Windows Backup will not complete?

[Nocandu]

Hi

I have tried several times to make a Windows 7 backup.
I'm trying to make the backup to my second hard drive.

It starts and runs for a while then stop saying it didn't complete successfully.

When I click more information it says you can not use a volume
that is included in the system backup.

I don't see anyplace to indicate what I want backed up?
I don't know why it is including Drive D in the backup if that is what it is doing, I just want a backup that will restore my C:\ drive if it crashes. I don't see any interface that lets you make choices about how or what you back up except to select where the backup is going to be stored.

I have already made a Windows System Restore Disk.
I do have both C: and D: backed up using Ghost to an external hard drive and this is just a second chance if things go really bad. LOL

Any help welcome.

Mike

 

[linney]

Show hidden and System files and then check for the location of the Booting files, one is a folder caller Boot, the other is a file called Bootmgr.

If these are on different partitions to where Windows 7 is installed it may explain why you do not get any choice as to which partition to back up in a Complete PC situation.

Maybe you have also moved some of the user shell folders from C: to D:?

"NOTE: See the WARNING box at the top of the tutorial. If you do not want to add any additional hard drives or partitions, then just leave the others unchecked. You will not see this, if you do not have any other OS installed other than Windows 7".


Windows 7 - Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/663-backup-complete-computer-create-image-backup.html

 

[Nocandu]

Hi linney

I did find bootmgr.exe on drive C:
I did not find a folder called Boot anyplace on either drive.

I no that their idea is to make this simple but it would be nice if it said what it is backing up.

When I click Make a System Image it has drive D as the default but does not show D when I open the dialog to select a location.

Drive D is a separate 1TB drive from the one that Windows is installed on.

Norton Ghost is installed on drive D otherwise the software is installed on drive C.

The rest of drive D is stored data, photos, job files, music etc.

Mike

 

[Nocandu]

Ps The only reason I want to do this is to have an image of drive C on a different drive then the Ghost one, just in case the worst happens and my computer crashes and I can't access my external hard drive for some reason when I want to restore.

I have always had good luck with Ghost and can probably make a Windows backup on the same external drive that I have the Ghost backups on. But that wouldn't help me much if the external drive went down. My external drive also has a Ghost image of Drive D.

My other external drive has all my data files backed up uncompressed so all my data is really stored in 3 locations but doesn't have enough room to back up C to it as well.

Mike

 

[Nocandu]

Ps again.

I found some thing that says that system protection is turned on for drive D.

Could this be the reason that I can't back up to it?

What does System Protection do and can I safely turn it off?

Mike

 

[linney]

You must have the Boot folder somewhere on your machine, probably in the same location as the file bootmgr. Without the existence of such a folder you would be telling a different story.

If you look at Disk Management in the MMC Console, the drive that mentions "Healthy System......." is the drive with the booting files. The drive that mentions "Healthy......Boot" is the drive that Windows is installed on. Odd but that is how it is. In a non-dual boot system it is usual to have both System and Boot listed on one drive.

Complete PC backup has caused a lot of trouble to many people, and you haven't got as far as ever trying to restore an image yet. That too can be troublesome. I never use it myself and use third party software to provide my Images of Partitions which works faultlessly.

Terabyte Unlimited

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/prodgrid.html

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/image-for-windows.htm

By System Protection are you referring to System Restore that is monitoring drive D:? System Restore should not be causing you any backup problems. If you mean you are running something like Norton Protect, or Roxio Go Back, or any type of software that might be locking the drive, that might then be a problem.

How to troubleshoot a problem by performing a clean boot in Windows Vista or in Windows 7

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/929135

Try running ChkDsk to check your source and destination drive for errors. Right-click your Drive icon/ Properties/ Tools/ Error Checking. Try it first by not checking either box (Read-only mode) to see if it flags any hard drive or file problems. If it does, start by ticking both boxes, in any further rerun. The advantage of running it in Read Only mode in the first instance is that it will zoom through the check on large drives whereas the Write Mode will take several hours or longer.

See if the System File Checker is of any use, and also check the Event Viewer.

How to repair the operating system and how to restore the operating system configuration to an earlier point in time in Windows Vista

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/936212/#appliesto

Do you have any error number produced by Complete PC Backup?

This is a link to a forum that just concentrates on backup problem which might be worth looking at.

Backup – Windows and Windows Server

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/windowsbackup/threads

 

[Nocandu]

Hi Linney

If you open the, "Backup and Restore your files" window in control panel, there is a place to click "Manage Space" directly under the "Backup Location" message.

If you click this it opens a new window that is titled "Manage Windows Backup disk space".

In my case that window shows the specs for drive D.

At the bottom of that widow is says "System protection is turned on for this drive and is using 2.59 GB of space. You can free up space by turning off system protection for this drive". It has a Asterisk in a yellow triangle in front of it. I think this may be the reason that I can't backup to the drive, but I'm not sure.

I don't really know what they mean by "System Protection"?

The only folder I see on Drive D that I can't identify is called "$ave" it has two sub folders names "$CHJW" and "$VAULT". These folders have files with names like 5ebd4ec4-5579-4865-8f2f-a8227104bb75. I don't know what created these folders.

Mike

 

[linney]

Try stopping, temporarily, System Restore from Monitoring your Drive D: and see if that warning is removed from the Backup options? Doing so will however remove all restore points for that drive.

$VAULT, and possibly the other odd named folders, sound like they belong to an anti virus program?

 

[Nocandu]

I'll give it a try.

 

[Nocandu]

Hi

That seems to have been the problem.
Once I turned off "System Protection" for drive D the backup process completed successfully.

Windows must use really tough compression, takes less then 10 gigs for a drive with 124 gigs of stuff on it. This worries my a little.

My Ghost backups are more in the 60 to 70 gig range.
But this gives me another option if my computer should ever crash.

It would be nice if Windows would tell you that you have to turn off system protection for your second hard drive if you want to use it as a backup location.

Thanks for the help.

Mike

 

[linney]

See if you can use this to check out the viability of your backup. It is a Vista article about Backup not Complete PC Backup. It may or may not be applicable.

How Windows Vista Backup uses zip files to store backups (and how to extract files from zips)

http://blogs.technet.com/filecab/ar...ckups-and-how-to-extract-files-from-zips.aspx

If it is of no use then you may have to make a second Image via Ghost before trying the ultimate test of restoring the suspect backup. This is the only way to check the viability of your backup.

 

[Nocandu]

Hi Linney

Well, I tried to do this but I got so confused trying to find all the pieces of something, (search doesn't work) when I tried to search for Adobe it always said "No items match your search", even though I was looking at it, that I finally gave up.

Well it gives me another chance in case of at crash.

When I get a chance I'll try running the restore disk application and see if I can extract random files.

Mike