Impulse cant restore archive

I'm having a similar problem, where I've downloaded and archived Company of Heroes, and when I go to Restore Archive nothing happens. I'm on Windows 7 RC.

It appears there are some problems with the Impulse archiving process at the moment. For now, your best bet is to use Impulse Anywhere as a workaround.

http://anywhere.impulsedriven.com/Default.aspx

From here you will be able to download an installer and archive files for the game which you can then use to install on your other PC. Currently only our titles are available via Impulse Anywhere.

Thanks Kendo - from a brief Google search it would appear this problem is really vexing some people at Impulse . . . . . . . for some time now -

My suggestion is that maybe you should just disable it to save people the bandwidth, wasted time and frustration - send everyone straight to the link you gave me. 

My 2 cents worth

Thanks again

Same problem here. And I can only download Demigod in impulse anywhere. This is so lame.

When they will adjust this?

I'm having this problem as well, after upgrading to Windows 7 and restoring a bunch of games.  I've been using the "Download and Archive" option for games that I didn't already have an archive for, and it was working fine until just after I downloaded Elven Legacy.  Now I get the same thing where selecting the "Restore Archive" option doesn't actually do anything (i.e., the file selection dialog doesn't even come up).

The 7-zip file manager's test says the .impulse archive is fine, and it still happens if I move the archives out so that the backup directory is entry.  Restarting the client or rebooting doesn't help either.  I haven't tried redownloading it or using Impulse Anywhere yet since I'm trying not to make my bandwidth quota cry too much... 

Edit: I was able to successfully install another small game afterwards, with the regular "Install" option, but "Restore Archive" remains broken.

Edit edit: I seem to have fixed it, by rerunning the Impulse installer without uninstalling it first and choosing the "Repair application" option.

I just bought demigod and grabbed the archive off a friend but also got the same problem when trying to restore it on my PC. I managed to get it working though. What I did was extract the archive file using the 7za application that is in the impulse directory. I then used the "detect application" feature in impulse and pointed it to the folder where all the files were extracted.

So in more detail my steps were:

1) Copy the 4 files that start with 7z from the impulse folder to the folder where the archive is located.

2) In the command prompt go to the directory where the archive is and type 7za x whateverthenameofyourbackupfileis.impulse

3) Password is the username of whoever created the archive

4) Move the extracted files wherever you want the game installed

5) In the impulse program, click on the orb and choose "detect application" (its underneath "restore archive")

6) Change the Product Catagory to My Games, And choose Demigod under "Product". Then select where you put demigod in the "Application install directory".  (make sure you select the "base" folder inside demigod or it wont detect it.)

And your done.

One thing to watch out for though. From reading other threads it looks like if the person's username has a space in it it wont work as the password coz 7zip doesnt like spaces in its passwords.

But now it wont update the game . Says it wont work with the currently installed version.

edit: FIXED.

The archive I used to install was the latest version but it still thought it needed to update. So I made an archive of it and then restored the archive and now its working all up to date

I think it was because the first archive wasnt under my username and I noticed elsewhere online some guy couldnt update because he had changed his username.

So it was the exact same files just under a different username. Man this program is really borked

I'm having this problem with a different game than Demigod but when I look at the Impulse Anywhere site I only see some of my games.  For example I dont see World of Goo or Project Aftermath, both of which appear fine in the Impulse client software.  My collegue checked his account and Armada 2526 is not shown in Impulse Anywhere for his account.

What gives?

Currently only Stardock titles are available via Impulse Anywhere. Everything else must be downloaded via Impulse.

With Project Aftermath, there's no need to even use Impulse.  Get your registration key and enter it into the copy you download from their site.  It's the full version and unlocks with a valid key.

BattleFella: What you can do is right click on either of those titles and choose the "Download and Archive" option. When you want to restore those archives, you can do that through the Impulse menu accessed from the blue menu button at the top left of Impulse. You can adjust the directory that keeps the archives from the Preferences->Folders section within Impulse.

Mike

My apologies for reviving an old thread, but the above answer ignores the OP.

- The OP says "can't restore from archive"

- response was "use impulse anywhere"

- I responded "title not on impulse anywhere"

- The latest response was "restore it as an archive"

Hopefully someone now sees the flaw in this circular logic?  My latest title, Majesty 2, I can't get it to restore the archive.  How do I get this installed on a system that has limited bandwidth issues?

No response to the above question?

It is long overdue for a response here...

It seems I'm going to have to make this a weekly routine to pop in here...

A reply would make a nice Christmas gift...

FWIW I had the same problem with Storm over the Pacific. Tried to download and archive on 2 different PCs and got the same error when trying to restore. The only solution was to delete the useless archive and just install the game via download.

Thanks, although that really is the issue, that if you don't have a machine directly connected to the net you're screwed.

Happy New Years...

I am having the same problem. Impulse, instead of spending all your time making stupid movies on impulse tv FIX the bugs in the application. I only bought your games because of the features of the impulse client...I am very disillousioned, would rather give my money to steam or some other competitor.

I am having the same issue trying to restore Crysis Warhead from Impulse archive files onto a 2nd PC I have.

Operating system is Windows 7 Home Premium x64 on source and target PC.

Impulse restore task has been tried many times, computer has been rebooted, same issue occurs.

Impulse restore job takes under than a minute to complete, but only creates directories & registry keys for the game.

No actual data is extracted from the Impulse archive file, impulse log files show little.

Crysis Warhead is a 11 gigabyte download, redownloading the game from multiple times from Impulse is not something I am looking forward to doing.

I have also the issue ... i download Sins of a Solar Empire + 2 Addons, archived it with impulse

and as i want to restore it, the application says: Sins restored, but does nothing and when

i want to start the game impulse start to download the complete package.

So what's going on here?

This thread exist for nearly a year and the only answer is: Download Stardock Titles elsewhere and with another

titles you're fu*** and have to download it everytime?

So, Impulse is a complete waste of time?

bump.

I created 4 archives this weekend and none of them would restore. It would go through the motions for about 30 seconds, claim the install was complete, then relabel itself as available. I downloaded and archived those games and then they would restore from those files.

I downloaded and archived Kings Crusade but when I restored it no text was on the menus  or in the game. I had to install the game via the download and then I could select my language for the install. The right text was available after that. I've created archives but I have no idea if they will restore when I need them and I don't want to uninstall the game to find out if it's a good archive.

So on the one had I tried to download and archive, but that failed (Kings Crusade) and on the other hand I downloaded and installed but then could not restore 4 archives that I had created on the same PC. All the files were the right size. GBs of data so they were not partials.

As it is right now the archiving feature in Impulse is not trustworthy and it is trial and error to find out how to create a working backup of your 3 to 5 GB games. It wastes time and I'd like to see this addressed and fixed ASAP.

I have the same problem. I have just tried to restore an archive on Galactic Civilizations 2 and Space Force : Rogue Universe. The files are create along with registry keys. In addition a sig.bin file is made. However, there are no game files or executables.

My internet connection is not the fastest which is why I archive the files. Is there a solution to this problem?

Since one of the games is Galactic Civilizations 2 would you email [email protected] and let them know it didn't archive. This is the answer I received from my support ticket.

"Impulse allows you to redownload your games at any time, so archives are not necessary. The download and archive functionality was designed for Stardock applications, so unfortunately, not all third-party games archive properly using this feature."

GC2 is a Stardock title therefore they should expect archiving to work.

Would you post the answer you receive in this thread?

Thanks

Here was the response I received from Stardock:

"It sounds like the archive is corrupt. There is a way to trick Impulse into to getting everything installed, though you will need to download some, though not the entire game. Navigate to the install directory for the game. Create a blank text file, and rename it to 'GalCivII.exe'. You'll need to have file extensions showing in order to do this. Then go into Impulse, and click the menu button (blue, upper left), then select 'Detect Application'. Point to the install directory, and Impulse should then recognize that it is installed. Then hold down the 'shift' key, and right click on the entry in Impulse, and select 'Verify Installation'. After a bit, it should prompt you for an update. Once the update is complete, you should be able to run the game."

At the time I sent this I thought I was only missing the game executable, however, I am also missing all the game files. The above will download the ENTIRE game again. I sent an email back pointing to this thread. The problem is that now, I can't even unarchive the games anymore because I am receiving a different error from trying to uninstall the empty directories created by the first time I tried. However, I can still download the games if I want.

I have uninstalled impulse and moved on to other things. I am glad I only bought a couple of games from Impulse. Crap like this is why I don't use Steam, Direct2Drive, and now Impulse. I thought I would leave this message since the above poster wanted the response.