A salutary tale

I am scrupulous about backups. I work on a laptop all the time and use Acronis to backup my working file set to a networked PC in the office and to another at home. I do this every day I am at home and/or in the office. I can go back through my backup history for about a year, so if I backup a file with an error in today, I can get back to how it was last week or last month or whenever it was OK. All fine and dandy, I would have thought. I use a password database to store all my passwords for everything; I don�t know most of my passwords, only the one that unlocks the database. The password database file is backed up every day along with everything else. Recently following a fiasco installing Vista SP2 I had to do a system restore. Because the password database file lives with its associated programme in c:\Programme Files\... Windows assumed it was a programme file and restored it to an earlier version, thereby losing some recently added and changed passwords. No problem thinks I, I�ll just restore it from the backup. The Acronis backup is encrypted and guess where the password is - in the password database in the backup that�s encrypted along with everything else and I have no idea what it is. There�s absolutely no way of opening an Acronis encrypted backup without the password so that leaves me stuffed - with software I�ve been developing and can�t get at and the embarrassment of having to go to customers and admit that I�ve lost my passwords to their systems. I now realise that I should have backed up the password database file separately; it's already encrypted anyway so doesn't need further encryption. Sorry about the length of this post, but it�s food for thought.

Oh dear, that was an unfortunate concatenation of events.

That certainly points out the dangers of encryption. I've had similar problems in the past with encrypted file systems on Windows.

I know it's too late to say this, but the moral is to keep a separate list of important passwords.

I guess you've contacted acronis and explained the problem...they may have a solution...

is it possible to undo the system restore? (or to restore to a later point?)

I've not contacted them, but I've looked at their knowledge base.

Tried that, but after all the messing about the only restore point I now have available is the one set by the latest installation of SP2.

In reply to a post by chippy2:

There�s absolutely no way of opening an Acronis encrypted backup without the password so that leaves me stuffed - with software I�ve been developing and can�t get at and the embarrassment of having to go to customers and admit that I�ve lost my passwords to their systems. I now realise that I should have backed up the password database file separately; it's already encrypted anyway so doesn't need further encryption. Sorry about the length of this post, but it�s food for thought.

keep both the password database and the acconis passwords separately and backed up seperatily

As for your current situation.

Can't you borrow a spare hdd, Reinstall one of the arcnosis back ups that you do know the pw to and hopefully loose the least amount of work and passwords as possible.

As for client passwords, is there any way of resetting them?

As a last resort, try looking within C:\System Volume Information\ for a file with the same extension of about the same size and correct date of the one you lost. You may have to change your permissions on this directory to look at it.

As a matter of interest, what was the file extension of the lost password D/B?
Cuz I don't believe Windows Restores assumes every file in \Program Files\ is a program but only backs up executable files and associated files, going by their extensions. So it will only back up and restore files that look like these. For instance, it never backs up .TXT or .LOG files in \Program Files\.

As for your present predicament, it may well be worth looking for your database file under "C:\System Volume Information" where the system restore saves its files.

If is normally hidden and access is forbidden but that can be rectified.

http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-5...

Tim.