alt
eanderson-plex wrote:Update:
I have not tried to copy the USB/SATA dock files over the network from a full OS, then verify with the boot disc... sounds like another variable to test...
If you try this test and it fails, the problem is surely with the network.

Re: R-Drive Image recovery disc and mapped network drives

Posted: Wed May 24, 2017 3:01 pm
by Alt
Have you installed the latest updates connected with the WannaCry virus? If yes, wait for the next release of R-Drive Images. You may try it for one month for free, fully functioning.