Replies

To everyone who helped me: Thank you so much for this. It makes me wish that I could also help somebody, but afraid I don’t know enough to be of any use. After looking at the replies, and doing DSM and SFC and all that, I started another backup through the “control panel” and went out to do chores/groceries/and a stop at my fav tavern. When I got home, I saw the attached message, telling me the backup was successful.

I don’t know what the problem was, b/c I certainly allowed longer time periods for completion immediately preceeding the successful one, (although I had not tried it from the control panel before b/c I did not know that was an option).

Was I impatient? Yes, I was. I feel that way every time something on my computer just “hangs” without explanation. I remember one of our IT people, (i’m retired) once said to me there was a “problem between the screen and the seat”.  Evidently he continues to be right about that.  Interestingly, The process created a new subdirectory on the backup drive with today’s date, (as compared to prior backups located in a different subdirectory from Nov 2022 when I did the last prior successful backup). Was also prompted to make a “repair disk” so I put a CD into the drive and it created one for me. Funny how CDs seem like old technology now.

I would like to mark this one resolved, I see there is a “resolved” drop-down and perhaps that’s the way so I’ll try that. But to everyone who reached out to help me, THANK YOU!

Hiawatha.

Thank you Cijan. Yesterday, I waited up to several hours and it was clearly just “stalled”. I don’t know why there are “waiting points” like 13% 57% or 97%.  However, some have counseled patience and so when I try again, I’ll give it more time, probably overnight.

I’m using a Windows 10 Pro HP Envy with Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4770 CPU @ 3.40GHz, 3401 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s) for  a CPU. There is also 16 GB of ram. Overall, this computer seems to be fast enough for the stuff I do on it, (office apps, no gaming or graphics). However, it is several years old, probably dating back to 2015 or 2016, I’m not sure. So maybe it has reached the end-of-life and needs to be replaced, I can’t really tell. I use “malwarebytes” for an AV in conjunction with the native Windows Defender firewall and additional AV scans, never had any kind of infection on it that I can recall. It’s been generally satisfactory, except the WiFi adapter seems to have “vanished” and I know nobody has gone inside to remove it so there’s that. I use a hardwire ethernet connection for this one anyway.

Hiawatha.

mpw wrote:

For what it is worth after Windows backup finishes backing up files it always stays at 97% until image backup is complete.  Takes a while, how long have you let it go?  Wait for an hour maybe and see if it finally finishes.

Also Control Panel>Backup and restore>Create a system image. (See attachment.)

If you can get an image this way I don’t why you can’t using Backup and Restore. But if it works you will at least have a current image of your computer.

 

Hiawatha wrote:

For what it is worth after Windows backup finishes backing up files it always stays at 97% until image backup is complete.  Takes a while, how long have you let it go?  Wait for an hour maybe and see if it finally finishes. Also Control Panel>Backup and restore>Create a system image. (See attachment.) If you can get an image this way I don’t why you can’t using Backup and Restore. But if it works you will at least have a current image of your computer.

Thanks mpw. I’ll try it that way and see if it behaves differently.

Alex5723 wrote:

What is your destination drive for the image backup ?

Alex,
Thank you for the question. The backup drive is a Seagate 2TB USB drive in two partitions of 1TB each, (sizes are approximate). File history backup in in partition D: and I had a successful file history backup yesterday. To your specific quesiton, the system image goes into partition J: (where do these drive letters come from? They seem to be automatically assigned). I have 535 gigabytes free in this partition, and somewhere in this process I saw it needed only 335 GB of space for the backup. There are a couple of prior backups in there that were successfully completed, the last one in November 2022.

Hiawatha

 

Thanks Paul,

I tried both of the things you suggested, and the DISM and SFC both completed successfully, but the backup still hangs at 97%. The reason I used the native Windows backup/system image was because I don’t really understand the many processes involved in “choosing” what to backup. Do you have a suggestion about which of the many available options besides Windows Backup I could use? The options all claim to be “best”, etc., and I’m not able to separate the marketing hype from the facts. Thank you.

Hiawatha