As mentioned previously by myself and others, there are some major
problems with Microsoft's "Backup" and file copying on both Vista and
Windows Server 2008. Some of the problems appear to be hardware and
driver specific coupled perhaps with the operating system improperly
handling data transfer problems. The typical error condition is a hang
or restart without any error messages and/or a sudden disconnection of
the drive from which the data are being copied.
I don't know what your hardware setup is, but we have had consistent,
reproducible Backup and copy failures on one platform and none on a
different platform. One of the backup devices that we use is Apricorn's
"Ez Bus DTS". This is a SATA II external storage device that connects to
a personal computer either by eSATA or by USB 2.0. Interestingly, all of
the errors have involved SATA II to SATA II transfers either between
internal drives or from internal drives to the Ez Bus DTS. We have not
had a single failure backing up or copying to and from internal SATA II
drives and an external USB 2.0 connected SATA II drive.
One other condition that you may encounter is failure to copy a
directory that contains one or more protected (DRM) audiovisual files.
The copy can fail with or without an error message. This particular
problem doesn't apply to "Backup".