Logo SoftSwift
software designed to make life run more smoothly
featuring Enhanced Windows Backup
home   products   support   download   buy   contact   about
support home   knowledge base   raise incident   products owned   register product

12040  Unrecognized Media / Unrecognised Media / Backup File is Unusable 
Author:     
Products:    
URL: /Support_Kb.aspx?kbname=unrecognized-media-backup-file-unusable
Created: 20-Feb-2007     Last updated: 20-Feb-2007

If you get an error message like The Backup File Is Unusable or Unrecognized Media when you try to restore from a BKF file, then as the messages suggest, the BKF file may have become corrupted.

This seems to happen occasionally for no reason. We can only assume that write errors are more common when writing to the kinds of media commonly used with backup e.g. external media via interfaces like USB and Firewire. Also, one must conceed that NTBACKUP does not deal with the situation very intelligently. Rather than just invalidating the individual file within the BKF that is corrupt, NTBACKUP refuses to proceed with the entire file. Given the large size of some BKF output files this can render large amounts of data unusable.

The good news is that there are recovery tools available from as little as $100 from third parties (not softswift or anyone with which we are associated). Search for "BKF Recovery" in Google or another search engine and take your pick.

These tools will allow you to repair the BKF file or recover individual files and folders manually.


Click here to view a printable copy of this article                     

   New search

Show all knowledge base articlesShow all Articles