Backup says its running and it is doing nothing

[Jameslecomte]

I was backing up to an external Seagate hard drive and got the BSOD. When Windows restarted it shows the backup is running even though it is not. Nothing I do has any effect. According to the Task Manager Backup is not running. Rebooting doesn’t help. I am running Win 7 Ultimate (64) on an ASUS computer, 8 Gb ram, AMD Athlon II X2 2.80 GHz processor. This is not the first time I have been backing up to this external drive for about 6 months and I have had no problems.

 

[marsmimar]

Hello James and welcome to Seven Forums.

I'd start by safely removing the external Seagate from the Asus. If the computer is powered up and the safely remove icon is showing in the system tray, use that. Otherwise, power off the computer and then remove the Seagate just to make sure you're not interrupting any activity.

I'd probably try using a restore point and return the computer to a date/time prior to the backup problem. See if the backup works.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/700-system-restore.html

Whether the restore point works or not, I'd next check for any damaged or corrupt system files by running a system file checker scan from an elevated command prompt (option two.) If any problems are found, run the scan 3 times and reboot the computer after each scan.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1538-sfc-scannow-command-system-file-checker.html

Please post back if any of this helps or not.

 

[Jameslecomte]

No luck so far, more info below!

Thanks marsmimar,

I tried everything with no luck. Unfortunately I do not have a recent restore point. I have always had problems with Windows Backup and do not use it for my daily backups. I realized that did not have a recent restore point and I was doing this backup to create a restore point. Do you have any other ideas? I included a screenshot this time.

 

[marsmimar]

If you ran the system file checker scan and didn't get any errors, it's possible that the problem lies with the external Seagate. Especially considering you've been able to use it in the past 6 months without problems.

You could try using a trial version of Hard Disk Sentinel to test the Seagate. It will try to find, test, diagnose and repair hard disk drive problems, report and display SSD and HDD health, performance degradations and failures. It will work on internal or external drives.

Hard Disk Sentinel Trial version - HDD health and temperature monitoring

 

[Jameslecomte]

Not quite fixed yet

Sounds like a good nest step. Thanks!

 

[Jameslecomte]

Didn't Work

I ran Hard Disk Sentinel and everything came up fine. Windows now shows that I don't have any restore points, so I am really stuck now.

 

[marsmimar]

If you plug in the external Seagate and restart the Asus, what happens? Does it still show that backup is running even though it's not? Any error messages? What happens if you try to do a backup?

 

[Jameslecomte]

Nothing new, Backup still says its running and it is doing nothing

I have tried having the Seagate off and turned on the computer; and powered the Seagate up after boot and it makes no difference, it says backup is still running. If I disconnect the Seagate Backup says Disconnected and the drive picture has a big red X across it. When I plug it in again Backup goes back to the normal backup screen and still does not function. I have never gotten any error messages. The system says a Backup is in progress and will not let me start a new session.

 

[marsmimar]

Considering all that you've tried, it might be time to do a repair install. It should preserve your user accounts, data, programs, system drivers, etc. I seems like there's a deeper operating system problem than system file checker can fix.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html

You would need an official installation disk, not a manufacturer's recovery disk. If you don't have one you could download an official iso file from Digital River and burn it to a DVD. It would have to be the same version of Windows 7 that's currently on your machine as well as the same bit-ness (32 bit or 64 bit.)

Official Windows 7 SP1 ISO from Digital River « My Digital Life

 

[Jameslecomte]

Marsmimar,

I did a repair install and I still have the problem. At this point I think my only option is a clean install, which is not something I am willing to do. Oddly, Windows still lets me “Create a System Image,” which I just did. I’ll live with the Windows Backup problem and keep using Memeo for my daily backups. Thanks for the help!

 

[marsmimar]

This is a strange situation. Especially considering you can still create a system image through Windows. Sorry I couldn't be more help.

 

[Jameslecomte]

Thanks, I appreciate all of your efforts.