Solved Windows NO LONGER backing up

[egonvdv]

i might have found the problem by accident:

was copying my files manually to an external HD, to have a backup should something go wrong with the repair.
however i could not copy some files because: "filename too long"

I guess this could mean that wndows backup also can not access these files & therefore says
"some files on shadowcopy could not be read" ...?

i'm now trying to figure out where these files are.

I'm also running tests now backing up only 1 folder each time. (ie ONLY documents, then ONLY music etc)
so far each backup has worked fine.

So this must mean that somewhere in some folder there is a corrup file(s) and its just
a matter of finding & deleting it...?

As i said, i'm no PC expert, but the above would make sense right...?

 

[Kaktussoft]

i might have found the problem by accident:

was copying my files manually to an external HD, to have a backup should something go wrong with the repair.
however i could not copy some files because: "filename too long"

I guess this could mean that wndows backup also can not access these files & therefore says
"some files on shadowcopy could not be read" ...?

i'm now trying to figure out where these files are.

I'm also running tests now backing up only 1 folder each time. (ie ONLY documents, then ONLY music etc)
so far each backup has worked fine.

So this must mean that somewhere in some folder there is a corrup file(s) and its just
a matter of finding & deleting it...?

As i said, i'm no PC expert, but the above would make sense right...?

Multiple nested copies of Application Data folder - Microsoft Answers

Tells you why. At least I think that's the problem folder? Leave that junction point as it is!!

 

[Kaktussoft]

Already tried upgrade install?

 

[egonvdv]

In fact the files that didn't want to copy to the external HD are files that i'm actually downloading,
so it's normal i can't copy.

However i got me thinking & finally it did put me on the right track:
(though only after running backups one folder at the time... they worked every time untill i got to the desktop folder, so i knew that's were the problem was...)

a few weeks back i put a folder on my desktop containing ebooks.
Then I added these books to caliber (sort of an itunes for ebooks) but did not delete them from desktop right away.

Only last week (so AFTER backup problems already started to happen) did i try to delete this folder.
it deleted almost everything inside except for 2 sub folders & the main folder itself

I finally managed to delete the folder & it's content by going into DOS (?) via command prompt
& deleting them there.

Since i thought the file went corrupt AFTER i tried to delete it, i never made the connection with
the backup failures.

But I'm pretty sure now that that file was ALREADY corrupt when i put it on my desktop.
(Most likely as some of the booknames were too long for windows, which is a common issue in the Caliber software)

Full backup is running now and so far no problems so i'm confident that it's fixed & thus shall mark
the thread as such.

Howeverwhat i don't understand is why windows doesn't inform which file is the problem

Anycase, Once again thanks very much for your help & quick replies, which i know is not always easy when you are not in front of the PC in question.

Tot ziens!

Egon

 

[Kaktussoft]

-network path problems... not the real error.
-vss errors where most likely the result not the root cause.

But why was "system image backup" also failing?
Why did "windows backup" sometimes complete succesfully if external HD attached directly?

ok so now all of a sudden i can backup with HD directly connected to pc.
(without system image)

wireless it still fails.

 

[egonvdv]

i did not choose all the files with some of the test backups ,
in order to have the backup finish quickly & get results..

So i must have randomly excluded the desktop a few times, which resulted
in a good backup.

Or maybe windows backup SOMETIMES managed to access the file and/or skip it...?

 

[Kaktussoft]

glad you solved it

 

[egonvdv]

glad you solved it

So far so good. it's at 30pct (file & image backup)
When it failed before it would do so right at the beginning....

So (fingers crossed) all is well again.

if not... i'll be back LOL

cheers
egon

 

[egonvdv]

And... I'm back. Seems i spoke too early. backup failed again. it just takes much longer now then before to do so..
I'll run some test backups again of specific folders, to see where exactly it crashed & report.
..... !!!!! (insert swear word here)

 

[Kaktussoft]

And... I'm back. Seems i spoke too early. backup failed again. it just takes much longer now then before to do so..
I'll run some test backups again of specific folders, to see where exactly it crashed & report.
..... !!!!! (insert swear word here)

Assume you're backing up 5 main folders (and its subfolders). Backup main folders 1 by 1. No problems? Always in mainfolder3 for example? If so concentrate on the subfolders of mainfolder3. Backup only mainfolder3\subfolder1-3 then mainfolder3\subfolder4-6 . So you can find if it's folder related. If you find the problem folder ... repeat the process so you know for sure!

Good luck and keep me informed.

 

[egonvdv]

yep , that's exactly what I will do. reverting asap.

 

[Kaktussoft]

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/174270-backup-manually-extract-files-vista-windows-7-a.html

This will give you names of zip files. Take th one with highest number. Browse it you see which files and folders are in. This will give you an indication what it was doing last! I have no idea in what sequence it backups.

 

[egonvdv]

Hi. Well it's working again.
IMO it was indeed the corupt folder on the desktop.
don't know why the 1st backup failed after I deleted that folder,
but it was only once & since then everything is working fine again.
Thanks again for all your help.
krgds, Egon