Seagate drive won't backup for reasons unknown.

[ECKJR]

I have a Seagate Free Agent Go Flex Desk backup, which came preloaded with a Memeo backup program.
Recently I keep getting messages saying, "Failed to back up (various different files)" and "Failed to back up current session." One other message said "No backup plan found." When I watched what was being backed up, I noticed that the backup stalled when it tried to back up 00000002.sol (0 kb).
I have no clue what to do at this point, as I'm apparently going with no further backups. I have an old WD drive, but it's too small and too full already.
Would it be possible to reformat the extermal Seagate drive and do a complete backup from scratch?
I have a program by 2BrightSparks called SyncBackFree that I could put on the reformatted drive.
If that's not an option, and there's no way to get the Seagate going again, then I'm about to decide to just buy a new external drive and start from scratch with whatever backup program it comes with.
If anyone has any recommendations for a new drive and/or backup software, I'd appreciate it.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

You certainly don't need to use any of the supplied backup software. Yes, you could reformat the drive and start over.

There are a bunch of applications that can do an ordinary backup, most of them free.

Are you trying to back up just your personal data or are you also trying to backup your Windows installation?

If the latter, the most often recommended application on this forum is Macrium Reflect Free Edition.

If the former, you can choose from many, including FreeFileSync, Allway Sync, Folder Clone, Syncback, and others.

I suspect Sync Back Free, which you have, is for data backup, not Windows backup. I haven't used it, but it may work very well and I'd certainly give it a try. If not, try one of the other choices above. They all work in a very similar fashion---choose the one that is easiest for you to understand and that seems to work reliably after a few test runs.

 

[dowlittlerock]

[FONT=&quot]@ECKJR,[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]@ignatzatsonic is right, you don’t have to use supplied backup software. I am using Acronis True Image – it backs up whole drive, so if my laptop cranks up, I will be able to restore everything, Windows included.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]There is incremental, which only contains the difference – so it’s faster, and you can have few generations. It also comes with free 5GB Cloud storage for important stuff.[/FONT]