Problem using WinXP's built-in backup

[Thomas Arildsen]

I am trying to backup my hard drive onto an external hard drive using
the backup program that comes with WinXP. I have tried bot full and
selected folders. No matter how I do it, it always ends up reporting
that the the backup was not completed because certain files could not be
read. These seem to be random files in different locations. It's not the
same files each time I try and when I examine the files in question
afterwards, which could be pictures from my camera, some documents or
so, I have no trouble opening them.
Replies in a different newsgroup indicated that my trouble could be
related to not using "shadow copy". As far as I can see from the help
file, shadow copying is used by default and I should have to disable it
in order not to use it - am I right? I have not disabled it, and it
seems that I actually cannot disable it when including system state in
my backup? Still, it goes wrong anyway.
I try to backup from an NTFS-formatted drive onto an NTFS-formatted
external drive.
Could someone suggest what could be wrong?

Mvh. Thomas Arildsen

 

[POP]

I am trying to backup my hard drive onto an external hard
drive using the backup program that comes with WinXP. I
have tried bot full and selected folders. No matter how I
do it, it always ends up reporting that the the backup was
not completed because certain files could not be read.
These seem to be random files in different locations. It's
not the same files each time I try and when I examine the
files in question afterwards, which could be pictures from
my camera, some documents or so, I have no trouble opening
them. Replies in a different newsgroup indicated that my
trouble
could be related to not using "shadow copy". As far as I
can see from the help file, shadow copying is used by
default and I should have to disable it in order not to use
it - am I right? I have not disabled it, and it seems that
I actually cannot disable it when including system state in
my backup? Still, it goes wrong anyway. I try to backup from an
NTFS-formatted drive onto an
NTFS-formatted external drive.
Could someone suggest what could be wrong?

Mvh. Thomas Arildsen

Hmm, it should work. Works perfectly for me and many others I
know of.

w/r to Shadow Copy, that is something you DO want turned on.
Shadow Copying means it can copy files which are in use (as in,
the operating system files in Windows) (system files, hidden
files, etc. etc.). It should not be turned off.

Since it seems to vary what files are problems though, I doubt
your issue has anything to do with Shadow Copy. Something else
is at work if it's various graphics then doc, and so on at the
failure points.

Do you know how to view your System Events logs? There might be
hints about it there.

I'm afraid I can't say much more, based on so little information.
Perhaps if you presented something to indicate your level of
expertise with the computer, disk drive sizes, etc, it would be
easier to make suggestions. I'll leave you wiht a couple of
things to check:
-- Is there enough room to hold the backed up data on the target
drive?
-- You ARE talking about NTBackup.exe, right?
-- Exactly what steps are you using to initiate the backup? Be
precise.
-- What is the EXACT error message that appears when the backup
fails? Any numbers or other detail with it?
-- Microprocessor type, RAM, drive sizes and free space on each,
and any other details you can think of could help too.
-- Do you know that you are virus and spyware free?
-- Any -other- problems with the computer?
-- How long since you last did a defrag?
-- Anything else that occurs to you.

HTH,
Pop

 

[Thomas Arildsen]

Hmm, it should work. Works perfectly for me and many others I
know of.

w/r to Shadow Copy, that is something you DO want turned on.
Shadow Copying means it can copy files which are in use (as in,
the operating system files in Windows) (system files, hidden
files, etc. etc.). It should not be turned off.

Since it seems to vary what files are problems though, I doubt
your issue has anything to do with Shadow Copy. Something else
is at work if it's various graphics then doc, and so on at the
failure points.

Do you know how to view your System Events logs? There might be
hints about it there.

The System Events Log does show the backup errors. It doesn't provide
much useful information though, it more or less just refers to the
ntbackup logs. It does however seem to tell me that the system state
part of the backup succeeded, but the part with the rest of the files
failed (I am not quoting it here because it's in Danish).

I'm afraid I can't say much more, based on so little information.
Perhaps if you presented something to indicate your level of
expertise with the computer, disk drive sizes, etc, it would be
easier to make suggestions.

I consider myself very experienced with computers in general.

My C: partition, which I am trying to back up:
37,1GB - 32,3/4,76GB used/free, according to the drive properties.

The partition on my external hard drive, which I am trying to back up onto:
139GB - 27,7/111GB used/free, according to the drive properties.

I'll leave you wiht a couple of

things to check:
-- Is there enough room to hold the backed up data on the target
drive?

See above; there should be plenty of room.

-- You ARE talking about NTBackup.exe, right?

Yes, that's the one.

-- Exactly what steps are you using to initiate the backup? Be
precise.

I start ntbackup - non-wizard mode. I select my C: drive as well as the
system state in the list of items to back up. I provide a name for the
backup file on my removable drive. Then I press start.
I put a screen shot of the the whole thing on
http://kom.aau.dk/~tha/Backup.jpg, but I don't know if it helps since
it's in Danish... Maybe you are able to guess what is what, comparing it
to the English version of the program.

-- What is the EXACT error message that appears when the backup
fails? Any numbers or other detail with it?

Again, it's in Danish, but I copied the start of it here and provided a
translation in-line:

Status for sikkerhedskopiering
Handling: Sikkerhedskopiering
Aktiv destination for sikkerhedskopiering: Fil
Medienavn: "Backup 20060702.bkf oprettet 02-07-2006 kl. 12:43"

--Status for backup
--Action: Backup
--Active destination for backup: File
--Media name: "Backup 20060702.bkf created 07-02-2006 12:43 p.m."

Sikkerhedskopi (med øjebliksbillede) af "C: "
Sikkerhedskopisæt nr. 1 på medie nr. 1
Beskrivelse af sikkerhedskopi: "Kopisæt oprettet d. 02-07-2006 kl. 12:43"
Medienavn: "Backup 20060702.bkf oprettet 02-07-2006 kl. 12:43"

--Backup (with snapshot) of "C: "
--Backup set no. 1 on media no. 1
--Description of backup: "Backup set created 07-02-2006 12:43 p.m."
--Media name: "Backup 20060702.bkf created 07-02-2006 12:43 p.m."

Sikkerhedskopieringstype: Normal

--Backup type: Normal

Sikkerhedskopiering startet 02-07-2006 kl. 12:48.

-- Backup started 07-02-2006 12:48 p.m.

Advarsel! "C:\Documents and
Settings\Administratoren\Cookies\administratoren@google[2].txt" kunne
ikke åbnes og blev sprunget over.
Årsag: Anmodningen kunne ikke udføres, da der opstod en I/O-enhedsfejl.

--Warning! "C:\Documents and
Settings\Administratoren\Cookies\administratoren@google[2].txt" could
not be opened and was skipped.
--Cause: The request could not be completed because there was an I/O
device error.

.... and then it goes on like this for a whole bunch of files

-- Microprocessor type, RAM, drive sizes and free space on each,
and any other details you can think of could help too.

Pentium4 (2.4GHz), 512MB RAM, see drive details above. My external drive
is a Western Digital MyBook 160GB.

-- Do you know that you are virus and spyware free?

I ran Avast Antivirus and Ad-Aware yesterday - both reported all clear
except for a couple of ad-cookies (Ad-Aware).

-- Any -other- problems with the computer?

Not that I can think of.

-- How long since you last did a defrag?

I just tried it and defrag reports that it is unnecessary to defragment C:

-- Anything else that occurs to you.

Not right now.

Thanks a lot for helping. I hope this might help a bit.
Best regards,

Thomas Arildsen

 

[Thomas Arildsen]

Thomas Arildsen skrev:

Hmm, it should work. Works perfectly for me and many others I know of.

w/r to Shadow Copy, that is something you DO want turned on. Shadow
Copying means it can copy files which are in use (as in, the operating
system files in Windows) (system files, hidden files, etc. etc.). It
should not be turned off.

Since it seems to vary what files are problems though, I doubt your
issue has anything to do with Shadow Copy. Something else is at work
if it's various graphics then doc, and so on at the failure points.

Do you know how to view your System Events logs? There might be hints
about it there.

The System Events Log does show the backup errors. It doesn't provide
much useful information though, it more or less just refers to the
ntbackup logs. It does however seem to tell me that the system state
part of the backup succeeded, but the part with the rest of the files
failed (I am not quoting it here because it's in Danish).

I'm afraid I can't say much more, based on so little information.
Perhaps if you presented something to indicate your level of expertise
with the computer, disk drive sizes, etc, it would be easier to make
suggestions.

I consider myself very experienced with computers in general.

My C: partition, which I am trying to back up:
37,1GB - 32,3/4,76GB used/free, according to the drive properties.

The partition on my external hard drive, which I am trying to back up onto:
139GB - 27,7/111GB used/free, according to the drive properties.

I'll leave you wiht a couple of

things to check:
-- Is there enough room to hold the backed up data on the target drive?

See above; there should be plenty of room.

-- You ARE talking about NTBackup.exe, right?

Yes, that's the one.

-- Exactly what steps are you using to initiate the backup? Be precise.

I start ntbackup - non-wizard mode. I select my C: drive as well as the
system state in the list of items to back up. I provide a name for the
backup file on my removable drive. Then I press start.
I put a screen shot of the the whole thing on
http://kom.aau.dk/~tha/Backup.jpg, but I don't know if it helps since
it's in Danish... Maybe you are able to guess what is what, comparing it
to the English version of the program.

-- What is the EXACT error message that appears when the backup
fails? Any numbers or other detail with it?

Again, it's in Danish, but I copied the start of it here and provided a
translation in-line:

Status for sikkerhedskopiering
Handling: Sikkerhedskopiering
Aktiv destination for sikkerhedskopiering: Fil
Medienavn: "Backup 20060702.bkf oprettet 02-07-2006 kl. 12:43"

--Status for backup
--Action: Backup
--Active destination for backup: File
--Media name: "Backup 20060702.bkf created 07-02-2006 12:43 p.m."

Sikkerhedskopi (med øjebliksbillede) af "C: "
Sikkerhedskopisæt nr. 1 på medie nr. 1
Beskrivelse af sikkerhedskopi: "Kopisæt oprettet d. 02-07-2006 kl. 12:43"
Medienavn: "Backup 20060702.bkf oprettet 02-07-2006 kl. 12:43"

--Backup (with snapshot) of "C: "
--Backup set no. 1 on media no. 1
--Description of backup: "Backup set created 07-02-2006 12:43 p.m."
--Media name: "Backup 20060702.bkf created 07-02-2006 12:43 p.m."

Sikkerhedskopieringstype: Normal

--Backup type: Normal

Sikkerhedskopiering startet 02-07-2006 kl. 12:48.

-- Backup started 07-02-2006 12:48 p.m.

Advarsel! "C:\Documents and
Settings\Administratoren\Cookies\administratoren@google[2].txt" kunne
ikke åbnes og blev sprunget over.
Årsag: Anmodningen kunne ikke udføres, da der opstod en I/O-enhedsfejl.

--Warning! "C:\Documents and
Settings\Administratoren\Cookies\administratoren@google[2].txt" could
not be opened and was skipped.
--Cause: The request could not be completed because there was an I/O
device error.

... and then it goes on like this for a whole bunch of files

-- Microprocessor type, RAM, drive sizes and free space on each, and
any other details you can think of could help too.

Pentium4 (2.4GHz), 512MB RAM, see drive details above. My external drive
is a Western Digital MyBook 160GB.

-- Do you know that you are virus and spyware free?

I ran Avast Antivirus and Ad-Aware yesterday - both reported all clear
except for a couple of ad-cookies (Ad-Aware).

-- Any -other- problems with the computer?

Not that I can think of.

-- How long since you last did a defrag?

I just tried it and defrag reports that it is unnecessary to defragment C:

-- Anything else that occurs to you.

Not right now.

Thanks a lot for helping. I hope this might help a bit.
Best regards,

Thomas Arildsen

On more detail, I noticed, is that it does not complain during the
actual copying of files. The described errors are reported at the end
when the backed up files are being compared to the originals to ensure
things are alright.

Thomas Arildsen