Can't get XP backup to work right

Computer Help and Discussions Software
1

I may be making an obvious mistake here as this is my first attempts at creating backups (bought about by my first unplanned reformat :rolleyes: ). I'm using WinXPs built in backup program (NT Backup). Problem is I go through the list of programs and docs ticking the items I want to backup and click create backup. But after it finishes the backup it says there were errors and to see the report for details. If I use the backup wizard to do a full backup it does it without any error. Can anyone give any idea what I'm doing wrong? The report created after the errored backup is below if that is helps find the problem:

Backup Status

Operation: Backup

Active backup destination: File

Media name: "Computer backup files + Sys state created 02/04/2006 at 20:59"

Backup (via shadow copy) of "C: "

Backup set #1 on media #1

Backup description: "Set created 02/04/2006 at 20:59"

Media name: "Computer backup files + Sys state created 02/04/2006 at 20:59"

Backup Type: Normal

Backup started on 02/04/2006 at 21:00.

Backup completed on 02/04/2006 at 21:01.

Directories: 221

Files: 402

Bytes: 61,577,815

Time: 49 seconds

Backup (via shadow copy) of "System State"

Backup set #2 on media #1

Backup description: "Set created 02/04/2006 at 20:59"

Media name: "Computer backup files + Sys state created 02/04/2006 at 20:59"

Backup Type: Copy

Backup started on 02/04/2006 at 21:01.

Error: Could not access portions of directory System State\COM+ Class Registration Database.

You may not have permission to open the file, or the directory may be missing or damaged.

Please contact the owner or administrator.

Error: Could not access portions of directory System State\Registry.

You may not have permission to open the file, or the directory may be missing or damaged.

Please contact the owner or administrator.

Backup completed on 02/04/2006 at 21:04.

Directories: 142

Files: 2343

Bytes: 402,646,456

Time: 3 minutes and 0 seconds

Critical files that make up System State were not successfuly backed up.

Restoring this backup set will cause system failure.

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The operation did not successfully complete.

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2

Make your backup while you are logged on with adminstrator priveleges. I assume however I don't necessarily know for sure that the full backup is working because MS Backup is using Volume Shadow Copy to backup otherwise locked and in-use files.

If you're serious about doing backups and don't want to use MS Backup which creates proprietary backups in it's own format you could also use a freeware backup utility that utilizes the .zip archive format which any file archiver can extract files from. There's some freeware backup software available here. To backup your whole registry I highly recommend and use ERUNT.

Also if you're using MS Backup to backup the whole system, you may run into file corruption in the backup if it exceeds 4GB, which is something I had to deal with just recently.

3

Hmmm, my mistake it seems. All I had to do was just use the wizard to backup my selection, rather than making the selections and clicking backup :rolleyes:

Thanks for the reply and software recommendations, been meaning to try out ERUNT and NTREGOPT for a while so downloading them now ;)