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Also, in order to find out if it's Kickstart timing out or a broken archive, please try extracting your backup file with Akeeba eXtract Wizard, our free desktop application (we have Windows, Linux 32-/64-bit and Mac OS X version). In your reply, please tell us if that worked and attach the backup log file of the backup you are trying to extract. Thanks!

Hello Charles,

The contents of the files are completely and utterly irrelevant. As far as Akeeba Backup is concerned, files are byte streams. They are read as byte streams, they are written as byte streams. It's a backup tool, for crying out loud! Backup tools do NOT interpret the data they are backing up. The whole concept of a backup is that the restored site is indistinguishable from the original site, on a bit-level comparison. So stop telling us what the files are, because it is irrelevant. To give you an idea, it's like going to the mechanic and saying that your car doesn't start ever since you put that coconut-scented deodorant in your car, while normally you use the lavender-scented one. This is the degree of relevance we're talking about here.

Putting you back on track. Kickstart can't extract the archive, Akeeba eXtract Wizard can (with the SAME archive). This is enough proof that the backup archive IS NOT CORRUPT. One more reason to stop obsessing with the INI files.

Therefore, you have one of the following problems:
- Kickstart times out. This is normal. You are using a Windows PC. Compared to a Linux server with the same specs, a Windows PC is 5-10 times slower. One workaround is to edit your php.ini file and set the max_execution_time=120, then restart your server. Please don't ask me how to do it, ask in the XAMPP forums; I can not provide support for XAMPP.
- You have a permissions issue. Yes, Windows 7 can have permissions issues too. In fact, Windows 7 DO have permissions issues in an out of the box XAMPP installation. At least they did about 18 months ago when I last used XAMPP on Windows 7. Please follow our troubleshooting instructions (hint: look under the Local Server header).

Hello Charles,

As you saw yourself, the actual content of the INI files was completely irrelevant to the solution of your problem. One more thing. I never called you ignorant. I was trying to explain to you why the contents of the backed up files are irrelevant to the issue at hand, which is what you proved to yourself but still don't realise.

I will also remind you that in my reply I wrote and I quote:

Kickstart times out. This is normal. You are using a Windows PC. Compared to a Linux server with the same specs, a Windows PC is 5-10 times slower.

I was right on the spot. Your logs directory contains big log files. Since you're on a Windows PC, it takes way too long to extract them. Had you tried following my advice regarding max_execution_time you'd still be able to use Kickstart.

So, thank you for your ironic reply. Next time I'll try helping someone, I will just tell them what to do, not try to explain to them why they have to do it.

Charles,

I am making educated guesses. It would really help if you'd upload your backup log file so that I can see what is contained in the webstats folder. Please go to Akeeba Backup's back-end, click on View Log, select the Backend origin, click "Download Log File", place that .txt file into a ZIP archive and attach that ZIP file with your next post. You can attach a file using the "Attachment" area, right below the main reply textbox.

OK, I can see that the backup which doesn't restore using Kickstart has 67 AWStats processed files in the webstats folder. Since their names are very long, you may be hitting a known Windows issue, where files are unwritable if their full path is over 200 characters. Don't you love Windows? I loathe it for all the pain and suffering it has caused me with its quirks since I started my career as a developer in the late 90s, but that's another story... In this case I'd recommend the following:

- Do exclude this directory from your backups, but not just because it causes a problem restoring your site locally. When you try to restore that backup archive on your live site, the presence of those files will make it impossible to restore it. The reason is that this directory is readable (hence Akeeba Backup can read it and back up its files) but it's not writable - and it shouldn't be! This will cause Kickstart to fail on your live host. It's exactly the reason the "Files and Directories Exclusion" was initially built for about five years ago: I was backing up my server's stats folder, causing inability to restore my site.

- I strongly recommend using Akeeba eXtract Wizard to extract the backup archives on the local host. It's much faster and doesn't crash when a file is unwritable due to the length or the presence of forbidden characters in the filename; it simply skips those files, something that Kickstart cannot do, yet.

- When restoring to your live host, you can most likely (I'll give it a 95% probability) use Kickstart. If it fails, use eXtract Wizard and upload the extracted files. That's why I give you multiple ways to do everything in Akeeba Backup; I try to keep all bases covered!

You're welcome!