Computer won't back up. Can anyone help?

linni

When I try to back up a message comes up saying 'there is insufficient storage to create ether shadow copy or other shadow copy data' even when I try it with a 1Tb portable hard drive which is 80% free. I have tried everything I can think of, which is probably not a lot! It has Vista Home Premium pre-installed, so no disks, and am thinking of getting Windows 7 so really need back up first. Can anyone give me some help and advice on what to do?

John_Gray

I'm not clear whether this 1 TB drive is an external hard disk or not. If it's the same drive as you've got Vista on, then I wouldn't expect that Backup would work - unless you are backing up to a second partition!

JasX

Can you not manually drag all your documents/pictures/saves/important stuff onto the drive manually?

I'd definitely want everything readily accessible in its raw form if I'm changing OSs rather than rely on semi-automated vista dependant process

OneADay

This might help

http://www.vistaheads.com/forums/microsoft-public-windows-vista-file-management/53592-insufficient-storage-available-error-backup.html

Something to do with system restore point not having been created and/or SYSTEM user privs.

Personally I would copy all critical data of the drive to the back disk manually (i..e everything you want to keep).
Thats if you intend to go to windows 7 - I would not bother with windows 7 (live with vista till win8 comes).

Redman30

OneADay wrote: »

Thats if you intend to go to windows 7 - I would not bother with windows 7 (live with vista till win8 comes).

Nothing wrong with windows 7, it's a nice clean OS. And since the OP will be upgrading from Vista, a manual back-up (drag and drop folders onto your external drive) will suffice, as upgrading from Vista to Win7 maintains all your data/files etc. This probably isn't 100% foolproof like, hence recommending the manual backup, it worked for my system though.

JasX

OneADay wrote: »

Thats if you intend to go to windows 7 - I would not bother with windows 7 (live with vista till win8 comes).

what planet are you living on?

superrug_2

OneADay wrote: »

Thats if you intend to go to windows 7 - I would not bother with windows 7 (live with vista till win8 comes).

:wall: Paaahahahahaha

OneADay

JasX wrote: »

what planet are you living on?

Earth last time I looked and there is some carp called win7 which is very similar to something called wasta.

Unless win7 comes with a new pc I would not throw more money at microsoft until they come with a radically new os or one that does something you cannot do just as well with xp (or even vista).

linni

Yes, the 1TB is an external drive, which I bought because it wouldn't back up onto it's own Recovery Drive and only has 18.9Mb free. The main Drive C: has 75.3gb free.

I can't create a restore point either, I get a similar error message with (0 x 8004231F) which is exactly the same as in the vistaheads link. I've had the computer for a few years but was only used by the kids/spare so I can't go back to where I got it from. I now need to use it as my main computer and was only thinking of getting Windows 7 for DS's birthday. I can drag/copy stuff onto the external hard drive/dvd's but I'd like to be able to set a restore point or do a proper back up just in case!

OneADay

linni wrote: »

Yes, the 1TB is an external drive, which I bought because it wouldn't back up onto it's own Recovery Drive and only has 18.9Mb free. The main Drive C: has 75.3gb free.

I can't create a restore point either, I get a similar error message with (0 x 8004231F) which is exactly the same as in the vistaheads link. I've had the computer for a few years but was only used by the kids/spare so I can't go back to where I got it from. I now need to use it as my main computer and was only thinking of getting Windows 7 for DS's birthday. I can drag/copy stuff onto the external hard drive/dvd's but I'd like to be able to set a restore point or do a proper back up just in case!

Don't forget that the windows backup utility creates files which you cannot readily access. They are merely files which windows (in this case vista) can use to restore a previous copy of your installation.

The error you are getting means there is no space for a restore so you need to free some space.

If you intend to get windows 7, then just take a copy of your critical documents. Also need to insure you can reinstall programs which need licenses (or have a copy of windows 7 that can perform an upgrade).

linni

Shall I delete all the stuff in Recovery Drive ? I don't think I should risk getting Windows 7 if there are problems with Vista being able to back up. I never had any problems backing up my older (XP) computer.