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Repair the Image Backup Drivers

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Adis Alisic
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If you find that you cannot Mount an Image Backup and receive a message in the Image Backup Tools area of NovaBACKUP saying "Unable to mount the image. You may need to reboot," but you know that you have restarted your PC since last installing or upgrading NovaBACKUP software, or if the NovaBACKUP Image Backup Wizard's "Launch Image Backup Tool .." or "Image Backup Schedule" function do not launch or appear to not go anywhere, you will probably need to fix the Disaster Recovery Drivers that are currently installed.

It is important to know that NovaStor makes changes to the Disaster Recovery Drivers (Image Backup Drivers) component in new versions of NovaBACKUP and in some cases the driver component often times does not get upgraded nor removed properly during an upgrade or even new install (if you ever had a prior version of NovaBACKUP installed it may leave leftover remnants of this driver in the Windows Registry) of NovaBACKUP. In some cases it is necessary to remove the driver altogether and that normally cannot successfully be done by removing the entry in Programs and Features, displayed as "Disaster Recovery Drivers" for whatever reason and so that requires the end user to remove Windows Registry Entries associated to the Disaster Recovery Drivers package. The instructions for how to do that are here.

Recommended solution:

If you recently updated to version 19, and are now unable to mount image backups please follow these steps

Please follow this procedure to update/repair the Image Backup Mount Drivers in NovaBACKUP 19.1 when updating from a previous version:

  1. Locate the setup file you used to install the current version of NovaBACKUP on your machine
  2. Run this setup file, when it starts select "Maintenance", "Next", followed by "Change"
  3. Select the drop-down to the left of "NovaBACKUP Image Backup"
    • Select the arrow next to "Virtual Disk Driver"
    • Choose the option "Will be installed on local hard drive"
  4. Select "Next" until you "Finish", if prompted to reboot, choose "Yes"
  5. Close the "NovaBACKUP Download Installer" dialog if it is open
  6. You should now be able to mount an Image Backup

 NOTE: You must reboot the machine to allow changes to the registry\drivers to be applied.

If you continue to have trouble, please follow these steps:

Follow these instructions to download a .reg file to remove previous drivers from the Windows Registry:

  1. First, make sure that you are logged in to Windows as a user with Administrator rights. If you are NOT logged in as a user with Administrator rights currently then these instructions will not work because there will not be enough rights to perform the actions necessary.
  2. Using your web browser download the simple registry (.reg file) fix for this installation issue by clicking this link to download the fix, and be sure to take note of where the file is saved to: 
    http://filestore.novastor.com/Downloads/NovaBACKUP/19.1/NBK_DRDrivers_Remove.reg
  3. Alternatively, you can download the fix in .ZIP format. If you use this method, you will need to extract the .reg file out of the .zip file to continue to the next step: 
    http://filestore.novastor.com/Downloads/NovaBACKUP/19.1/NBK_DRDrivers_Remove.zip
    • NOTE: If your anti-virus or anti-malware real-time protection software blocks .reg files from being saved then you may need to temporarily disable that type of software while you download and run this registry fix. You can re-enable the software after the fix is performed.
  4. Merge it (double-click)
  5. Reboot the machine
  6. Run the NovaBACKUP Setup.exe file
  7. Select Maintenance -> Repair
  8. Reboot the machine once the repair operation completes
  9. Attempt to mount an Image Backup

If this still does not work, please follow these steps before scheduling a Support Booking through a Support Ticket:

First of all make sure that you are logged in to Windows as a user with Administrator rights, make sure the user is in the Administrators Group and that you log in with that user again to Windows if it did not have Admin rights in the first place. If you are NOT logged in as a user with Administrator rights currently then these instructions will not work.

Browse to this folder:

C:\ProgramData\NovaStor\NovaStor NovaBACKUP\Dr\

Delete all of the *.tmp files in the above folder. If no files exist go to the next step.

If you are uncomfortable performing registry changes yourself please follow the previous steps only.

The following steps are for advanced users.

Windows Registry editor contains important Operating System information, if you are unsure about what you are doing please be aware that changing or removing some entries can cause your system to become unstable.

Next, load Windows Registry Editor, by going to your Start Menu and then choose run or search, and type in "regedit.exe", without the quotes, to run that Registry Editor program. Now inside the Registry Editor application locate the vertical scroll bar in the middle of the screen and scroll up to the top-left using the scroll bar and click once on the "Computer" object at the very top left of the program so that "Computer" is what is selected. Now click on Edit menu and then Find and do a find for this registry key and make sure that you enable the "Match whole string only" option check-box at the bottom of the Find screen:

273DCB41A0C230340A390A5933D13024

Once the above registry key is located, delete that entire root level registry key located on the left side of the window pane displayed in the "Registry Editor" program. The entry that you are actually going to delete is the named long key with text that contains "273DCB41A0C230340A390A5933D13024", without the quotes, in the name of that key. You may find up to 10 registry key results in total to delete, and here is an example of the first registry key that you will be deleting:

Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Features\273DCB41A0C230340A390A5933D13024

Now right-click on that registry key using the left-hand window pane for that search result it should already be highlighted for you in gray color and then click "Delete" to remove that entire key. It will prompt you to Confirm Key Delete, answer Yes to delete the registry key. That takes care of deleting the first matching registry key, but there are normally about nine more to be found. Next we will show you how to remove the remaining nine or so entries.

Next, inside the Registry Editor, click on the Edit menu and then click on "Find Next" (or press F3 on your keyboard to perform a Find Next) and continue your find search for the same text string "273DCB41A0C230340A390A5933D13024", without the quotes. Continue finding that registry key and perform a delete on each of the keys that match that string.

An example of all of the registry keys that you may typically find during a Find at this point are shown below in order from first result found to the last result found. Here we see the remaining nine registry keys that were found in order from first to last found entry. Each of these entries can be searched for using the Address Bar area of the Registry Editor to copy and paste in each of the registry keys text string to that Address Bar and press Enter to look for that entry one by one.

Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Products\273DCB41A0C230340A390A5933D13024
Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\UpgradeCodes\B63AE9372BAD7C24186A3B90B1FCC6B2
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Installer\Features\273DCB41A0C230340A390A5933D13024
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Installer\Products\273DCB41A0C230340A390A5933D13024
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Installer\UpgradeCodes\B63AE9372BAD7C24186A3B90B1FCC6B2
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UpgradeCodes\B63AE9372BAD7C24186A3B90B1FCC6B2
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserData\S-1-5-18\Components\22E815E899BFCC645ABF32BBE1CF57D7
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserData\S-1-5-18\Components\D74123BA4797F0342951194F43C84BAA
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserData\S-1-5-18\Products\273DCB41A0C230340A390A5933D13024 

For each result you find right-click on the registry key using the left-hand window pane for that search result it should already be highlighted for you in gray color and do a "Delete" command to remove that entire key. Make sure that from inside the Registry Editor, click on the Edit menu and then click on "Find Next" (or press F3 on your keyboard to perform a Find Next) and continue your find search for the same text screen mentioned above, "273DCB41A0C230340A390A5933D13024",without the quotes, to locate all of the results.

Alternatively you can delete each of the exact mentioned registry keys shown in the above list by using the "Address Bar" (check to make sure the "Address Bar" option is enabled in Registry Editor by clicking on the "View" menu in the toolbar and make sure that the checkbox is enabled for "Address Bar" in this menu) entry box area of the Registry Editor which is the entry box just below the "File - Edit - View - Favorites - Help" toolbar at the top of the Registry Editor application screen. If you go to the top-left of the Registry Editor and scroll up using the vertical scroll bar to the top of the screen you should see an object named "Computer", select that object and then just above where you selected "Computer" in gray color it will show the text "Computer" again in the address location area of Registry Editor. Inside that area you can paste in the entire text string for one of the 9 registry keys mentioned above in to that field to overwrite the contents of that address location field with the copied contents to locate that exact registry key and delete it via the left-side window pane in the result, the key will already be highlighted for you to delete on the left-side window pane, in gray color.

In total you may find about 9 entries to remove which match the"273DCB41A0C230340A390A5933D13024" registry key string.

Now, there may be additional Registry Keys that need to be deleted that do not contain the273DCB41A0C230340A390A5933D13024 text string. At this point while still inside the Windows Registry Editor, locate the vertical scroll bar in the middle of the screen and scroll up to the top-left using the scroll bar and click once on the "Computer" object at the very top left of the program so that "Computer" is what is selected. Now click on Edit menu and then Find and do a find for this registry key and make sure that you enable the "Match whole string only" option check-box at the bottom of the Find screen:

Disaster Recovery Drivers

If the Registry Editor does find a registry key which matches that text string, delete that entire root level key by right-clicking on the item highlighted on the LEFT side of the Registry Editor program screen.

Continue finding that registry key and perform a delete on each of the keys that match that string. Go to the Edit menu and click Find Next (or press F3 on your keyboard to perform a Find Next).

You may find additional entries which match the "Disaster Recovery Drivers" registry key strings.

Delete each of those registry keys if you find them by selecting the already highlighted key on the left window pane which is already going to be highlighted in gray for you to delete. Right-click and delete that entry. Continue finding that registry key and perform a delete on each of the keys that match that string. Go to the Edit menu and click Find Next (or press F3 on your keyboard to perform a Find Next).

Perform the Find command until the Registry Editor displays a pop-up window that says "Finished searching through the registry". Now you are done searching the Registry for these keys. You can go to the File menu and click Exit to exit out of the program. In total you should have find about 10 registry key items to delete.

Now Restart the computer. This step is 100% necessary or everything that you just did will not have any effect if you continue here without the computer reboot.

 

Test After Rebooting Your Computer

After restarting your computer load NovaBACKUP software and when the Home screen comes up click on "Image Backup - Start the Image Backup wizard" and then click on the "Launch Image Backup Tool for Backup/Restore/Boot CD Creation" item. You may need to click Yes here to continue.

To verify that the Disaster Recovery Drivers are installed properly, and able to be utilized, there are two things that you can do now to verify it:

  1. First go to Device Manager in Windows to check to see if the "O&O DiskImage" driver itself is showing up in Device Manager.
    • This driver is 100% required to be in place and in working order in order to be able to Mount an Image Backup to restore individual files. Investigate the Device Manager for a item in the list of drivers shown as "O&O DiskImage". Expand that "O&O DiskImage" section to show the actual driver named "O&O DiskImage Virtual Devices". Make sure that this O&O DiskImage Virtual Devices" device itself does not have an exclamation mark on it to note that the driver is not working properly.
  2. You can now attempt to Mount an Image Backup to restore individual files from the image backup using the "Mount backup image volume to a drive letter" function using the Image Backup Tool -> Tools area using KB article: Mount (and Unmount) an image backup to Restore Files in Windows, keep in mind the image backup file has to be on a locally connected device and not on a network device/path.

Still not working?

If you have valid NovaCare Support for your NovaBACKUP, check your NovaCare Status here, by entering your NovaBACKUP license key at the bottom of the web page, and you are hesitant to perform these steps yourself to correct the Disaster Recovery Drivers to be able to Mount an image backup to restore individual files, feel free to Submit a Ticket.

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