WHS won't backup one PC

[KLC]

I've got 2 PCs and a WHS V1 box. I recently upgraded to Win 7 on both PCs. After the upgrade and software installation I backed up both of them. One PC has been getting daily backups since then but one has not backed up since the initial backup. I've tried manual backups several times, each time after about 20 minutes and about 24% backup the backup aborts. I get a message that says "Backup server is not running on homeserver". Everything else seems OK. Backups are enabled on this PC.

 

[VirtualLarry]

trying to back up over a WiFi connection, by any chance?

 

[KLC]

no, it's wired.

 

[ControlD]

Have you tried the old standby of running a chkdsk /r on both your server and client hard drives? A single disk error (or database error) can quickly bring any version of WHS to a screeching halt. I had almost the exact same issue some time ago with one of my client PCs. I ended up deleting all of the existing backups for that client, running a chkdsk on the client hard drive and starting over. After that that backups resumed as normal.

 

[KLC]

Dave, I'll try that tonight.

 

[KLC]

Well, I ran chkdsk on disks and then tried to delete the first backup and the failed backups.
Each time it ran forever and then gave an error saying the backup service was not working. I remote desktopped into the server and looked at the event log. It shows an error accessing a folder on the D drive of the server. I also ran backup repair in WHS. But I still can't do a manual or scheduled backup and I can't delete any of the old backups. Any more suggestions?

 

[ControlD]

It seems strange that the error you are seeing points to the server storage and not the client in question. Does WHS show your D drive as healthy?

Probably the easiest way of deleting the old backups is to simply remove that client from WHS completely. If memory serves, WHS will ask you if you want to remove the backups as well when you remove the client. Then you can add the client and start a manual backup to see if things are going to work.

Is the other client still backing up to the server with no issues? Make sure the last backup date is something recent. It seems like WHS waits a long time before sending a warning about not having a recent backup. I have in the past had to completely delete the client backup database from the server to resolve issues and that might be something to try. Since you only have two clients that shouldn't be too big of a deal.

Hopefully there are some others here with more experience indiagnosing WHS backup errors. I ran WHS (both V1 and 2011) for a long time and no matter what I did I always ended up fighting client backup errors. My final solution was simply to use a better product but fixing what you have is obviously first priority.

 

[KLC]

Dave, uninstalling the client is my next step. The other PC is backing up regularly. What better product are you using now? I never had problems with WHS until I upgraded both PCs to Win 7 Home Premium about 2 months ago. Since then I have had almost daily problems, this being only the latest one.

 

[ControlD]

First I moved to WHS 2011 but I had pretty much the exact same issues. Now I am running unRAID and I use Acronis scheduled backups for my Windows Clients and Time Machine for my Mac clients.