Backup Did Not Complete, I/O Error

[michael diemer]

I got my wife a Seagate 6TB Backup Plus Hub. I ran a Windows backup with image overnight, and when I checked it this morning it said it did not complete due to an I/O error. However, there is a 96 GB backup on the device, so something happened overnight.

I first tried using Macrium, but that would not run for more than a few minutes and then would abort, due to the same issue.

Any ideas as to what is going on here?

Her laptop is a Dell Inspiron, with W7-HP with SP1, 1TB HDD, i5 CPU, about 10 years old.

Thanks,

Mike

 

[samuria]

It's not clear which has the error but it may be in the event log but one of the disks has an error which could be a bad sector or file system errors run chkdsk on both drives

 

[michael diemer]

Thank you samuria, will do! And thanks for such a quick answer!

 

[Alejandro85]

In addition to what Samuria said previously, if it's an external USB drive it could be a loose connection that's causing an intermitent failure, if that happens to be the drive with an error.

If not, chkdsk will probably show some errors. Be ready to replace the faulty drive.

 

[michael diemer]

Thank you Alejandro! I am running checkdisk to see what that shows. In the meantime, I have checked the backup, which is well over 100 GB, and it appears to have worked. I can pull it up on two different computers, and can explore it to show the various documents etc. The image file is there as well. So, seeing as it appears the backup is there, even tho I got the error message, will I have to run the backup again, or can it be fixed if defective; or is in fact OK?

 

[michael diemer]

OK, checkdisk completed. On the C drive, I did not get the message that "no errors were found and the disk is ready to be used." The computer restarted before I could absorb all the info, and is running fine. On the Seagate, checkdisk reported the disk is OK and ready for use.

BTW: The error code is: 0x8078012D

 

[Alejandro85]

Thank you Alejandro! I am running checkdisk to see what that shows. In the meantime, I have checked the backup, which is well over 100 GB, and it appears to have worked. I can pull it up on two different computers, and can explore it to show the various documents etc. The image file is there as well. So, seeing as it appears the backup is there, even tho I got the error message, will I have to run the backup again, or can it be fixed if defective; or is in fact OK?

Your backup program should be able to check the integrity of backups, look it up for the relevant option. Just "being there" doesn't warrants, as you noted, that it's in good shape.
In the face of the error, I would, personally, simply discard it and make a new one just in case to be sure. Given that the chkdsk went well, give it a try to confirm and to be sure you have a backup. In case of a disaster, a backup that's damaged is worse than the time lost to make it again.

 

[michael diemer]

I checked into Macrium Support, and they say the error is due to faulty throughput, and the fault is Windows'. It advised to adjust settings on Device Manager, Performance instead of Quick Removal. I had high hopes this would solve it but alas it did not. Right back where I started from. Device drivers are OK. The backup starts in Macrium but aborts after a few minutes. I haven't tried a second Windows Image, as it will take all night and probably have the same result.

 

[michael diemer]

Success! I did a few more tweaks as suggested by the Macrium forum, but I think what did it was running checkdisk again, but this time checking the box to repair bad sectors. Why did I not check it the first time. I read a Microsoft article that advised against this.

Anyway, I did a Macrium image in under an hour (the checkdisk took about three). Now, I have the image, the older Windows backup that is possibly no good, plus a bunch of Seagate stuff on the drive. I want to get rid of the Windows backup. What is the best way to do this? I plan to run a regular file backup in either Windows or Macrium, so that I will have both a backup and a system image. I then plan to put Linux on the computer. It will be a dual-boot. so the wife can learn Linux over the next year, before W7 EOL. (Don't worry, I know what I'm doing with the Linux. I know it better than Windows at this point).