Vista Backup won't recognize external WD hard drive

> If you do not have too much information already on your external drive I
> would copy it elsewhere. Then I would delete the drives partition and create
> a new partition on the external hard drive. I would create this as a NTFS
> partition which has more security and built in recovery than a fat32
> partition.
>
> Then, before I tried to store anything on the drive I would run an error
> check on the drive.
>
> From an elevated command prompt type chkdsk XXX: /f (where XXX is the drive
> letter of your external drive).
>
> --
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Richard Urban
> Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
> (For email, remove the obvious from my address)
>
>
>
> "Nevet" <Nevet@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:BD62387D-D621-4F48-A75E-14575609ACD7@microsoft.com...

> > Greetings Vista gurus,
> >
> > I just bought a new Western Digital "Passport" external (USB) portable
> > hard
> > drive. The drive is working fine, I can see it in Windows Explorer and
> > manually copy files to & from it. But when I try to use Windows Backup
> > (from
> > Vista's Backup & Restore Center), I immediately get an error message that
> > the
> > backup target drive failed: "The backup disk has a corrupted file system.
> > Fix it using the disk error checking tool, or choose a different backup
> > location." Western Digital tech support says that their hard drive is
> > obviously okay, since I can read from and write to it, and they do not
> > support Windows software.
> >
> > Two questions....
> >
> > (1) Why would Backup claim a corrupted file system when Vista can see,
> > read,
> > and write to the same file system with other applications?
> >
> > (2) What is "the disk error checking tool," where do I find it, and would
> > that help me?
> >
> > Thanks much for any pointers or suggestions!
> >
> > --Nevet

>
>

> Thanks, Richard. I ran chkdsk /f and it reported no problems on the
> (FAT32)
> drive. In fact, the drive seems fine for all applications except for
> Windows
> Backup.
>
> Can anybody recommend a third-party backup & restore application that
> works
> with Vista? Or any other ideas as to why Windows Backup doesn't like my
> external drive?
>
> --Nevet
>
> "Richard Urban" wrote:
>

>> If you do not have too much information already on your external drive I
>> would copy it elsewhere. Then I would delete the drives partition and
>> create
>> a new partition on the external hard drive. I would create this as a NTFS
>> partition which has more security and built in recovery than a fat32
>> partition.
>>
>> Then, before I tried to store anything on the drive I would run an error
>> check on the drive.
>>
>> From an elevated command prompt type chkdsk XXX: /f (where XXX is the
>> drive
>> letter of your external drive).
>>
>> --
>>
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Richard Urban
>> Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
>> (For email, remove the obvious from my address)
>>
>>
>>
>> "Nevet" <Nevet@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:BD62387D-D621-4F48-A75E-14575609ACD7@microsoft.com...

>> > Greetings Vista gurus,
>> >
>> > I just bought a new Western Digital "Passport" external (USB) portable
>> > hard
>> > drive. The drive is working fine, I can see it in Windows Explorer and
>> > manually copy files to & from it. But when I try to use Windows Backup
>> > (from
>> > Vista's Backup & Restore Center), I immediately get an error message
>> > that
>> > the
>> > backup target drive failed: "The backup disk has a corrupted file
>> > system.
>> > Fix it using the disk error checking tool, or choose a different backup
>> > location." Western Digital tech support says that their hard drive is
>> > obviously okay, since I can read from and write to it, and they do not
>> > support Windows software.
>> >
>> > Two questions....
>> >
>> > (1) Why would Backup claim a corrupted file system when Vista can see,
>> > read,
>> > and write to the same file system with other applications?
>> >
>> > (2) What is "the disk error checking tool," where do I find it, and
>> > would
>> > that help me?
>> >
>> > Thanks much for any pointers or suggestions!
>> >
>> > --Nevet

>>
>>

> You are having a problem because the drive is formatted as fat32. Remember,
> I said to format as NTFS. Fat32 has a file size limitation of 4 gig - max. A
> full system backup is going to exceed this, and will therefore fail.
>
> If you format as NTFS you will have no such limitations.
>
> --
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Richard Urban
> Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
> (For email, remove the obvious from my address)
>
>
>
> "Nevet" <Nevet@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:9DBFD9FC-A3FB-4903-BFBE-D9F0DAA63DB8@microsoft.com...

> > Thanks, Richard. I ran chkdsk /f and it reported no problems on the
> > (FAT32)
> > drive. In fact, the drive seems fine for all applications except for
> > Windows
> > Backup.
> >
> > Can anybody recommend a third-party backup & restore application that
> > works
> > with Vista? Or any other ideas as to why Windows Backup doesn't like my
> > external drive?
> >
> > --Nevet
> >
> > "Richard Urban" wrote:
> >

> >> If you do not have too much information already on your external drive I
> >> would copy it elsewhere. Then I would delete the drives partition and
> >> create
> >> a new partition on the external hard drive. I would create this as a NTFS
> >> partition which has more security and built in recovery than a fat32
> >> partition.
> >>
> >> Then, before I tried to store anything on the drive I would run an error
> >> check on the drive.
> >>
> >> From an elevated command prompt type chkdsk XXX: /f (where XXX is the
> >> drive
> >> letter of your external drive).
> >>
> >> --
> >>
> >>
> >> Regards,
> >>
> >> Richard Urban
> >> Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
> >> (For email, remove the obvious from my address)
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> "Nevet" <Nevet@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> >> news:BD62387D-D621-4F48-A75E-14575609ACD7@microsoft.com...
> >> > Greetings Vista gurus,
> >> >
> >> > I just bought a new Western Digital "Passport" external (USB) portable
> >> > hard
> >> > drive. The drive is working fine, I can see it in Windows Explorer and
> >> > manually copy files to & from it. But when I try to use Windows Backup
> >> > (from
> >> > Vista's Backup & Restore Center), I immediately get an error message
> >> > that
> >> > the
> >> > backup target drive failed: "The backup disk has a corrupted file
> >> > system.
> >> > Fix it using the disk error checking tool, or choose a different backup
> >> > location." Western Digital tech support says that their hard drive is
> >> > obviously okay, since I can read from and write to it, and they do not
> >> > support Windows software.
> >> >
> >> > Two questions....
> >> >
> >> > (1) Why would Backup claim a corrupted file system when Vista can see,
> >> > read,
> >> > and write to the same file system with other applications?
> >> >
> >> > (2) What is "the disk error checking tool," where do I find it, and
> >> > would
> >> > that help me?
> >> >
> >> > Thanks much for any pointers or suggestions!
> >> >
> >> > --Nevet
> >>
> >>

>
>

> Thanks, Richard. I tried that, still no cigar..... I moved my files off
> the
> hard drive, deleted the FAT32 partition, created a new NTFS partition and
> formatted it. CHKDSK reports no problem. Still, Backup fails
> immediately:
> "The backup target drive F:\ failed with the following error: The backup
> location could not be found or is not valid." I've removed my McAfee
> firewall and anti-virus and rebooted, to no avail.
>
> Any other ideas?
>
> --Nevet
>
> "Richard Urban" wrote:
>

>> You are having a problem because the drive is formatted as fat32.
>> Remember,
>> I said to format as NTFS. Fat32 has a file size limitation of 4 gig -
>> max. A
>> full system backup is going to exceed this, and will therefore fail.
>>
>> If you format as NTFS you will have no such limitations.
>>
>> --
>>
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Richard Urban
>> Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
>>
>> "Nevet" <Nevet@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:9DBFD9FC-A3FB-4903-BFBE-D9F0DAA63DB8@microsoft.com...

>> > Thanks, Richard. I ran chkdsk /f and it reported no problems on the
>> > (FAT32)
>> > drive. In fact, the drive seems fine for all applications except for
>> > Windows
>> > Backup.
>> >
>> > Can anybody recommend a third-party backup & restore application that
>> > works
>> > with Vista? Or any other ideas as to why Windows Backup doesn't like
>> > my
>> > external drive?
>> >
>> > --Nevet
>> >
>> > "Richard Urban" wrote:
>> >
>> >> If you do not have too much information already on your external drive
>> >> I
>> >> would copy it elsewhere. Then I would delete the drives partition and
>> >> create
>> >> a new partition on the external hard drive. I would create this as a
>> >> NTFS
>> >> partition which has more security and built in recovery than a fat32
>> >> partition.
>> >>
>> >> Then, before I tried to store anything on the drive I would run an
>> >> error
>> >> check on the drive.
>> >>
>> >> From an elevated command prompt type chkdsk XXX: /f (where XXX is the
>> >> drive
>> >> letter of your external drive).
>> >>
>> >> --
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> Regards,
>> >>
>> >> Richard Urban
>> >> Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
>> >>
>> >> "Nevet" <Nevet@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> >> news:BD62387D-D621-4F48-A75E-14575609ACD7@microsoft.com...
>> >> > Greetings Vista gurus,
>> >> >
>> >> > I just bought a new Western Digital "Passport" external (USB)
>> >> > portable
>> >> > hard
>> >> > drive. The drive is working fine, I can see it in Windows Explorer
>> >> > and
>> >> > manually copy files to & from it. But when I try to use Windows
>> >> > Backup
>> >> > (from
>> >> > Vista's Backup & Restore Center), I immediately get an error message
>> >> > that
>> >> > the
>> >> > backup target drive failed: "The backup disk has a corrupted file
>> >> > system.
>> >> > Fix it using the disk error checking tool, or choose a different
>> >> > backup
>> >> > location." Western Digital tech support says that their hard drive
>> >> > is
>> >> > obviously okay, since I can read from and write to it, and they do
>> >> > not
>> >> > support Windows software.
>> >> >
>> >> > Two questions....
>> >> >
>> >> > (1) Why would Backup claim a corrupted file system when Vista can
>> >> > see,
>> >> > read,
>> >> > and write to the same file system with other applications?
>> >> >
>> >> > (2) What is "the disk error checking tool," where do I find it, and
>> >> > would
>> >> > that help me?
>> >> >
>> >> > Thanks much for any pointers or suggestions!
>> >> >
>> >> > --Nevet

> Hi, Nevet.
>
> Have you found and used Disk Management? Ever since Windows 2000, DM has
> been the tool to use for creating, deleting, formatting and otherwise
> managing hard drives (plus optical drives, USB thumb drives, etc.).
>
> To find it, you can right-click Computer, then Manage, then Disk Management.
> (But I prefer to Run diskmgmt.msc; I use this so often that it's on my Quick
> Launch.)
>
> RC
> --
> R. C. White, CPA
> San Marcos, TX
> rc@grandecom.net
> Microsoft Windows MVP
> (Running Windows Live Mail beta in Vista Ultimate x64)
>

> R.C.,
>
> Yes, I used Disk Management to create and format the hard drive.
>
> To reiterate, the hard drive itself is fine. I can read and write to it
> (now using an NTFS partition) from Windows Explorer and other applications.
> My only problem is using Windows Backup in Vista, which *immediately* fails,
> with an error message that "the backup location cannot be found or is not
> valid."
>
>
> "R. C. White" wrote:
>

> > Hi, Nevet.
> >
> > Have you found and used Disk Management? Ever since Windows 2000, DM has
> > been the tool to use for creating, deleting, formatting and otherwise
> > managing hard drives (plus optical drives, USB thumb drives, etc.).
> >
> > To find it, you can right-click Computer, then Manage, then Disk Management.
> > (But I prefer to Run diskmgmt.msc; I use this so often that it's on my Quick
> > Launch.)
> >
> > RC
> > --
> > R. C. White, CPA
> > San Marcos, TX
> > rc@grandecom.net
> > Microsoft Windows MVP
> > (Running Windows Live Mail beta in Vista Ultimate x64)
> >

>

> I could be wrong, but I think Windows Backup has some problems of its own.
> I'm trying out the Windows Live One Care, which has a backup program very
> similar to the Vista backup program (I expect using some of the same code),
> and I have lots of problems with the program not recognizing DVD disks that
> it made and verified. It will then say the disk isn't in the drive or isn't
> a valid backup disk. Of course, this is a slightly different type of error,
> but it is possible your drive is fine but the backup program is just not
> working correctly.
>