Windows Backup and Restore

jcunn25 · 31 Dec 2009

Subject: Windows Backup and Restore

I just purchased a USB back up drive. My drive image attempts using Windows Backup and Restore completes up to 99% and then hangs up and tells me that it could not make a shadow image. Error code 0x80780034. The drive has plenty of space and copies other files without difficulty.

Has anyone experienced this and found a solution?

Crispy · 01 Jan 2010

Download Seatools and backup your computer like that: | Seagate

jcunn25 · 01 Jan 2010

Crispy said:

Download Seatools and backup your computer like that: | Seagate

Seatools appears to be a diagnostic utility and not a backup program unless I missed something.

richc46 · 01 Jan 2010

jcunn25 said:

Crispy said:

Download Seatools and backup your computer like that: | Seagate

Seatools appears to be a diagnostic utility and not a backup program unless I missed

something.

You can get a great back up utility for free. I use it myself, Paragon

You can back up your entire HD. Put it in a safe place, until needed. It would be wise to update, once a week or so

http://www.paragon-software.com/home/db-express/

Crispy · 01 Jan 2010

jcunn25 said:

Crispy said:

Download Seatools and backup your computer like that: | Seagate

Seatools appears to be a diagnostic utility and not a backup program unless I missed something.

Seatools is used for cloning HDD's I used to use it when I worked in IT.

gregrocker · 01 Jan 2010

See if the Win7 Backup Imaging is functional by using the CMD to image only one drive:

SIW2 said:

Try running Windows System Image from the command line.

That way, you can select any partition(s) to image, and any location to store the image:

I did it like this:

Open an elevated cmd and type

C:\windows\system32>WBADMIN START BACKUP -BACKUPTARGET:G: -INCLUDE:C: -QUIET

That will make a backup image of C and store it on G.

If you repeat it - or set up a scheduled task - successive backups will be incremental.

Restore from the boot disc as usual - it will restore to the same offset - you can't restore anywhere else - again , as usual with Windows backup.

pparks1 · 01 Jan 2010

I had a similar problem before and it turned out to be my 100MB system reserved partition that had less than 50MB of space at the time that was the problem. It wasn't my external drive at all. I actually had to mount the 100MB system reserved with a drive letter to see the free space. Then, about 20 minutes later, doing nothing myself...it had more than 50MB free. I tried the backup again and it worked fine.

jcunn25 · 02 Jan 2010

richc46 said:

jcunn25 said:

Crispy said:

Download Seatools and backup your computer like that: | Seagate

Seatools appears to be a diagnostic utility and not a backup program unless I missed

something.

You can get a great back up utility for free. I use it myself, Paragon

You can back up your entire HD. Put it in a safe place, until needed. It would be wise to update, once a week or so

Free Backup Software: Paragon Backup & Recovery 10 Free Edition - Overview

I downloaded Paragon as you suggested and it seems to have completed the backup without a hitch. Thank you Rich for the suggestion.

Jim

pjaj · 22 Nov 2010

pparks1 said:

I had a similar problem before and it turned out to be my 100MB system reserved partition that had less than 50MB of space at the time that was the problem. It wasn't my external drive at all. I actually had to mount the 100MB system reserved with a drive letter to see the free space. Then, about 20 minutes later, doing nothing myself...it had more than 50MB free. I tried the backup again and it worked fine.

There are a whole slew of related problems on the Microsoft W7 forums. It would appear that a lot of backup failures (various error codes and messages) are down to the semi-hidden 100Mb system partition being too small. You don't have to mount it or give it a letter to see it, it will show up on any disk management utility including the one built into Windows 7 Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Storage - Disk Management where it is called "System Reserved". Although you can't explore it from here.

I believe you could use this utility to resize the System Partition, but I installed a third party utility (EASEUS Partition Master 6.5.2 Home Edition - free download). First shrink the other partition(s) on the same disk to give, say, 300Mb of unallocated space next to the system partition, then expand it to use all the new space.

Try your backup now.

I believe that the root of the problem is that, over time, the system accumulates more and more system restore points (or they get larger, I'm not sure which) until there is not enough spare space on the original 100Mb drive to create the shadow copy. Once this happens the backup fails with one of several error codes and messages. One other proposed solution is to delete your system restore points. This does reportedly solve the problem, but only if you also like tightrope walking in a high wind without a safety net!

.

Why MS wrote their backup utility this way eludes me

. Why, after knowing about it for over a year, haven't they issued a fix?