NTBackup Cannot Detect Windows XP Backup File Corruption Article

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NTBackup Cannot Detect Windows XP Backup File Corruption

Performing a scheduled data backup is one of the best practices against an unexpected data loss.

Author: Larendaniel

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NTBackup, the Windows built-in backup utility, helps Windows users in this respect by offering some advanced features like no other utility can. This tool is a part of Windows versions like, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, and Windows 2000 and creates BKF files, which store all the required valuable files and folders. After you run a backup schedule using NTBackup, it is recommended to run a verification pass to determine the validity of your backup. However, due to some limitations of NTBackup utility, sometimes the BKF file corruption might go undetected. Consequently, when you try to restore the data from backup, it might report errors indicating that the BKF file is corrupted. Since there is no Windows utility to repair such corrupted files, the only solution to extract data from them is to use a BKF Repair tool.

Before explaining the method that NTBackup employs to check the integrity of BKF files during verification pass, let's first consider a realistic situation in which such problems can occur. Suppose you are a Windows XP user who uses NTBackup utility to create backup of relevant files. As a precaution measure of file corruption, you run the verification pass by NTBackup and it reports the BKF file fine.

A data loss event occurs and you have no alternative other than the BKF file to restore files. But contrary to your expectations, BKF cannot be restored. On trying to open the file, it gives the below or similar error message indicating file corruption:

“The backup file is unusable”

Reason of this behavior
NTBackup implements checksum comparison method using word-wise XOR operation (eXclusive OR) to find out the reason for corruption in BKF file. It fails to detect file corruption if corruption exists at the same location in a word and the number of times it occurs is even. As a result, when you try to restore a BKF file, although it has passed verification by NTBackup, it is reported as corrupt.

Solution
Use a third-party tool to Repair BKF File. These are exclusive BKF Repair applications available for scanning and repairing a corrupted Windows NTBackup BKF file, irrespective of the cause of corruption.

About Author

I am Laren Daniel, professional author writes articles for Software handing issues such as file corruption, application malfunction and provides information regarding best recovery softwares for bkf repair, ms backup tool, hard drive backup etc.Get more details on http://www.repair-bkf-file.com.

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