Restore on new windows installation

[garyan2]

You can give it a go, if you want. Just posted pre-release v1.6.7.1.

[technodevotee]

Thanks.

I assume you need to install 1.6.7.1 on the 'source' PC, do a backup then install 1.6.7.1 on the 'destination' PC and do a restore?

[garyan2]

If you want to carry over the registry settings, yes.

If the destination machine gets a backup without registries, then you need to at least perform TV Setup to setup the tuners and recorders in the registry on the destination machine. You don't need to scan any channels, just get the tuners/recorders assigned. The import with 1.6.7.1 will alter the backup IDs to match the IDs in the registry so that is no longer a concern.

Keep in mind, both methods require that the tuners are the same hardware. Don't know if it will work with USB tuners yet, but should.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

[technodevotee]

Thanks Gary. I'll try it as soon as I can and let you know what happens.

[technodevotee]

I installed 1.6.7.1 on the 'donor' PC and did a backup with the Tuners in then shut down the PC and moved the tuners to another PC.

I installed 1.6.7.1 on the 'destination' PC then installed WMC, ran a basic TV setup and tested that the tuners worked.

I performed a restore using the backup file from the 'donor' PC on the 'destination' PC.

The scanned channels and EPG mappings that were on the 'donor PC appeared but when I go into WMC and open 'Live TV' or select a channel in the Guide, I get a message that no tuner is available.

If I try and re-run TV set-up WMC restarts and fails to continue the TV set-up.

I deleted all the files in Programdata\ehome and started from scratch but got the same problem.

I also tried rebuilding the database from within EPG123 Client with the same results.

[garyan2]

Could you send me the backup file from your donor PC as well as the backup created on the destination PC when you did the rebuild database? I obviously had different results here or I wouldn't have published it. support@garyan2.net.

Thanks.

[technodevotee]

I don't have the backup from the rebuild any more so I'll have to do that again. Meanwhile, I'll send you a backup made with the PC working in a basic setup (before restoring).

[garyan2]

It doesn't sound like the same, but when I did a restore on a clean machine, with just the tuner drivers installed, when first opening WMC and trying a channel it would prompt something like "looking for available tuners" or something. It did however start to work after a short amount of time.

I'll take a look at your files and see if I can find anything.

Do you require PlayReady to watch programs?

[technodevotee]

I was going to try restoring on the PC without configuring the tuners at all but EPG123 client opened and closed immediately. I had to configure TV to get it to work.

[garyan2]

Sorry, bit busy at work.

Re: client closing -> The client won't open if there isn't a database yet, so when dealing with a clean WMC you have to at least open WMC a first time so it can create the database. Sorry, this is something I automatically do to make sure WMC will run before trying anything else.

Nothing is crystal clear with the files you gave me. It looks like the destination computer didn't get the registry keys deleted and new ones imported, but not sure if WMC changed some things after import. Also, your destination PC had 4 TBS 6902 tuners while the donor had those 4 as well as 4 TBS 6982 tuners which were disabled. The 6982 tuners are nowhere present in the backup you sent for the destination computer.

If the problem is due not being able to delete your existing registry keys and importing the donor registry keys, we can work on that. BUT, also looking at the registries I am concerned that it still may not work due to a different PCI address/id as seen in "DevPath" and "RootDevice" below. I'll have to ponder this for a bit. I can edit the reg file before import to match the it to what exists in WMC registry, but INI structured files are a pain.

Code: Select all

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Service\Video\Tuners\{71985F48-1CA1-11D3-9CC8-00C04F7971E0}\{2C4C858F-1583-4991-B1BF-979D2206B960}]
"DevPath"="\\\\?\\pci#ven_544d&dev_6178&subsys_00026902&rev_00#4&20553097&0&0000#{71985f48-1ca1-11d3-9cc8-00c04f7971e0}\\{978d88d4-ab27-49d8-b950-d513372a3b25}"
"DevName"="TBS 6902 DVBS/S2 Tuner 0"
"Disabled"=dword:00000000
"SerialNumber"=""
"RootDevice"="PCI\\VEN_544D&DEV_6178&SUBSYS_00026902&REV_00\\4&20553097&0&0000"
"TunerInstanceId"="01"
"DevInstance"=dword:00000000
"SupportedNetworkType"=hex(7):7b,00,46,00,41,00,34,00,42,00,33,00,37,00,35,00,\
  41,00,2d,00,34,00,35,00,42,00,34,00,2d,00,34,00,44,00,34,00,35,00,2d,00,38,\
  00,34,00,34,00,30,00,2d,00,32,00,36,00,33,00,39,00,35,00,37,00,42,00,31,00,\
  31,00,36,00,32,00,33,00,7d,00,00,00,00,00
"ConfiguredTuningspace"=hex(7):44,00,56,00,42,00,2d,00,53,00,00,00

I'm going to back out the registry part of the restore function until I figure something out. You will still be able to restore to a new machine/OS, but you have to perform TV Setup on the new machine; scanning for channels won't be necessary.

EDIT: Scratched out ability to restore on another machine/OS as well. I may be able to gain that back, but need to review some example backups I have to make sure I can match tuners properly between the registry and the backup lineup file.

[garyan2]

Though overall disappointing, I will say that v1.6.7.1 works perfectly for HDHomeRun network tuners. PCI/USB devices are evidently another matter and I'm not sure about other network tuners.

[technodevotee]

Thanks Gary.

I figured out that you have to run an initial setup to create a database before EPG123 client works.

The tuners in the donor PC had their IDs changed at some point possibly when the upgrade to 21H1 happened, which was particularly annoying because I had only just got the system fully reconfigured after installing the new cards and had to do it all again.

I've tried restoring the backup from the donor PC on the destination PC both before and after fully configuring the tuners and always end up with the same results.

I've also tried switching out the registry entries from the destination PC after it has been configured with the ones from the donor PC in the zip file and end up with the same problem.

I've tried deleting the contents of programdata\microsoft\ehome and the all the wmc registry entries before setting up WMC and it doesn't make any difference.

I guess it is down to the tuner mappings in the database?

I knew reconfiguring tuners was going to be a challenge because I have spent hours trying to find a way of doing it and have always ended up with a broken installation of WMC. At least WMC doesn't reject the database with your software like it does with my attempts.

I was looking back at the post by the starter of this thread where they said they had to edit the ID of the tuner in lineup.mxf to get it to work and thought it would work for me but when I imported the edited file, it was rejected because it said something didn't belong in a certain section (can't remember the exact error now). It was odd because I checked the modified file against the original file very carefully and couldn't see that I had introduced any errors.

[garyan2]

I think I figured out a path, at least for HDHomeruns, TBS PCI tuners, and USB HD PVR tuners. Hopefully that will be enough for the majority of tuners out there. I would ask that anyone wanting to support this effort to download v1.6.7.2, make a [Backup] from the client, and send me the zip file which will include the registries so I can see if any other manufacturers do something slightly different.

The end result will be that the registry backup will not be needed to restore on any OS/machine, it is just without the registries the user will need to step through WMC TV Setup up to the point of scanning for channels. No scanning will be necessary; just need to establish the tuners and recorders in the registry prior to the restore.

[garyan2]

I just published v1.6.7.3 that should work for the majority of tuner vendors. If you have multiple PCI/USB tuners of the same model in your system (WMC will show them with a suffix #1, #2, etc), there is a possibility that tuner numbering might get crossed as in #1 from the backup will be #2 after restore. Other than that, I think it pretty much handles the restore very well on different machines/OS installs.

Since registries are not being used, WMC TV Setup has to be completed to the stage of scanning for channels for the new system to work properly.

I'm not going to turn down any more backups from v1.6.7.2 which will include the registries, but unless someone reports a problem I think I'm done with this.

[StinkyImp]

I just published v1.6.7.3...

The notes on that version say:

• added automatic WMC database backups

Does that refer to the database(s) located in the "\ProgramData\Microsoft\eHome\" directory?

Thank you for your clarification!

[garyan2]

Yah, just forcing WMC to create the backup files in the \eHome folder. I am not creating the zip file backup of the WMC backups.

[technodevotee]

I am very pleased to report another success with this new backup & restore feature.

Now that i have reverted to my old tuners, I restored my system to how it was before I 'upgraded' the tuners to the newer model and it is back exactly as it was.

This simply wasn't possible with any of the previous backup and restore tools because Windows had changed the IDs of the tuners between times

WOOHOO! Great stuff! You da man! The boy done good! You are a life saver! I'm sooo happy!

I think that just about says it.

[garyan2]

Thanks. I'm really glad I didn't have to resort to backing up and restoring registry entries.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

[StinkyImp]

Yah, just forcing WMC to create the backup files in the \eHome folder. I am not creating the zip file backup of the WMC backups.

Hi Gary!

Thanks in advance for your insight!

What triggers this backup and will there be a log entry? I may be mistaken but I seem to remember it being mentioned that this backup would be performed either the day before a GarbageCleanup (See Line 33 below) or in conjunction with it.

I started using v1.6.7.3 on the 8th with a network failure on the 9th, so no log on that date.

Code: Select all

EPG123 Log Parser (and Report Generator) - v 1.7.6 (64 bit)
Report Created on 08/11/2021 at 07:04:58
================================================================
     1 [8/8/2021 12:07:10 AM] Entering BuildLineupServices() for 1 lineups.
     2 [8/8/2021 12:07:12 AM] Entering GetAllScheduleEntryMd5s() for 14 days on 63 stations.
     3 [8/8/2021 12:10:23 AM] Entering BuildAllProgramEntries() for 12716 programs.
     4 [8/8/2021 12:12:43 AM] Entering BuildAllGenericSeriesInfoDescriptions() for 1773 series.
     5 [8/8/2021 12:12:45 AM] Entering GetAllMoviePosters() for 401 movies.
     6 [8/8/2021 12:12:47 AM] Entering GetAllSeriesImages() for 1773 series.
     7 [8/8/2021 12:12:49 AM] Entering GetAllSeasonImages() for 1645 seasons.
     8 [8/8/2021 12:12:51 AM] Entering GetAllSportsImages() for 0 sports events.
     9 [8/8/2021 12:12:55 AM] Entering ImportMxfFile() for file  c:\epg123.mxf .
    10 [8/8/2021 12:13:22 AM] Entering VerifyLoad()
    11 [8/8/2021 12:13:27 AM] Entering RunWmcIndexTask(PvrScheduleTask)
    12 [8/8/2021 12:13:27 AM] Entering RunWmcIndexTask(ReindexSearchRoot)
    13 [8/10/2021 12:07:06 AM] Entering BuildLineupServices() for 1 lineups.
    14 [8/10/2021 12:07:08 AM] Entering GetAllScheduleEntryMd5s() for 14 days on 63 stations.
    15 [8/10/2021 12:07:13 AM] Entering BuildAllProgramEntries() for 12551 programs.
    16 [8/10/2021 12:07:20 AM] Entering BuildAllGenericSeriesInfoDescriptions() for 1734 series.
    17 [8/10/2021 12:07:21 AM] Entering GetAllMoviePosters() for 405 movies.
    18 [8/10/2021 12:07:22 AM] Entering GetAllSeriesImages() for 1734 series.
    19 [8/10/2021 12:07:23 AM] Entering GetAllSeasonImages() for 1606 seasons.
    20 [8/10/2021 12:07:23 AM] Entering GetAllSportsImages() for 0 sports events.
    21 [8/10/2021 12:07:29 AM] Entering ImportMxfFile() for file  c:\epg123.mxf .
    22 [8/10/2021 12:08:00 AM] Entering VerifyLoad()
    23 [8/10/2021 12:08:05 AM] Entering RunWmcIndexTask(PvrScheduleTask)
    24 [8/10/2021 12:08:05 AM] Entering RunWmcIndexTask(ReindexSearchRoot)
    25 [8/11/2021 12:07:06 AM] Entering BuildLineupServices() for 1 lineups.
    26 [8/11/2021 12:07:08 AM] Entering GetAllScheduleEntryMd5s() for 14 days on 63 stations.
    27 [8/11/2021 12:07:35 AM] Entering BuildAllProgramEntries() for 12506 programs.
    28 [8/11/2021 12:07:55 AM] Entering BuildAllGenericSeriesInfoDescriptions() for 1745 series.
    29 [8/11/2021 12:07:55 AM] Entering GetAllMoviePosters() for 405 movies.
    30 [8/11/2021 12:07:56 AM] Entering GetAllSeriesImages() for 1745 series.
    31 [8/11/2021 12:07:57 AM] Entering GetAllSeasonImages() for 1592 seasons.
    32 [8/11/2021 12:07:58 AM] Entering GetAllSportsImages() for 0 sports events.
    33 [8/11/2021 12:08:01 AM] Entering PerformGarbageCleanup().
    34 [8/11/2021 12:18:16 AM] Entering ImportMxfFile() for file  c:\epg123.mxf .
    35 [8/11/2021 12:18:41 AM] Entering VerifyLoad()
    36 [8/11/2021 12:18:45 AM] Entering RunWmcIndexTask(PvrScheduleTask)
    37 [8/11/2021 12:18:45 AM] Entering RunWmcIndexTask(ReindexSearchRoot)

===== QUERY INFORMATION (Custom) ===============================
Logs used:		trace.log ONLY
Search String:		Entering
Date Range:		08/08/2021 thru 08/11/2021 (4 days)
Total results found:	37
Query time:		04 seconds

===== GENERAL INFORMATION ======================================
Log Path:		C:\epg123\
Logfile timespan:	6/2/2021 thru 8/11/2021 (71 days)
Total lines processed:	5592

===== SYSTEM INFORMATION =======================================
Operating System:	Windows 7 Professional (64 bit)
Processor:		Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-3220 CPU @ 3.30GHz
Total RAM:		8.00 GB
ehshell version:	6.1.7601.23434
EPG123 version:		1.6.7.3
Last boot time:		August 03, 2021 - 06:13 AM
System Uptime:		08 Days 00 Hours 51 Minutes

If the backup is successful, where would I find it in the ehome folder and how will it be named?

[garyan2]

WMC has the ability to create its' own backups and is what it uses when there is a database recovery. They are located in c:\programdata\microsoft\ehome\mcepgX-Y\backup\lineup, \recordings, and \subscriptions. WMC will create a backup of \recordings every time you add/remove/change a recording request automatically. We found out that it does not automatically create a backup for any lineup changes so that will be the reason that when some folks experience a database recovery their tuner configurations aren't right since WMC restored an old lineup backup. All epg123 will be doing is forcing WMC to create fresh up-to-date backups in those folders.

When clicking the [Backup] button in the client, epg123 will zip the latest WMC backups to backup the backups which of course will be saved in the epg123\backup folder. This is only initiated by the user and is not an automatic thing.

For 1.6.7.2, there will be a log entry during the client run for "Successfully forced a Media Center database configuration backup. Exit code: 0". This is when the WMC backup is done. For the next release, the WMC backup will be wrapped in with the garbage cleanup run and will not be a separate log entry.