Windows 7 Backup & Restore - failure and solution - what now?

Here is a Win 7 backup tutorial from the Windows 7 forum.  Look it over and see if something listed there will help.    I don't use the Windows 7 backup as I do a total backup of my hard drive, all partitions to a separate hard drive and the Windows 7 backup will ony backup the NTFS formatted partitions and on a Dell with the Dell Recovery and Diagnostic partitons formatted in FAT that means they do not get backed up.   I use Acronis True Image for my backups. 

Click for Tutorial

One other thought, if you are backing up to the Dell "recovery" partition on the hard drive, it's probably full.  However you should not be backing up to the same physical hard drive - if the drive were to fail, all your backups are lost.

Hi Fireberd,

Thanks for the Tutorial - I'l go through it when I get time!

Sorry, I should have said that I am backing up to an external hard drive (Iomega) and there is plenty of space on it.  I'm a bit of a novice with this and don't really understand the bit about "partitions" and programs formatted in FAT that don't get backed up.  I thought the windows backup did everything but obviously not!

Thanks for the advice - I still don't know what to do about the AppsData folder though?

The "old" way of formatting a hard drive was with "FAT" (File Allocation Table).  The current hard drive file system (started with Windows NT and with Windows XP for home users) is "NTFS" (New Technology File System).  NTFS is more efficient and can address larger size drives. The Windows 7 backup program will only back up the NTFS formatted partitions (sections) on the hard drive if you want to backup the "entire" hard drive. 

If just doing data backups, it will only backup certain data and files as it assumes you have the Windows 7 disc that you can reinstall or repair Windows 7 and then restore the data. 

This is typical of Microsoft, they give you a product to do a certain job but it really only does a partial job and the reason 3rd party software companies develop programs such as full hard drive backups that actually do what they say.  It is the reason I (and many techies) use Acronis True Image for my backups   Click Me

MS has changed its ways. You can use Backup and Restore to copy the entire drive. Win 7 has a better way to backup the whole drive. Use the System Image utility in Backup & Restore. It takes a "snapshot" of the whole drive including the Recovery partition, every program and file. It compresses the image and doesn't copy the empty spaces. It works fine. I've used it successfully several times. The system repair disk will act as a boot disk and allow you to restore individual backups or complete images, do a recovery or a full reinstallation. Acronis is not free and is no longer necessary. Read Windows Secrets latest article about building a safety net  by Fred Langa.

Yes, it was working fine until about a month ago - now it won't backup successfully.  The only way I can get it to finish is to take out the AppData Folder!  Something has obviously changed and I don't know what.  I started to to a clean boot but it took ages because I had to eliminate the services and start ups gradually.  I am going to have another go with no services or start ups and see what happens! 

Will the win 7 System Repair Disk (I want to restore a system image from an external HDD) recognize an external HDD using an eSata interface?

Thanks,

Harvey

AAARRRGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!:emotion-12:

Mary... Where were you in my thread asking if Windows 7 backed up the whole thing or only a partition???? I was curious about that, and no one knew for sure... So just this weekend I bought Acronis.... :emotion-9:

On the plus, it was $10 after rebate, and I trust it more, it is more clear to use, is DEFINITELY faster, and it allows me to make full backups whenever I want - Windows would erase old backups (about 35GB) even when I allowed it to use 80% of an otherwise empty 160GB backup drive...

Seriously, I am glad to know the info. for when others I know have questions about backing up in Win7....:emotion-1:

This is what I got when I posed the question on the Windows 7 forum today

Will Windows 7 backup back up both FAT and NTFS formatted parttions?

"Here is the message you get if you try to image a Fat32 Partition:

One of the source volumes specified has an invalid format and cannot be protected using Windows Backup. Only volumes formatted with NTFS can be protected."

Thanks for the clarification... Regardless, MS needs to do a better job of making it clear what is included.

I am happy I got the Acronis - the peace of mind for something like a system backup is well worth the cost.

My Inspiron N7010 laptop has backed up successfully!!!

All I did was uninstall the IE9 as it was acting strangely, so now I have the previous version IE8.  Tried the backup just on a hunch and it worked.  Now all I need to do is update to IE9 and see if it still works.....I am happy!

Following on from uninstalling IE9 and reverting to IE8.  

Windows Update wanted me to update from IE8 to IE9, so I let it do it.  I was having problem with my BT Yahoo homepage - the advert in the wrong place (its on the left hand side instead of the right hands side).  It was all OK with IE8 but not with IE9.  I understand it may be something to do with the Flash Player.  On my Inspiron and the XPS (both 64 bit lap tops running Windows 7) I have Adobe Flash Player 10 Active x version 10.3.181.14.  However on the XPS i have Adobe Flash Player 10 plugin version 10.1.102.64 also, but not on the Inspiron.  The Inspiron has Adobe Air.  I don't have any idea what either the plug in or Adobe Air does - are they doing the same job or should I try the plugin on the Inspiron and see if it solves the advert problem?

Any ideas from anyone?

Update on my problem...

After updating IE9 my backup and restore completed successfully today, so it seems everything is OK.  I just need to update Adobe Flash Player to the latest one, 10.3.181.16, which is now available.

Hurrah!!

Just checking, but will these backups, acronis or win 7, allow me to reinstall to the new harddrive i have bought to replace the one in my laptop which is failing?

Windows 7 backup and restore

Click to tutorial

www.todo-backup.com/.../window-7-backup-freeware.htm

I too am having Dell Inspiron laptop configured with Windows Vista operating system and it is working fine. The problem you are experiencing is because of backup restore failure. This happen while either the backup file is corrupt or the operating system is turned corrupt. What you need to do is to format the drive and install the OS again and then restore the backup file on the drive. If the backup file is not being restored completely then take the help of recovery bkf application that not only will restore the backup file but also helps to create backup copy. Corrupt backup file is also possible to be recovered using this software.