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Serviio Deleted half my software on uninstall

PostPosted: Tue Nov 20, 2012 4:58 pm
by Burned
Well The title about sums it up. I wondered why it was taking so long to uninstall. I opened up the details area only to see massive amounts of unrelated software being deleted. I now have no less than 86 software installs destroyed. Those are the obvious ones. No one can change this. That's the way it goes. I have been using computers since the commodore 64 and have never witnessed virtual total destruction. I tried multiple restore points on win 7 64bit pro. They failed do to an error. It is obvious that many people use this software and like it. I am happy for you. This is my experience and I see others with the same experience. Use at your own risk. To the publisher of Serviio, there is no excuse for this being remotely possible on any level. Shame on you!

Additional note. Even after reinstalling Steam It is unable to connect to the internet. It would appear that something in windows is damaged. I will try the win7 disc to see if I can repair it

Re: Serviio Deleted half my software on uninstall

PostPosted: Tue Nov 20, 2012 5:21 pm
by Illico

Re: Serviio Deleted half my software on uninstall

PostPosted: Tue Nov 20, 2012 5:23 pm
by Illico

Re: Serviio Deleted half my software on uninstall

PostPosted: Tue Nov 20, 2012 5:48 pm
by Burned
I don't even know how to respond. There is nothing an end user should be able to benignly do that could cause this. The deeper I dig into this the more likely a complete reinstall of windows becomes. none of the effected programs are seen as even being installed. All programs I am trying to repair are wanting complete installs. My computer was not even recognized by steam when I reinstalled steam. Im guessing the registry is major screwed.

Re: Serviio Deleted half my software on uninstall

PostPosted: Tue Nov 20, 2012 6:14 pm
by zip
Sorry to hear this. The above bug would cause removal of all files in the directory where the Serviio files are installed (by default a folder called Serviio). It won't touch registry.

Re: Serviio Deleted half my software on uninstall

PostPosted: Tue Nov 20, 2012 10:49 pm
by Burned
Zip no offense, BUT something caused this. I was in the process of doing a uninstall of serviio. I couldnt figure out why it was going so slow so I opened the details portion. It was moving fast the only thing I could make out was "stalker shadow of Chernobyl" before I hit the kill switch. I can guarantee the only thing these two programs had in common was C drive. The stalker file still exists but critical files are gone and it will not run. this is just one of scores of programs. I would ask you to consider that I may be telling the truth and the symptoms i describe are accurate. There is no point to making them up.

All of this is absurd but there is nothing I can do at this point. I have purchased a new HD and will start over. I dont want to reinstall windows but may try reinstalling all my software.

Additional: it would appear there is something screwed up with my windows installer. Given this is win7 pro i have been unable to find a windows installer package.

Re: Serviio Deleted half my software on uninstall

PostPosted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 5:40 pm
by mike_s104
Burned wrote:Zip no offense, BUT something caused this. I was in the process of doing a uninstall of serviio. I couldnt figure out why it was going so slow so I opened the details portion. It was moving fast the only thing I could make out was "stalker shadow of Chernobyl" before I hit the kill switch. I can guarantee the only thing these two programs had in common was C drive. The stalker file still exists but critical files are gone and it will not run. this is just one of scores of programs. I would ask you to consider that I may be telling the truth and the symptoms i describe are accurate. There is no point to making them up.

All of this is absurd but there is nothing I can do at this point. I have purchased a new HD and will start over. I dont want to reinstall windows but may try reinstalling all my software.

Additional: it would appear there is something screwed up with my windows installer. Given this is win7 pro i have been unable to find a windows installer package.


If your Windows Installer is corrupt or something else wrong with it, you probably have more issues than you think. Not trying to speak for Zip, but I really doubt that running the uninstall for Serviio from Add/Remove really deleted the files/folders you suspect it did. Your best bet to fix all issues is to do a clean install of Windows. You stated you bought a new hard drive, so I would install Windows on it and use the older drive to copy data off of it to your new drive. Before you do a format on the old drive, I would first find some software to recover deleted data and then find software to check the health of the drive. If the old drive is not dying, use it as a back up and maybe store your data on it and use the new hard drive for the OS and applications.

I wouldn't be surprised if the old hard drive is dying, the old Windows install is corrupt or infected with something.

Another thought is if you don't have hidden files and folders shown already, try that and see if your data is still there. I've seen a virus that hides almost everything but nothing is deleted.

Re: Serviio Deleted half my software on uninstall

PostPosted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 8:02 pm
by Burned
Mike,
Thanks for taking the time to respond. Consider, Win 7 pro, up to date, Avira pro up to date with firewall 15 month old computer hardware. Running fine no problems. virus scans with multiple software manufacturers show nothing. Nothing is conclusive from this, but it does affect probabilities. While serviio is uninstalling i see it deleting non related files. Check the forums. Others have had similar symptoms. What would you think if it were your computer?

Re: Serviio Deleted half my software on uninstall

PostPosted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 11:19 pm
by zip
It is a bug, as mentioned before. Will make a more durable installer for 1.1 (ie always add Serviio folder to the target location). As mentioned before, it deletes all files from the Serviio installation directory, so if you installed it into (let's say c:\Program Files instead of the default c:\Program Files\Serviio, you'd lose all files in c:\Program Files. It won't however, touch your registry. Obviously if the installation files of your programs have been removed, you won't be able to run them.

Re: Serviio Deleted half my software on uninstall

PostPosted: Thu Nov 22, 2012 12:25 am
by Burned
zip wrote:It is a bug, as mentioned before. Will make a more durable installer for 1.1 (ie always add Serviio folder to the target location). As mentioned before, it deletes all files from the Serviio installation directory, so if you installed it into (let's say c:\Program Files instead of the default c:\Program Files\Serviio, you'd lose all files in c:\Program Files. It won't however, touch your registry. Obviously if the installation files of your programs have been removed, you won't be able to run them.




Zip,
Thanks for steppin up. Thats a pretty big matza ball hangin out there. There is nothing to be done about it now. The issue I am trying to resolve at this point is some pieces of software I am trying to reinstall wont install. They are sending back a windows installer error. I have as yet been unable to find a windows installer package for win7 x64. It appears to be the only sys since win 3.11 not to have one. Any input would be appreciated.

Re: Serviio Deleted half my software on uninstall

PostPosted: Thu Nov 22, 2012 5:45 am
by mike_s104
I hadn't read the other posts about the issue since I'm new here. My wife and I loved and used the free version so much I paid for the Pro version. As with any install, you don't to install it with any other programs. It's great Zip was willing to step up and admit the issue and that he's working on correcting it.

If you haven't done anything to the hard drive that had the data removed, it might still be there. I would try some software that is able to recover deleted data to see if you can recover anything. http://lifehacker.com/5237503/five-best ... very-tools

Might be too late, but maybe something to think about in the future. You could backup your hard drive to an external or secondary hard drive, If this happened and you had a backup, you might be able to recovery from the backup. The link below is the software that I've been using for years on my servers and desktops.

http://www.macrium.com/default.aspx

Re: Serviio Deleted half my software on uninstall

PostPosted: Thu Nov 22, 2012 5:42 pm
by Burned
mike_s104 wrote:I hadn't read the other posts about the issue since I'm new here. My wife and I loved and used the free version so much I paid for the Pro version. As with any install, you don't to install it with any other programs. It's great Zip was willing to step up and admit the issue and that he's working on correcting it.

If you haven't done anything to the hard drive that had the data removed, it might still be there. I would try some software that is able to recover deleted data to see if you can recover anything. http://lifehacker.com/5237503/five-best ... very-tools

Might be too late, but maybe something to think about in the future. You could backup your hard drive to an external or secondary hard drive, If this happened and you had a backup, you might be able to recovery from the backup. The link below is the software that I've been using for years on my servers and desktops.

http://www.macrium.com/default.aspx


I did not use the default install because on the download page at the download link either I missed it or it doesnt specify 32 or 64 bit windows. Given that I always assume (yea I know) a 32bit program. I then changed the install from c:\programfiles to C:\programfilesx86. It was later in the day after doing some off site research I found Serviio is a 64bit program. It was at this point I did the uninstall to reinstall in C:\programfiles. Of the thousandd of programs I have installed since 19whatever I have never found one that doesnt create its own subdirectory.

Re: Serviio Deleted half my software on uninstall

PostPosted: Thu Nov 22, 2012 5:53 pm
by will
Did you try system restore as it should usually be able to fix this sort of issue in very little time? If your lucky you will still have a restore point from before hand (if your unlucky you will have lots of restore points since from your attempts to re-install software).

Re: Serviio Deleted half my software on uninstall

PostPosted: Thu Nov 22, 2012 9:39 pm
by Burned
Yea I tried sys restore sadly it said every one was broken. Damn. Of course I'll have to say that over the years I've had mixed results with sys restore (YMMV).