Backup Constantly Fails

[richc46]

I liked that comment. By lost each other I meant we were one on one, until a few others came by.

 

[eldinv]

Question your disk management screen shot only shows one disk and one optical drive?

Do you have another screen shot that shows something else?

You trying to backup the C-drive (OS) and save the backup to your D-drive, bad idea!

I also use Macrium and find it more user friendly. You will still need a second physical drive.

Good luck!

 

[mjf]

I use MS imaging and file/folder backup as well as Macrium (as a backup- excuse pun). Irrespective of the virtues of putting images/backups on a seperate partition of the same drive the fact is that you should be able to. If it was me, I wouldn't be happy until I found out why MS backup wasn't working.
Given that you seem to tried most things I guess you've scanned your HDD for bad sectors?

 

[Maxxwire]

This is what you do. Make a back up and put it away and forget about it.

Make weekly backups in a separate location

Right on! Doing this has saved me 100's of hours of manual restoration.

~Maxx~

 

[WitchKing9]

I liked that comment. By lost each other I meant we were one on one, until a few others came by.

Oh right! Sorry about confusion!

I use MS imaging and file/folder backup as well as Macrium (as a backup- excuse pun). Irrespective of the virtues of putting images/backups on a seperate partition of the same drive the fact is that you should be able to. If it was me, I wouldn't be happy until I found out why MS backup wasn't working.
Given that you seem to tried most things I guess you've scanned your HDD for bad sectors?

You're right: I really want to find out why it isn't working, when it should. Did scan for bad sectors in all drives, and no errors found.

Question your disk management screen shot only shows one disk and one optical drive?

Do you have another screen shot that shows something else?

You trying to backup the C-drive (OS) and save the backup to your D-drive, bad idea!

I also use Macrium and find it more user friendly. You will still need a second physical drive.

Good luck!

That's all there is on my computer. Screenshots are all there. One disk partitioned. Please read my earlier posts! I explained why I'm only doing this temporarily and explained how aware I am of my temporary decision!

 

[mjf]

One final long shot...
under services.msc my "Volume Shadow Copy" has startup type as "Manual" and I vaguely recall this setting being suggested somewhere.

 

[WitchKing9]

One final long shot...
under services.msc my "Volume Shadow Copy" has startup type as "Manual" and I vaguely recall this setting being suggested somewhere.

No luck here! It was set to 'Manual' when I initially used it. I then changed it to 'Automatic' to see if it was any help - and it was of no help! So, I now have it switched back to 'Manual' - same disappointing result.

Thanks anyway mjf!

I will try Macrium Reflect later and report back on results.

 

[WitchKing9]

Well, I tried Macrium Reflect and was happy with the result.

A 19.2GB of space used on C: was created into an image of 11.8GB (using default settings of free version).

I finally got my backup via other means of those which I had hoped, but the problem still lingers with Windows 7 Backup.

If there is a solution out there, come find me - I will be waiting! Maybe a solution will materialise in SP1 (whenever that may be). I hope it won't be rushed! "All good things come to those who can wait".


Thanks very much to everyone who helped! I really appreciate everyone's input.

 

[Maxxwire]

Its great to hear that your Macrium Reflect backup went well. As far as the problem with the Windows 7 System Image goes I was having some problems a while back myself until I restored the registry after getting a little zealous with Revo Pro and now it works just fine.

~Maxx~

 

[eldinv]

One question does it also fail if you just choose to Create System Image, by itself?

 

[WitchKing9]

One question does it also fail if you just choose to Create System Image, by itself?

It fails. Miserably. See third picture in 1st post ("Create a Backup Image / The backup failed"). Well, I don't know about anyone else, but I'm exhausted of ideas...

 

[Maxxwire]

WitchKing,
No matter what backup program you use, the only wise decision is to backup to another physical drive, be the drive internal or external.

Get yourself an external USB drive-they are quite cheap-and use that as the destination for your backups.

The problem is that each external USB drive may be cheap, but in my experience they are not only slow, but they stop working after a relatively short period of time. These are the external USB drives that I have purchased and used over the last 2 1/2 years...

Western Digital 160 GB- Failed after 9 months

Western Digital 250 GB- Failed after 1 year

Western Digital 1 TB- Failed after 2 years

Seagate 1.5 TB- Failed after 3 months

This is just how things went for me keeping 3 backups of all my Data and Macrium Reflect System Images. There is nothing wrong with buying one of these $100-$200 USB drives all I'm trying to point out is that it very well could turn out to be a short term investment.

Having spent well over $500 on these USB drives that failed so soon after I bought them I took the advise of a friend of mine who sells high end Mac Pro desktops at Pro Photo here in town and purchased a LaCie Hard Disk MAX 2TB Quadra eSATA/FireWire800/FireWire400/USB 2.0 RAID Portable External Hard Drive from Amazon for $234 shipped and the price has gone down since then.

I connected the LaCie Raid 0 drive to my desktop using 3Gbps eSATA wire and its 3X faster than using USB when making a backup Image...

Images that used to take 10 minutes using USB now only take 3:35 minutes using the LaCie Raid 0 drive over eSATA. Just this morning I did a full 7.9 GB Reflect Image restore of the 22.6 GB on the C Drive and it took only 4:40:38 minutes using the LaCie Raid 0 Drive using eSATA.

Another thing that the LaCie has is an onboard cooling fan which extends its longevity. I've heard other LaCie owners say that they have had their Drives for over 4 years without a single incident. I would gladly have taken 2 of these LaCie Drives over the 4 USB drives which I listed above that failed so quickly. It would have saved me many hours of backup and restore time.

BTW- The LaCie also does well with file transfers over eSATA...

~Maxx~

 

[whs]

This looks like a good device - although a little pricey. But not all systems have an eSata facility. For those I suggest to install an extra internal disk (no good for laptops though) which is cheaper and gives you the same speed - plus it is also being cooled and will probably live longer than a normal external disk.
I make my daily images to an internal drive and backup once a week and once a month to 2 different external drives. The speed is the same as with the LaCie.

 

[Maxxwire]

whs- It is a great compliment to the LaCie that it could keep up with your internal HDD! The size of the partition which I back up regularly with Reflect on the LaCie which contains Win 7 is 22.7 GB and the Reflect Image is 7.9 GB. It takes up a lot less HD space than the 24 GB Windows System Image.

I did want to mention that the LaCie Hard Disk MAX 2TB RAID 0 Portable External Hard Drive Quadra has just that 4 inputs which are eSATA/FireWire800/FireWire400/USB. It also has its own temperature regulated cooling fan which as you pointed out will give it a longer life than other non-cooled external HDD's. Concerning using the eSATA interface with laptops there are eSATA/PCI adaptor cards available which make it the fastest alternative for an external HDD.

~Maxx~

 

[whs]

Maxxwire, you are right. The LaCie disk is a great device. But you also have to consider the price. I did not think of the eSata/PCI adaptor for a laptop. But that is a very good option for a laptop (although still more money). For a desktop, I would just stuff an extra HDD into the box (provided there is room and an open port on the mobe). That is the cheapest solution.

 

[Maxxwire]

Installing a pair if SSD Raid 0 drives can prove to be blazing fast...

~Maxx~

 

[gregrocker]

If your goal is to keep your backup as recent as possible then I would Move my data into a data partition which will act as a vault should Win7 fail irreparably: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/18629-user-folders-change-default-location.html

Then you only need to reimage from a Backup Image to the OS partition so your OS will be back up and running working drawing data the same data partition where you left off.

As far as keeping an image in your own Recovery partition on the same HD, I do so on all of our computers here. But they need to be copied to another HD - over the network, external, or secondary HD - as soon as you are able in case of HD failure, as was noted.

Back your data up separately. If you are waiting to get another HD or external, it is easier to back up data alone to a DVD for the time being.