Help wanted please to perform backup

For some years I have used Easeus Todo Backup Free without any problems until I recently upgraded from v 5.8 to v 6.5.I have tried to run the program several times but always after a few minutes it stops and my whole system is frozen; I then have to power down and then reboot.With v 6.5 I was able to mount two images created by v 5.8.The Easeus Support people suggested running Chkdsk and HD Tune neither of which showed any problem.They also suggested installing Todo Backup Workstation Trial but this behaved in exactly the same way – i.e. froze my system.

My main drive is a Crucial m4 128GB SSD with two partitions – one for the system and programs (C:/) and the other for data (M:/).My backups are saved to an external WD 500GB SATA HDD.

I have only come across Macrium Reflect in the last couple of days and decided to install it.However I am having precisely the same problem – it stops and freezes my system.The first time I launched the program it ran for about 17 minutes and both progress bars showed 25% and Time Remaining (after moving up and down to a maximum of about 3 hours) of 30 minutes.Thinking that having Todo installed might have some effect on the running of Macrium I uninstalled Todo and re-ran Macrium.This time no % showed for Overall Progress and 0% showed for Current Progress, and neither Progress Bar had any colour.Time Remaining for Overall was 20 hours and for Current was a massive 60 hours.

The fact that I am having the same problem for three different applications implies, to me, that there is a problem in my system.Since Macrium appears to be a very strong favourite backup application, I decided to post my problem on this forum as there seem to be some very knowledgeable posters, who may be able to offer a solution and I will then hopefully be able to use Macrium myself.

richc46 - Thanks for your reply and suggestion. However that is my problem I CANNOT MAKE A BACKUP! Also you will see from my post I have already run chkdsk ON BOTH DRIVES and no problems reported.

You will see that my main drive is a SSD. Do SSD's become corrupt in the same manner as HDD's which have moving parts and can wear out. Both my drives are under 2 years old and are not heavily used.

Thanks Andyrids for your reply. I think both you and richc46 are on the right track. I contacted Crucial Support who said that an issue with the firmware might be the cause of my problem and suggested downloading and installing the latest version. I was a bit hesitant because their website warns against updating firmware without doing a backup first, and I CANNOT DO A BACKUP!! However the lady I spoke to was very helpful and after making further enquiries at her end was able to assure me that I would suffer no harm by doing the update. The update went without a hitch but unfortunately it didn't fix my problem.

I then contacted Western Digital Support who recommended using their Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows. I first ran the Quick Test which gave a Pass result. I then ran the more thorough Extended Test and after a few minutes it displayed an error message stating "Too many bad sectors detected". So back to WD Support who confirmed the disk was still under warranty and arranged to send me a replacement. Fortunately as I only use the drive to store backup images I should have the new drive up and running very soon after receipt in about five days.

I will post again with my results, but in the meantime thank you both for your responses to my problem.

Ah bad sectors being the culprit then... Just for info in layman's terms hard drives have a area set aside where they catalogue any bad sectors once that catalogue area becomes full and more bad sectors appear then the problems start... there is a couple of sneeky ways around this in a desperate case scenario, Drive Image XML would have still been able to image that drive though as is...
Anyway at least you know the problem now and getting a replacement drive from WD that's good :)

As promised this is my update of the problem. WD Support having agreed to replace the HDD under warranty, put that into action late on Monday. The new HDD arrived on Thursday, having been sent from somewhere in Bulgaria via Budapest, Vienna, Paris, Stansted and London. I congratulate WD and FedEx on their efficiency.

I immediately did the necessary formatting of the drive and made a number backups of my C: and M: partitions using Easeus Todo and Macrium Reflect and all went without a hitch.

However I now have another problem and I hope that someone will be able to throw some light on it - Problem with Windows 7 Task Scheduler