I have not been able to Backup or Restore my C: Drive, nothing happens

Mike Lynch · 27 Dec 2019

Just a 'second' side note / observation.

The situation with Windows Update occurred again today, same symptoms and messages.
I search for a solution and cane across the following which I used and it appeared to fix the situation.
Note that I have not Rebooted so I do not know if the fix will hold.

cmd, run as admin, net stop wuauserv
cmd, run as admin, net start wuauserv

I will now reboot but will have to wait until another Windows Update is available.

Bree · 27 Dec 2019

Mike Lynch said:

Here is what the VSS Log has:

The VSS log says: Backup Aborted! Incremental Backups not supported in the Free Edition.

Incremental backups are a Premium feature. An Incremental will be small because it only contains changes since the last backup. You make a Full, then each time you have changes you want to record you can make an incremental. Each incremental has only the changes since the last incremental, so you need the Full and all subsequent Incrementals to restore the latest image.

You attempted an incremental backup with your Free edition and that's why it failed. You can make Full backups and Differential backups with Free. Each differential has all the changes since the last Full backup, so they tend to be larger than Incrementals, but still smaller than a Full image. To restore the latest image you just need the Full and the latest Differential.

Try again, this time make a Differential image and it should work.

Mike Lynch · 27 Dec 2019

Will do!

Mike Lynch · 29 Dec 2019

It appears that in my eagerness to supply information, I have confused a successful resolution to my dilemma.

MY APOLOGIES TO EVERYONE WHO HAS CONTRIBUTED!

I will start a new thread and fight the urge to second guess by trying 'other stuff' while a resolution is being developed.

Again, I am sorry for the confusion I have caused.

I decided to try and upgrade in place to Windows 8.1.
It took me several Posts and Searches but I found the Retail Version and ordered it.
Prior to that, I purchased an External Drive and ran:

Easy File Transfer to it,
WD Backup to it.
Macrium Reflect to it.

Having nothing more to do, I ran a manual Windows Update and updated with what was offered.
Unlike prior Updates since first reporting this problem thread, Windows Update did not try and run a Creating Restore Point, first, which always fail.
SUPRISE!
Since it did not try and create a Restore Point, I checked to see if the Update was installed, it was.
I then decided to try and create a Restore Point, it worked.
The Restore Point worked and I did not do anything that I am aware of to cause it to work.
Thank you Jesus!