Unstable PC and unable to run a back-up

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DSM10000

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My Windows 7 (Home Premium edition) laptop is now 3 years old and is showing all the usual Windows signs of age. Programs are taking longer to open, IE is unstable and often crashing as well as not opening full size (Auto-sizer will not always fix this either.

The plan was to reinstall everything from the recovery partition but first to run a backup and create a system image. The problem is that every time I try this the back-up will run for awhile and then fail with the following error codes.
Ox 8078012D Ox8007045D
Reading up on this it seems to be a registry issue but all the "help" I have found either makes no sense to me or does not work!
I have run disk checking on the C drive and my external hard drive, re-formatted the external drive and cleared out old back-up folders from within Windows but although the back-up went further it still failed after about 20 minutes of backing up. What I want to do is be able, if possible is re-install all current programs etc as I do not have all the software on CD.
Any advice gratefully received!
 
Two things spring to mind. One are you sure it's not malware or a virus as those symptoms are common. I'd run a good AV program and then an anti-malware to check. Second you can re-install windows on top of itself if you have a DVD/CD. This keeps all you programs and settings but gives you a clean windows install.
 
I have Norton and Malawarebytes , no problems reported, the laptop did bot come with any CD/DVD. it is all on a recovery partition.
 
could you just copy out the stuff you want to keep ? pictures movies etc ?
 
could you just copy out the stuff you want to keep ? pictures movies etc ?

They are already stored elsewhere, as I said though I have various programs like Office suite and other things for which I do not have the original install discs.:doh:
 
I don't wish to be a harbinger of doom, but I'd suggest you take a good look in the Windows Event Log for any disk errors.

I used Windows Backup on my Win7 desktop machine (including a system image) for quite a while and then it suddenly started to fail with Ox8078012D & Ox8007045D error codes, or the machine would just stop completely during a backup. I did find the odd disk-related entry in the Event Log, but chkdsk never found anything awry so I gave up chasing it and installed Macrium Reflect which successfully created a full image and allowed me to backup the machine so I just left it at that.

Roll on a few months and strange things started happening: odd lockups, application crashes, etc. I checked the Event Log and again found the odd disk-related entry, but never coincident with any of the issues I was experiencing. Chkdsk revealed nothing either. It was only when I ran the disk manufacturer's diagnostics that the source of the problem became clear: the disk was failing. Fortunately I was able to restore a full image to a new disk using Reflect, but it was a nervous time because the disk had clearly been faulty for some time and there was a possibility that I would be attempting to restore from a corrupted image.

So, in short, check your machine's disk thoroughly with an appropriate utility and if anything shows up just hope you can successfully clone the disk before it cashes in its chips completely.
 
They are already stored elsewhere, as I said though I have various programs like Office suite and other things for which I do not have the original install discs.:doh:

You don't need install media for office or your other applications as you can get the install media pretty easily online.

What you do need is to make a note of your license keys.

I don't really understand how you think running a backup now will fix windows? If you ran a recovery OS install and then followed that up with a complete restore you would be in the exact position you find yourself in now after 10 hours of work.

You should be restoring from a known good backup and not from a known bad backup.
 
You don't need install media for office or your other applications as you can get the install media pretty easily online.

What you do need is to make a note of your license keys.

I don't really understand how you think running a backup now will fix windows? If you ran a recovery OS install and then followed that up with a complete restore you would be in the exact position you find yourself in now after 10 hours of work.

You should be restoring from a known good backup and not from a known bad backup.

Spike; I do not expect a back up to fix Windows, I did not suggest that, I just want to back up all existing files so I can then carry out a re-install of Windows and then choose the files I wish to restore. There is no current good backup available as the external hard drive used for this failed, I have a new external drive that I will use to backup files from now

Are the license keys stored on the laptop after install and if so how would I find them? The original installation discs with the licence keys have been "mislaid"
 
Shame you've mislaid those install discs, huh?

Best fix is to back up all the DATA somewhere, then completely wipe and reinstall the operating system and the programs you need/use, then the data.

And have a regular back up strategy too.

I use Clonezilla and take regular system images (I have enough drive space to do this, and to split it over 2 discs so I can wipe the disc and restore it from the other). It takes about 2 hours to go from a totally broken, won't start up, PC, to a fully restored one which works fast.
 
Spike; I do not expect a back up to fix Windows, I did not suggest that, I just want to back up all existing files so I can then carry out a re-install of Windows and then choose the files I wish to restore. There is no current good backup available as the external hard drive used for this failed, I have a new external drive that I will use to backup files from now

Are the license keys stored on the laptop after install and if so how would I find them? The original installation discs with the licence keys have been "mislaid"

Download Magical Jelly Bean and when you run it it will display most the keycodes of installed commercial software. 100% MS office and Windows...
 
Download Magical Jelly Bean and when you run it it will display most the keycodes of installed commercial software. 100% MS office and Windows...

Thanks! Just found that myself and the product keys are instantly displayed!:thumb:
 
The product keys are in the registry somewhere, aren't they? Thus not needing any extra software to reveal them - if you know where to look!
 
The product keys are in the registry somewhere, aren't they? Thus not needing any extra software to reveal them - if you know where to look!

According to my searches on-line the keys are held in the registry but are encrypted.
 
Try Ccleaner.

Gets rid of unneeded files and does a good registry clean up.

CCleaner - PC Optimization and Cleaning - Free Download



I wouldnt advise this.

I have never come across a pc that had CC cleaner installed that isnt completely hosed.

I suppose one could put this down to the machine being screwed before CC cleaner was installed but however you look at it, CC Cleaner didnt fix the problem.
 
CC cleaner works fine and it is safe to use. Best when used frequently.

But it mostly cleans-up temp files and removes orphan registry entries. It's great for what it does, clearing up disk space, but it won't fix an ailing machine, remove malware or viruses etc.
 
Spike; I do not expect a back up to fix Windows, I did not suggest that, I just want to back up all existing files so I can then carry out a re-install of Windows and then choose the files I wish to restore. There is no current good backup available as the external hard drive used for this failed, I have a new external drive that I will use to backup files from now

Are the license keys stored on the laptop after install and if so how would I find them? The original installation discs with the licence keys have been "mislaid"

I was referring to the following;

could you just copy out the stuff you want to keep ? pictures movies etc ?



They are already stored elsewhere, as I said though I have various programs like Office suite and other things for which I do not have the original install discs.:doh:

So if you have a copy of your files stored elsewhere and you're not intending to run a backup to restore your complete system then why are you trying to run a backup exactly?

Your backup wont allow you to restore selective applications.
 
I was referring to the following;







So if you have a copy of your files stored elsewhere and you're not intending to run a backup to restore your complete system then why are you trying to run a backup exactly?

Your backup wont allow you to restore selective applications.

Some data, such as photographs are backed up elsewhere on cloud storage, not everything on the laptop is currently available as a back-up however as the external drive I had been using has failed.

I have now bought another external drive and this is the one that the laptop keeps failing to back-up to if I ask it to make either a system image (which will copy programs etc!)) or a simple back-up of data.
 
OK, so suggest just copying and pasting the files you need to some other media such as a cheap USB HDD. Get a report from Magical jellybean of all your licence keys and print them out for reference and you're good to go for fresh build. As long as you have your licence keys you need you should be able to download the actual software from one of the many torrent sites should you not be able to locate the original media.

No point in making a system image if you know your system needs a rebuild.

Your actual error suggests that your Volume Shadow Copy and Windows Backup service are not running. You can quickly check by typing services.msc in the run box.

Quick question.. what AV, firewall or other security software are you running?
 
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Currently running Norton AV and have Malawarebytes and Sbybot, all 3 ran with no significant findings other than tracking cookies and other low level stuff .

As per previous posts I have downloaded Magical Jelly bean and have the appropriate licence keys. It would be good to be able to use the inbuilt back-up program running for future use though
 

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