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#1
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Problem with Win 7 Backup
I installed Win 7 Backup on a brand new 1.5TB external drive yesterday
and ran a backup using the recommended setting. I examined the drive and saw what folders it had backed up, and everything seemed fine. The BU used about 106 Gb. I set it to run at midnight every day. A few minutes ago a message popped up saying that drive F (the BU drive) had to be formated before it could be used. I looked at it in WinEx and it said "this drive is empty". Properties showed zero capacity, zero used. I had a similar experience with Acronis on another drive (which totally disappeared fron WinEx), which caused me to switch to Win BU. I didn't see the computer first thing this morning as my wife had already checked her emails before I got to it, but she didn't notice anything. Any clues about what is going on? When I know I have a good BU and enough time I will bite the bullet and do a re install, as after 3.5 weeks Ive had more trouble with Win 7 than any other OS I've ever used, bumping Vista out of first place. Win XP is alone at the bottom of that list; I don't recall any major trouble I ever had with it. Info: Win 7 32bit, Home Premium; Seagate Free Agent Desk, USB2 connection on one of the back-of-the-case ports. Everything the same for Acronis except the HD was a 1 Tb WD MyBook. Allen |
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#2
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Problem with Win 7 Backup
"Allen" wrote in message ... I installed Win 7 Backup on a brand new 1.5TB external drive yesterday and ran a backup using the recommended setting. I examined the drive and saw what folders it had backed up, and everything seemed fine. The BU used about 106 Gb. I set it to run at midnight every day. A few minutes ago a message popped up saying that drive F (the BU drive) had to be formated before it could be used. I looked at it in WinEx and it said "this drive is empty". Properties showed zero capacity, zero used. I had a similar experience with Acronis on another drive (which totally disappeared fron WinEx), which caused me to switch to Win BU. I didn't see the computer first thing this morning as my wife had already checked her emails before I got to it, but she didn't notice anything. Any clues about what is going on? When I know I have a good BU and enough time I will bite the bullet and do a re install, as after 3.5 weeks Ive had more trouble with Win 7 than any other OS I've ever used, bumping Vista out of first place. Win XP is alone at the bottom of that list; I don't recall any major trouble I ever had with it. Info: Win 7 32bit, Home Premium; Seagate Free Agent Desk, USB2 connection on one of the back-of-the-case ports. Everything the same for Acronis except the HD was a 1 Tb WD MyBook. Allen Type "Computer Management" in the search window. Open it and go to to / Storage / Disk Management and find the new drive. Initialize the drive from this console. Format it and configure it as an active partition. Should solve your issues. |
#3
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Problem with Win 7 Backup
Augustus wrote:
"Allen" wrote in message ... I installed Win 7 Backup on a brand new 1.5TB external drive yesterday and ran a backup using the recommended setting. I examined the drive and saw what folders it had backed up, and everything seemed fine. The BU used about 106 Gb. I set it to run at midnight every day. A few minutes ago a message popped up saying that drive F (the BU drive) had to be formated before it could be used. I looked at it in WinEx and it said "this drive is empty". Properties showed zero capacity, zero used. I had a similar experience with Acronis on another drive (which totally disappeared fron WinEx), which caused me to switch to Win BU. I didn't see the computer first thing this morning as my wife had already checked her emails before I got to it, but she didn't notice anything. Any clues about what is going on? When I know I have a good BU and enough time I will bite the bullet and do a re install, as after 3.5 weeks Ive had more trouble with Win 7 than any other OS I've ever used, bumping Vista out of first place. Win XP is alone at the bottom of that list; I don't recall any major trouble I ever had with it. Info: Win 7 32bit, Home Premium; Seagate Free Agent Desk, USB2 connection on one of the back-of-the-case ports. Everything the same for Acronis except the HD was a 1 Tb WD MyBook. Allen Type "Computer Management" in the search window. Open it and go to to / Storage / Disk Management and find the new drive. Initialize the drive from this console. Format it and configure it as an active partition. Should solve your issues. Thanks for your suggestion, but will I have to do this every time I try to update a backup, thus never having a backup? It isn't a disk problem--it's some kind of software. Allen |
#4
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Problem with Win 7 Backup
Type "Computer Management" in the search window. Open it and go to to /
Storage / Disk Management and find the new drive. Initialize the drive from this console. Format it and configure it as an active partition. Should solve your issues. Thanks for your suggestion, but will I have to do this every time I try to update a backup, thus never having a backup? It isn't a disk problem--it's some kind of software. Allen Your problem sound very much like an issue with the MBR file structure on the drive. This is likely the the reason Windows 7 is generating the formatting and no free space messages. There's a number of ways to correct this, from running chkdsk [drive:] /r from the command prompt with admin privilege, accessing the properties / tools / error checking tab when right clicking on the drive icon , or by the procedure I described before. Whichever way you choose, I'm pretty sure the issue will be permanently resolved this way. |
#5
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Problem with Win 7 Backup
Augustus wrote:
Type "Computer Management" in the search window. Open it and go to to / Storage / Disk Management and find the new drive. Initialize the drive from this console. Format it and configure it as an active partition. Should solve your issues. Thanks for your suggestion, but will I have to do this every time I try to update a backup, thus never having a backup? It isn't a disk problem--it's some kind of software. Allen Your problem sound very much like an issue with the MBR file structure on the drive. This is likely the the reason Windows 7 is generating the formatting and no free space messages. There's a number of ways to correct this, from running chkdsk [drive:] /r from the command prompt with admin privilege, accessing the properties / tools / error checking tab when right clicking on the drive icon , or by the procedure I described before. Whichever way you choose, I'm pretty sure the issue will be permanently resolved this way. Augustus, I thank you for your help. Right now, the drive is viewable. I went into Event Viewer and found hundreds of entries after midnight, when the backup started, most referring to \Device\Harddisk2\DR9, whatever that might be. I would assume that should be the second internal HD in my machine, although it could be C: or any of three external drives. C: and K: and external, an external drive. It looks like the BU was completed in about 30 minutes, but a few minutes later something convinced it to run a defrag on that same drive--if that drive is the target it got defragged after it had been written to one time other than the factory install of system software--hardly a likely target for a defrag. Allen |
#6
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Problem with Win 7 Backup
like the BU was completed in about 30 minutes, but a few minutes later
something convinced it to run a defrag on that same drive--if that drive is the target it got defragged after it had been written to one time other than the factory install of system software--hardly a likely target for a defrag. Allen One issue for some is that these WD MyBook backup drives have the Smartware software installed as a VCD that you can't get around; whenever it's plugged in it creates a virtual drive and runs it's software from that drive. I believe that this is what's causing issues when Windows is trying to use the device a a simple backup drive and the WD software is corrupting the file structure generating error messages and faults. The firmware for the device can be upgraded so that the VCD is not loaded by default. Try this and see if it behaves. http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/update...twareutilities |
#7
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Problem with Win 7 Backup
Augustus wrote:
like the BU was completed in about 30 minutes, but a few minutes later something convinced it to run a defrag on that same drive--if that drive is the target it got defragged after it had been written to one time other than the factory install of system software--hardly a likely target for a defrag. Allen One issue for some is that these WD MyBook backup drives have the Smartware software installed as a VCD that you can't get around; whenever it's plugged in it creates a virtual drive and runs it's software from that drive. I believe that this is what's causing issues when Windows is trying to use the device a a simple backup drive and the WD software is corrupting the file structure generating error messages and faults. The firmware for the device can be upgraded so that the VCD is not loaded by default. Try this and see if it behaves. http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/update...twareutilities I see that I wasn't clear. The current drive for backup is a 1.5 Tb Seagate FreeAgent Desk (bought because it was on sale at Fry's). I do indeed have a WD Mybook, which I murdered by knocking it off a shelf 3.5 feet above the floor _while running_. If I can ever get it going again I will run that program. Incidentally, I have WinBU set to run at midnight daily, and it seems to have behaved itself. After putting up with all trolls and just about any other kind of garbage on the M$ Vista General ng, it is very refreshing to find people like you who are willing to help others. I'm sure that the idiots from Vista General will soon infest this group, but in the meantime let's enjoy it. Many thanks again to you and the other helpful souls on this ng. Allen |
#8
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Problem with Win 7 Backup
On Fri, 11 Dec 2009 20:19:22 -0600, Allen
wrote: Augustus, I thank you for your help. Right now, the drive is viewable. I went into Event Viewer and found hundreds of entries after midnight, when the backup started, most referring to \Device\Harddisk2\DR9, whatever that might be. To see which drive is Harddisk2, open Disk Management and you'll see your drives there, starting with Disk 0. You can also see which drive letter is mapped to that drive. |
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