Microsoft Backup Tool

I initialize the tool in my Windows Vista Home Premium operating system and
insert a DVD-RW in my drive and navigate through the auto play to get back to
the tool, it prompts me for formatting, i click OK. format starts but after a
few minutes an error pops up to say "The Format Was Unsuccessful" but I can
still see DVD drive activity (learned the hard way it is still formatting)
but if I click OK or Cancel on the error window then the tool locks up, if I
leave the error window alone until I see no DVD drive activity then click OK
and try again the backup tool will again prompt for formatting but then it
realizes the DVD is formatted because I let it do it's thing until I seen no
drive activity. After this then the actual backup starts until the full
backup set is created and each DVD-RW is formatted using the same technique.
Any fix for this backup tool? This is not proper behavior.

When I started out with my Vista Home Premium computer, I tried
to use DVD's as my backup media; however, this was futile for me because it
took too long and used many DVD's. I bought an external 160 GB USB drive
for about $60 that I use solely for automatic backups and that has made my
computer
backup management a breeze.

"catwatch" <catwatch@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:5175DA45-45C6-4374-B290-4E53980ED284@microsoft.com...
>I initialize the tool in my Windows Vista Home Premium operating system and
> insert a DVD-RW in my drive and navigate through the auto play to get back
> to
> the tool, it prompts me for formatting, i click OK. format starts but
> after a
> few minutes an error pops up to say "The Format Was Unsuccessful" but I
> can
> still see DVD drive activity (learned the hard way it is still formatting)
> but if I click OK or Cancel on the error window then the tool locks up, if
> I
> leave the error window alone until I see no DVD drive activity then click
> OK
> and try again the backup tool will again prompt for formatting but then it
> realizes the DVD is formatted because I let it do it's thing until I seen
> no
> drive activity. After this then the actual backup starts until the full
> backup set is created and each DVD-RW is formatted using the same
> technique.
> Any fix for this backup tool? This is not proper behavior.

Thanks John but I was able to do the backup on 3 DVD-RW's, DL would be 1.5 in
theory if I used them. I have an external 160GB but I prefer the DVD's, just
need to know if there is a fix for this out there, didn't get one on Windows
update.

"John Hanley" wrote:

> When I started out with my Vista Home Premium computer, I tried
> to use DVD's as my backup media; however, this was futile for me because it
> took too long and used many DVD's. I bought an external 160 GB USB drive
> for about $60 that I use solely for automatic backups and that has made my
> computer
> backup management a breeze.
>
> "catwatch" <catwatch@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:5175DA45-45C6-4374-B290-4E53980ED284@microsoft.com...
> >I initialize the tool in my Windows Vista Home Premium operating system and
> > insert a DVD-RW in my drive and navigate through the auto play to get back
> > to
> > the tool, it prompts me for formatting, i click OK. format starts but
> > after a
> > few minutes an error pops up to say "The Format Was Unsuccessful" but I
> > can
> > still see DVD drive activity (learned the hard way it is still formatting)
> > but if I click OK or Cancel on the error window then the tool locks up, if
> > I
> > leave the error window alone until I see no DVD drive activity then click
> > OK
> > and try again the backup tool will again prompt for formatting but then it
> > realizes the DVD is formatted because I let it do it's thing until I seen
> > no
> > drive activity. After this then the actual backup starts until the full
> > backup set is created and each DVD-RW is formatted using the same
> > technique.
> > Any fix for this backup tool? This is not proper behavior.
>
>

"catwatch" <catwatch@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:5175DA45-45C6-4374-B290-4E53980ED284@microsoft.com...
>I initialize the tool in my Windows Vista Home Premium operating system and
> insert a DVD-RW in my drive and navigate through the auto play to get back
> to
> the tool, it prompts me for formatting, i click OK. format starts but
> after a
> few minutes an error pops up to say "The Format Was Unsuccessful" but I
> can
> still see DVD drive activity (learned the hard way it is still formatting)
> but if I click OK or Cancel on the error window then the tool locks up, if
> I
> leave the error window alone until I see no DVD drive activity then click
> OK
> and try again the backup tool will again prompt for formatting but then it
> realizes the DVD is formatted because I let it do it's thing until I seen
> no
> drive activity. After this then the actual backup starts until the full
> backup set is created and each DVD-RW is formatted using the same
> technique.
> Any fix for this backup tool? This is not proper behavior.
>

I think that if you start the Backup without a DVD in the drive, wait for
the prompt for a disk, and then let Backup do the formating that there will
be less confusion.

If you start out with a DVD in the drive, Windows will want to format it so
you can immediately drag files to it for a multisession, which you will want
to software eject so the session can be closed properly.

I have Ultimate and have found that, surprisingly, I could put a freshly
installed system on just one DVD even though it would be just about as easy
to reinstall. After putting programs and data on, it quickly went to three
DVD's. I have external drives, which are convenient but not as sure -- I
dropped one once -- but I still like DVD's. I'll admit that backing up the
backup is a bit paranoid. I did read a white paper once that estimated that
backups fail 70% of the time. I think things have improved since then. At
least I hope so.

Don I appreciate the help but there is no confusion, the format utility that
pops up is the one inside of Micrsoft Backup so another format utility is not
the problem. As I mentioned I navigated through Autoplay and made sure only
Microsoft Backup was running and acting on the blank DVD-RW.

"Don Farmer" wrote:

>
> "catwatch" <catwatch@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:5175DA45-45C6-4374-B290-4E53980ED284@microsoft.com...
> >I initialize the tool in my Windows Vista Home Premium operating system and
> > insert a DVD-RW in my drive and navigate through the auto play to get back
> > to
> > the tool, it prompts me for formatting, i click OK. format starts but
> > after a
> > few minutes an error pops up to say "The Format Was Unsuccessful" but I
> > can
> > still see DVD drive activity (learned the hard way it is still formatting)
> > but if I click OK or Cancel on the error window then the tool locks up, if
> > I
> > leave the error window alone until I see no DVD drive activity then click
> > OK
> > and try again the backup tool will again prompt for formatting but then it
> > realizes the DVD is formatted because I let it do it's thing until I seen
> > no
> > drive activity. After this then the actual backup starts until the full
> > backup set is created and each DVD-RW is formatted using the same
> > technique.
> > Any fix for this backup tool? This is not proper behavior.
> >
>
> I think that if you start the Backup without a DVD in the drive, wait for
> the prompt for a disk, and then let Backup do the formating that there will
> be less confusion.
>
> If you start out with a DVD in the drive, Windows will want to format it so
> you can immediately drag files to it for a multisession, which you will want
> to software eject so the session can be closed properly.
>
> I have Ultimate and have found that, surprisingly, I could put a freshly
> installed system on just one DVD even though it would be just about as easy
> to reinstall. After putting programs and data on, it quickly went to three
> DVD's. I have external drives, which are convenient but not as sure -- I
> dropped one once -- but I still like DVD's. I'll admit that backing up the
> backup is a bit paranoid. I did read a white paper once that estimated that
> backups fail 70% of the time. I think things have improved since then. At
> least I hope so.
>
>