Windows 7 - Backup to an external hard drive?

Hi, I'm trying to use the Windows 7 Backup to generate a backup which I want to export to my external hard drive. But it keeps failing, is there a way I can use some other program of find a solution?

2 great programs: Macrium Reflex (free)
Acronis (30 day free trial)

Both are highly promoted by members of this forum.

See if you can save your Windows 7 backup image to a primary formatted partition on your HD, then copy it to your external drive.

That way you have a recovery partition ready to reimage your HD by booting from the Windows 7 DVD Repair console or Repair CD, and an external backup in case of HD failure.

Here you go ( http://www.sevenforums.com/software/...e-macrium.html ). Could not be easier.

The backup to an external drive failure is a problem that Microsoft is aware of and have created a "Hotfix" for this problem although it is in a beta version. I applied that hot fix to my system and it fixed my problem so I would sugest if you are having problems backing up to an external hard drive, get the software update first and install it on your computer.

Would you be so kind to provide the link to the hotfix, please.

What exactly is the problem?

With a lot of external hard drives, they are unfortunately formatted as FAT32 for compatibility with other OS's and systems. FAT32 cannot handle a single file over 4GB...which a backup program is easily going to surpass 4GB. Neither Macrium or Acronis will overcome this unless they break up their backups into multiple files under 4GB in size.

This is really important so if you could please post the link it could be helpful to many who are experiencing this.

Is it this NVidia chipset issue? http://support.microsoft.com/kb/976972

This problem affects the NVidia chipset. Here is the link and a warning on this hotfix from Microsoft although this update does work.

"WARNING This hotfix has not undergone full testing. Therefore, it is intended only for systems or computers that are experiencing the exact problem that is described in the one or more Microsoft Knowledge Base articles that are listed in "KB Article Numbers" field in the table at the end of this e-mail message. If you are not sure whether any special compatibility or installation issues are associated with this hotfix, we encourage you to wait for the next service pack release. The service pack will include a fully tested version of this fix. We understand that it can be difficult to determine whether any compatibility or installation issues are associated with a hotfix. If you want confirmation that this hotfix addresses your specific problem, or if you want to confirm whether any special compatibility or installation issues are associated with this hotfix, support professionals in Customer Support Services can help you with that. For information about how to contact support, copy the following link and then past it into your Web browser:"

KB Article Number(s): 976972
Language: All (Global)
Platform: x64
Location: (http://hotfixv4.microsoft.com/Window...tl_x64_zip.exe)

To PParks:

Your wrong about the Fat32 incompatibilty and the 4GB limitation. I have two external hard drives. My Western Digital 1TB HD is formated NTFS and my Iomega 500GB HD is formated Fat32. They both are seen by my Windows 7 system and I have copied between 8GB-16GB worth of files back and forth between my dual internal hard drives and both external drives. Please put out the correct information so that the people who know less about computers will be directed in the right direction instead of becoming more confused...