"System Can't Find Path Specified" Error During Backup

I automatically back up my hard-drive weekly to an external drive. For several weeks I didn't notice that the capacity of my external drive had been exceeded. At that point I deleted several of the older data file backups, thus giving me ample space on the external drive to once again perform my backup.

However, several attempts to perform the backup have resulted in the message that "the backup did not complete successfully because the system can't find the path specified". I am at a loss as to why I am suddenly getting this error message, and I have no idea what path is causing the problem.

Any help/advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance............

HammerHead said:

What backup software are you using?
Are you doing a full backup, image or incremental?

Sorry -
I'm using the Backup and Restore utility that comes with Windows 7. I am doing a full backup (system image and data files).

Thanks for any help/advice you can give me..........

kado897 said:

This can sometimes happen if you have deleted something that backup expects. If you go through the configure backup routine it may fix the problem.

That did the trick, although I don't understand why. I guess I will never know what I deleted that backup expected.

Thanks.

HammerHead said:

I know this does not quite match the error message you gave.

Check the destination where your software is set to and make sure you have access.

EX: H:\My Backups

Take ownership and add your account with full priveleges if necessary.

I should have access/ownership because I have been successfully backing up to this external drive for about two years. As the drive began to fill up is when the backups began to fail. I always thought Windows would keep the disk from filling up by regulating the number of images that it kept and the number of data file sets that it kept. But I guess not, so I had to go in and delete several of the data file sets.

But then I encountered the error message until I did the backup reconfigure that Kado suggested. I love Windows 7, but it does keep you on your toes.