Windows 7 Backup error 0x80070002

[ThumperSD]

Hi, Im not sure where to post this but here it goes.

Every time I try to backup my files to my external HDD using W7 backup utility, I keep getting this error:

Backup encountered a problem while backing up file C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\School. Error: (The system cannot find the file specified. (0x80070002))

This "School" folder was never located here in the first place. It is located in C:/Users/David/School. How can I make W7 backup to stop thinking that that folder exists?

 

[wallyinnc]

Thumper, I don't know the cause, but have you tried to erase previous backups and backup everything again?

 

[ThumperSD]

No I haven't. The reason is because it takes FOREVER to backup everything all over again... Honestly it is not a big problem to me and it's not worth it to erase it and backing everything over again to fix it. It is a very small problem and it took me backing up at least 5 times before even addressing this problem.

 

[ThumperSD]

Anybody else having this problem?

 

[JohnPC]

Hi, Im not sure where to post this but here it goes.

Every time I try to backup my files to my external HDD using W7 backup utility, I keep getting this error:

Backup encountered a problem while backing up file C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\School. Error: (The system cannot find the file specified. (0x80070002))

This "School" folder was never located here in the first place. It is located in C:/Users/David/School. How can I make W7 backup to stop thinking that that folder exists?

I have only managed to successfully use Windows Backup after a clean install, before making any changes at all. Once I install programs, etc, I have gotten a number of errors similar to the ones you describe preventing me from using this feature.

After researching it at length, I found that most people pointed to the secondary partition Win7 creates during installation. It's a 100 MB partition which is marked as "System Reserved". Once the free space on this is less than 70 MB, errors begin to occur. My solution was to revert to a third party backup utility (Paragon) which has it's own proprietary "Hot-Swap" technology. The nice thing about using it is that one can use it with or without having to load into the OS. It's up to how you want to run it.

I'm experimenting now with forcing a WIn7 install on a predefined partition, making it unable to create this secondary partition. It's that little pesky 100 MB that seems to have given users so many headaches...

PS. I used to use Ghost 10... but I doubt it works on Win 7.

 

[wguru]

I thinking this's probably why a lot of users report the Windows 7 backup utility stalls at formatting DVD's, hense the workaround of manually formatting the DVD's before using W7's backup utility to burn.

Why new DVD's, -R and moreover even -RW's, 'need' to be formatted, is beyond me. It's not like DVD/CD's aren't NTSC (and 'are' FAT32), but whatever works, is the point.

 

[ThumperSD]

Hi, Im not sure where to post this but here it goes.

Every time I try to backup my files to my external HDD using W7 backup utility, I keep getting this error:

Backup encountered a problem while backing up file C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\School. Error: (The system cannot find the file specified. (0x80070002))

This "School" folder was never located here in the first place. It is located in C:/Users/David/School. How can I make W7 backup to stop thinking that that folder exists?

I have only managed to successfully use Windows Backup after a clean install, before making any changes at all. Once I install programs, etc, I have gotten a number of errors similar to the ones you describe preventing me from using this feature.

After researching it at length, I found that most people pointed to the secondary partition Win7 creates during installation. It's a 100 MB partition which is marked as "System Reserved". Once the free space on this is less than 70 MB, errors begin to occur. My solution was to revert to a third party backup utility (Paragon) which has it's own proprietary "Hot-Swap" technology. The nice thing about using it is that one can use it with or without having to load into the OS. It's up to how you want to run it.

I'm experimenting now with forcing a WIn7 install on a predefined partition, making it unable to create this secondary partition. It's that little pesky 100 MB that seems to have given users so many headaches...

PS. I used to use Ghost 10... but I doubt it works on Win 7.

So in short you are suggesting to use a third party software for backup?

 

[JohnPC]

Hi, Im not sure where to post this but here it goes.

Every time I try to backup my files to my external HDD using W7 backup utility, I keep getting this error:

Backup encountered a problem while backing up file C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\School. Error: (The system cannot find the file specified. (0x80070002))

This "School" folder was never located here in the first place. It is located in C:/Users/David/School. How can I make W7 backup to stop thinking that that folder exists?

I have only managed to successfully use Windows Backup after a clean install, before making any changes at all. Once I install programs, etc, I have gotten a number of errors similar to the ones you describe preventing me from using this feature.

After researching it at length, I found that most people pointed to the secondary partition Win7 creates during installation. It's a 100 MB partition which is marked as "System Reserved". Once the free space on this is less than 70 MB, errors begin to occur. My solution was to revert to a third party backup utility (Paragon) which has it's own proprietary "Hot-Swap" technology. The nice thing about using it is that one can use it with or without having to load into the OS. It's up to how you want to run it.

I'm experimenting now with forcing a WIn7 install on a predefined partition, making it unable to create this secondary partition. It's that little pesky 100 MB that seems to have given users so many headaches...

PS. I used to use Ghost 10... but I doubt it works on Win 7.

So in short you are suggesting to use a third party software for backup?

LOL... yea...
It's ironic that I wrote that because this morning when I logged into my email, I had a link for my highly anticipated Paragon Disk Manager 2010 free upgrade. It's pretty nice...
If you have the time, the Paragon tech folks where the ones who suggested doing a reinstall on a single pre-partitioned drive, as mentioned above.

 

[wguru]

Obviously, or is it obliviously, MS has to have become aware of such a rudimenatry bug and it should have been fixed before W7 was even marketed, so does anyone know Bill's cell phone number? I want my money back.

 

[ThumperSD]

I am assuming that the error is from backing up my files and not system image

Should I continue to let W7 make backups of the system image and use a 3rd party software (i am using SyncBack) to back up my files? I dont think Syncback backs up the system image.

 

[Bill2]

Hi ThumperSD. I found this solution an an MS support page.

1) There may be an issue issue with the USB controller on the machine. Installing the hotfix from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/976972 would help.
2) There may be an issue where a bad sector returns the "file not found" error. If you run chkdsk /R on the target, it detects such bad sector and then backup will ignore these automatically.

 

[ThumperSD]

Hi ThumperSD. I found this solution an an MS support page.

1) There may be an issue issue with the USB controller on the machine. Installing the hotfix from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/976972 would help.
2) There may be an issue where a bad sector returns the "file not found" error. If you run chkdsk /R on the target, it detects such bad sector and then backup will ignore these automatically.

Are you sure that relates to my problem?? My problem is with the Windows 7 backup itself and I think the USB has less to do with it. I could be completely wrong, however. I regularly perform defragments and disk cleanups on both my internal and external HDD. It always shows up 0% fragmented. My internal HDD is less than 4 months old while my external HDD is less than 2 months old.

 

[burtie]

I sometimes get errors when I back up to one of my external HDD by USB...after a quick disk check it finds errors and repairs them and then backup works after that. Dont know if it will be the same for you but its worth a shot.

 

[ThumperSD]

Hi ThumperSD. I found this solution an an MS support page.

1) There may be an issue issue with the USB controller on the machine. Installing the hotfix from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/976972 would help.
2) There may be an issue where a bad sector returns the "file not found" error. If you run chkdsk /R on the target, it detects such bad sector and then backup will ignore these automatically.

I just downloaded that update and tried doing a backup again but I got the same problem.

 

[ThumperSD]

I sometimes get errors when I back up to one of my external HDD by USB...after a quick disk check it finds errors and repairs them and then backup works after that. Dont know if it will be the same for you but its worth a shot.

How do I check the disk? When I try to check my C drive, it tells me that it cannot check it while it is in use.

 

[JohnPC]

I sometimes get errors when I back up to one of my external HDD by USB...after a quick disk check it finds errors and repairs them and then backup works after that. Dont know if it will be the same for you but its worth a shot.

How do I check the disk? When I try to check my C drive, it tells me that it cannot check it while it is in use.

The OS usually asks if you want to schedule one for the next Windows start up. Try doing it, and then restart your system. You can also set CheckDisk to attempt to fix bad sectors.
I think you can download a 30 day trial of Paragon. You ought to try.
Paragon Software for Home - partition manager, backup&recovery, hard disk manager for PC

 

[ThumperSD]

I sometimes get errors when I back up to one of my external HDD by USB...after a quick disk check it finds errors and repairs them and then backup works after that. Dont know if it will be the same for you but its worth a shot.

How do I check the disk? When I try to check my C drive, it tells me that it cannot check it while it is in use.

The OS usually asks if you want to schedule one for the next Windows start up. Try doing it, and then restart your system. You can also set CheckDisk to attempt to fix bad sectors.
I think you can download a 30 day trial of Paragon. You ought to try.
Paragon Software for Home - partition manager, backup&recovery, hard disk manager for PC

I did a disk check and did a backup and got the same results.

Since Windows 7 backup is crap I'm going to use SyncBack. Since SyncBack doesnt create a system image, should I just continue using Windows 7 backup for backing up the system image and use SyncBack to backup my files?

What is the purpose of the system image? I heard it restores all of your programs and settings in the event of a system crash.

 

[joe99]

hi there

I think I struck the same problem on my very first Windows 7 backup a couple of weeks ago.

Searching Microsoft support pages turned up this link

Error code 0x80070002 when you back up files in Windows 7

which I found helpful

regards

joe99

 

[ThumperSD]

hi there

I think I struck the same problem on my very first Windows 7 backup a couple of weeks ago.

Searching Microsoft support pages turned up this link

Error code 0x80070002 when you back up files in Windows 7

which I found helpful

regards

joe99

Thanks. That explains my problem. Just what I needed


However I think I am going to switch to SyncBack. Since SyncBack only backs up files, should I continue to use Windows 7 for backing up the system image? Or should I switch to Acronis True Image? I am assuming that they both do the same thing but correct me if I'm wrong.

I am not sure what the purpose of a system image is. Does it restore all of your programs and OS in the event of a crash?

 

[JohnPC]

Having a system image allows on to restore the exact condition of the computer to the state when it was originally made.
For instance, this recent issue involving the Bit Defender "false positive" virus outbreak in win 7 - 64 made my system completely unusable. Having made a "clone" or image recently of my C drive, I was able to replace the damaged OS entirely with the functioning image from an external drive. Since I keep all my data files on separate drives (D, E etc), I didn't have to worry about that material...fortunately.