Windows XP Backup to back up files found on an EXTERNAL hard drive

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I am attempting to use Windows XP Backup Utility (Ntbackup) to back up data
files and documents from both my internal hard drive and from an external
hard drive onto the same external hard drive. Note that I have no problem
backing up files from my internal hard drive onto my external hard drive.

The problems arise when I try to also backup files already located on my
external hard drive to the backup folder on that same external hard drive.
The backup does not complete successfully, and the log report lists various
problems encountered. The problem most often listed is that the file I was
attempting to back up could not be opened because the system cannot find the
file specified.
 
sdg said:
I am attempting to use Windows XP Backup Utility (Ntbackup) to back
up data files and documents from both my internal hard drive and from
an external hard drive onto the same external hard drive. Note that
I have no problem backing up files from my internal hard drive onto
my external hard drive.

The problems arise when I try to also backup files already located on
my external hard drive to the backup folder on that same external
hard drive. The backup does not complete successfully, and the log
report lists various problems encountered. The problem most often
listed is that the file I was attempting to back up could not be
opened because the system cannot find the file specified.
Click to expand...

Probably a software fluke; sometimes you have to be very specific about what
you backup when you save the backup to the same drive or it starts to look
inside the backup for the file to backup, and that can create some very real
problems.
Also, it's kind of a waste of space IMO. If that drive goes south, both
the original data AND its backup are gone, so ... what's the point?

Regards,

Pop`
 
I understand and agree. Despite that, however, almost all the MS
instructions for the Backup Utility have you saving the backup OF your
internal hard drive's My Docs folder onto your same internal hard drive. I
suppose the logic is that at least this might help if the original files
become corrupted, even if it won't help it the whole blows up.

Following your point, I will attempt to put the backup of the info on my
EXTERNAL hard drive onto a second external drive, and see if that works.
Thank you.
 
sdg said:
I understand and agree. Despite that, however, almost all the MS
instructions for the Backup Utility have you saving the backup OF your
internal hard drive's My Docs folder onto your same internal hard drive.
I
suppose the logic is that at least this might help if the original files
become corrupted, even if it won't help it the whole blows up.

Following your point, I will attempt to put the backup of the info on my
EXTERNAL hard drive onto a second external drive, and see if that works.
Thank you.
Click to expand...
External hard drives are relatively inexpensive and for security should be
stored in another location. There is less backup benefit in backing up an
external HD to itself, even to a seperate partition on the same external HD
for the reasons already noted above.
 
sdg said:
I understand and agree. Despite that, however, almost all the MS
instructions for the Backup Utility have you saving the backup OF your
internal hard drive's My Docs folder onto your same internal hard drive.
I
suppose the logic is that at least this might help if the original files
become corrupted, even if it won't help it the whole blows up.

Following your point, I will attempt to put the backup of the info on my
EXTERNAL hard drive onto a second external drive, and see if that works.
Thank you.
Click to expand...

If you're trying to back up the My Documents folder regularly, there are
better choices that ntbackup, because it is so limited in what it can write
to.

One of the more reliable inexpensive approaches I've used is another backup
app, in this case Backup Plus, set to incremental backup, and then
installing packet-writing software like Nero InCD or Roxio DirectCD or Sonic
DLA; and using a set of five CD or DVD-RW disks.

The backup is set to run every night, and the disks are swapped either every
morning or night. Occasionally, another full copy is taken and stored
elsewhere. This gives a total of six copies of the data.

Large data sets that don't often change, like personal photos, can be
quickly backed up this way with a separate backup task.

This arrangement cost perhaps $70 including software and disks; the packet
software comes with most systems now, or with just about any new DVD/RW
drive; that might be $40.

There was a large advantage to using Backup Plus, although this also imposed
a limitation. The advantage was that BP uses standard ZIP format files,
renamed .bac, so there are *plenty* of recovery tools should an archive
corrupt. The limitation was that it couldn't write files larger than 4
gig, due to an inherent ZIP limit, but that's mostly an issue only when
backing up to hard disk.

HTH
-pk
 
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