Problem with Win 7 Backup

[Allen]

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

 

[Augustus]

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.

 

[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

 

[Augustus]

Type "Computer Management" in the search window. Open it and go to to /

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.

 

[Allen]

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

 

[Augustus]

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/updates/?family=wdsmartwareutilities

 

[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/updates/?family=wdsmartwareutilities

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

 

[Char Jackson]

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.