Last backup did not complete successfully, access denied

I am trying to use Windows backup for laptop to external drive. Did it once before, no problem. I deleted old backup, ran again, seemed to run fine but got message that it did not complete successfully 0x80070005. Click "more information" and it says access denied. Looking at the drive with explorer, I see

Windows image backup
(Computer name)
Backup (date)
(name).vhd
(name).vhd
Catalog
BackupGlobalCatalog
GlobalCatalog

All files have dates of the day I made the attempt
The first .vhd file is 47MB, the second 254 GB, which is probably all I have on disk
To see what it actually is, I tried restore, browse for files, and it comes up with a backup from months ago, probably the one I deleted. Maybe should have deleted using backup program, not explorer. I can drill down in this and see individual files, but did not try to restore.
Clicked on "choose another backup to restore from, it activated the drive but came up with the same one.
What do I do?

Thanks, Shawn
I started Backup and used it to delete all previous backups and images. It said I had 933GB of 933 GB free. I went through the Settings and could not find anything about resetting, it just asks what I want to back up and I left it as "let windows choose" and also the location for the backup. The only thing it found was my external drive, which I OKed. Ran backup again, it got through the "making shadow copy" and a few minutes later said that it did not complete successfully. Again, "more information" gives me access denied.
Now the files on the external drive are:
Backup Set (previous attempt date)
__Backup files (previous attempt date)
____Backup files 1.zip (185MB)
__Backup files (todays date) (empty)
WindowsImageBackup (empty)
Thanks

I don't know what that means. I shut down backup and started it again, but cannot find anything about resetting.

Thanks again. I used your tool to reset Backup including schedule. Restarted, backup said 'not set up". Took default settings, started backup, failed after a few minutes, same error.
Is there another program that I should consider that would be a little more user friendly, like maybe having useful error messages?

comfuted said:

Thanks again. I used your tool to reset Backup including schedule. Restarted, backup said 'not set up". Took default settings, started backup, failed after a few minutes, same error.
Is there another program that I should consider that would be a little more user friendly, like maybe having useful error messages?

If you purchase a Seagate, WD or Maxtor, you can get the Acronis Trueimage software (free) and make an image of your OS and

put it on your external hdd.

If you need to recover your OS ( including programs, updates, etc) you can do it with a few clicks.

You can also use Easeus for free and any hdd will work.

Seagate - DiscWizard | Seagate

WD - WD Support / Downloads / EIDE (PATA) / WD Protg

Easeus - EASEUS Todo Backup Free 4.0.0.2 Download for Windows / FileHorse.com

Good luck -:):)