Backup failure, But it was working!

[Jontmke]

I run MS Backup, 4 days a week. One Full (kind of) and three incrementals. They save to another hard drive, not a tape or cd.
Starting last week the scheduled jobs fail, and the error says it can't find the file it needs to write to. The files are there, I am the admin and am using my login info.

I have not changed the jobs for months. Any ideas?

Jon

There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge. (Bertrand Russell)

 

[smah]

Have you changed your password maybe?

 

[Jontmke]

Nope, same old, same old. I am perplexed. I guess I will just delete the schedules and do them again and see.

Jon

There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge. (Bertrand Russell)

 

[bcastner]

If the files are there, no special attributes set such as -H or -S or both, then this totally baffles me. You might think about removing the catalogue file as possibly corrupt as well.

 

[Jontmke]

Catalogue file? Where is that? Maybe that is what it is trying to say.

Jon

There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge. (Bertrand Russell)

 

[bcastner]

I think the proper name is "Backup Selection File." See if this link helps:

Scheduled Backup Jobs May Not Run As Expected

"When you schedule a Windows 2000 backup job to run with user credentials different from the interactive user you are logged on as, the scheduled backup job may start when scheduled, but backup quits immediately and the actual backup task is never performed.

If you open Control Panel, and then double-click Scheduled Tasks to look at the status of the scheduled backup job, it shows Last Result: 0x2D as a status. If you log on to the system interactively using the same user credentials as the scheduled backup job, and then start Ntbackup.exe interactively, the backup_name.job report under the tool's Reports menu states the following:

Skipped files in "NT\Ntbackup\data\backup_selection_file_name.bks" folder. Folder not found."


This full article gives the particulars and a resolution to the issue:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;264604

 

[Jontmke]

I'll check it out, but I am the only user and I am logged on and I am using my credentials.

Jon

There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge. (Bertrand Russell)

 

[bcastner]

My read is that the file can be corrupted, leaving you with the error mentioned.

Here is an excellent way to corrupt the file:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;243260

If you read this carefully, not only are the settings ignored, but "if you remove, modify, or add an additional parameter to the command string, the parameter may not be saved when you exit. This prevents the backup job from running with the modified or added parameter, and may result in backup problems or backups being performed differently than you expect."

Which I think is a way of saying it can be corrupted.