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I'm running WIN 7 Pro, Office 2010 Pro on a Gigabyte motherboard, Intel core i3, 16GG MEM, and Seagate Barracuda 500GB drive. Everything is working properly so I hook up my second Seagage Barracude 500GB drive, format it with Seagate's DiskWizard and then try to use Microsoft's Backup and Restore program. I selected my new drive, Let Windows Choose the data files and create a system image and it's off and running. After several minutes, a get the message that Backup Completed Unsucessfully with an I/O error. The message states to run CHKDSK /R via the DOS prompt on the disks in question. So I did and I got successful runs on each of the volumes on drive 1 and drive 2. So I fire up Backup again and after several minutes, I get the error message, Backup Unsuccessful Completion, it did not mention I/O error. So am I doing something wrong? Does MS Backup really work?

Thanks for your help,
Speedy

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Dani AI

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Nice catch by — the failure pattern (I/O error on a freshly-prepared Seagate drive, CHKDSK reporting clean, then success when run with higher privileges) points to access/driver or Volume Shadow Copy (snapshot) issues rather than an outright hardware fault. The following condensed checklist covers the highest-yield checks and fixes for Windows 7 Backup/Restore failures like this.

First checks: look in Event Viewer (Windows Logs → Application and System) for Backup, VSS or disk-related events right when the job fails. Those entries usually name the failing component (VSS writer, wbengine, disk) and give an event ID to search. Confirm the destination disk appears as Online, Basic, and NTFS in Disk Management, and run a SMART/diagnostic test from the drive maker to rule out intermittent hardware errors. Reseat SATA/USB cables and try another port if possible.

Common software culprits: third‑party disk tools and filter drivers (the likes of OEM imaging utilities) can lock volumes or interfere with VSS. Temporarily disable or uninstall such utilities and any real‑time antivirus before retrying. If the backup touches a small hidden boot partition, the backup process may require elevated access and a functioning VSS service; ensure VSS and related services are healthy and not blocked by drivers or security software.

If the built-in tool still fails after those checks, try a two-step approach: (1) test by backing up a small set of user files to the same target to confirm write/access works, then (2) attempt a system image. For a more robust fallback, use a dedicated imaging tool (free and commercial options exist) to create a full disk image and verify the image by mounting or restoring a file. Always test restores instead of assuming a backup is good.

Member Avatar for SpeedyChase

Solved the problem. Just run Backup/Restore under the Administrator account. What I think happens is that when running under the User account and the Backup/Restore gets to the System Reserved volume and it wants to copy it or whatever, it croakes.

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