[SOLVED] BLBDrive (BLB Drive) driver not available.

Not sure if it belongs to this section, but my image of Win7SP1 X64 Ultimate (created using RC5 and running on VMware Workstation 10.0.0.3) was missing a BLB Drive driver (device with yellow triangle with exclaimation mark).  One probable symptom (other than that an annoying message about not finding the driver from Windows upon every boot) was that I noticed that I couldn't clean the disks in my VM.  Thus, while only 18GB was used, the data was spread out over the whole 60GB disk!

Fixed it by following this link:

http://thehotfix.net/forums/index.php?/topic/21413-what-is-blbdrive/

Text is reproduced here for prosperity's sake:

And if you look at the hardware ID it is shown as DETECTED\blbdrive. Up until now we thought this was something to do with backup, but we now know it is for the �File as Volume� driver. Which probably has something to do with the VHD mounting technologies in Windows 7. The following guide will show you how to fix the unknown device in the device manager.

1. Navigate to %windir%\system32\drivers
2. rename blbdrive.sys to blbdriveold.sys or something similar
3. Go into the device manager and right click the unknown device and click �Update Driver�.
4. You want to find the driver on your own, so select the bottom option.
5. At the screen, select "Show All Devices"
6. Next, click the have disk option, and navigate to C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\blbdrive.inf_amd64_neutral_f7447a670ab06496 (for x64, x86 name should be similar). Select the File as Volume driver and click next.
7. You will be presented with a prompt warning that the device may not be compatible. Ignore the warning and click yes.
8. The device will install. The system tray may report that installation failed, but that is not the case. Reboot when asked and enjoy a clean device

Anyway, hoped that helped someone.  Maybe it's something I removed?  I'm going to create another image using RC6.

Thanks for all the work.  I run Windows to just run Visio and Word (and sometimes Outlook) as a VM on my Mac and Linux boxes so being able to take out a lot of crap really helps!

you probably removed under "Drivers" the BLB Drive, so unselect it.

Theres also a 2nd way, did you remove under Service the Block Level somthing? it also removed this Driver, and i dont know if blb drive will be kept when you activate the Protect Importatnt Files Preset

hi chowyungfatso,

it it work or is the problem still there?

Sorry, I've been busy and I had a drive crash on the server--of course it was the one I had my project files on.  I'll try to check in the next couple days as I need time to recover the files.  I do recall removing some of the optical disc drivers and maybe that was the source of the problem, but will confirm.

Hi KrX,

as you seem to be very very experienced - does it work at your system?

Almost all problems I had during the last months optimizing my windows installation with this wonderful software were caused by myself by either not carefully reading the manual or not looking into the forum  . 

But here I'm still not sure:
Since V3.00 RC2 I also was confronted with the fact, that the device manager was complaining the missing BLBdrive, independent whether I had selected removal or not (in the stored WinReducer configuration file it was usually automatically set to "true" for removal). I expected that it always would work correct, when automatic removing process is enabled and support BLB drive is disabled. Here my different settings and results:

Automatic Removing Process	"false"	"true"	"true"	"true"
Support - BLB Drive ("false" means support kept)	"false"	"true"	"false"	"false"
Block Level Backup Engine Service	"true" "3"	"true" "3"	"false" "3"	"false" "3"
Protect Windows Activation GUI (for a different test)	"true"	"true"	"true"	"false"
BLB driver files existing on C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\...	yes	no	yes	no
Driver intalled and working correct	no	no	yes	no

I'm actually not aware about the difference between the configuration "true" "3" and "false" "3" of Block level backup engine service, but I had expected the driver would also correct work with the first and last of the four different configurations.
Considerated from the description of BLBDrive I would expect that its required for opening ISO files, but those I'm mounting with WinCDEmu. Is it recommended to keep BLBDrive?

Anyway - it was always easy to install the BLBDriver manually via device-manager (only the two files blbdrive.sys and blbdrive.inf had been required from the unreduced windows installation files). As information to those who should have the same problem.

Best regards
archimedes2017

hi,

if you activate:

Automatic Removing Process == true

and select

Block Level Backup Engine Service to remove 

than

Support - BLB Drive

will also be deleted

so if you want to use the Automatic Removing Process just copy the 2 files you mentioned back to their folder "windows\inf" and "Windows\System32\drivers"


i dont really know for what it is, but i keep it because i dont like the missing driver at device manager

I also had this issue, but I resolved it by Updating the driver and point it to blbdrive.inf from another windows source... the inf file creates the service properly.

Hi,
I thank you both for your fast reply - on this way now it works perfect for me!