Backup and Restore: Process fails with unknown error every time

[jetsetbunny]

I am trying to set up the Backup and Restore process in total security to back up my computer to an external hard drive, and every time I have tried, it fails with an unknown error. This has been especially frustrating because, as it is doing the initial backup, it will run for several hours and then fail, wiping out any progress.

The first two times it happened, it appeared to be getting hung up on a specific file (still “unknown error,” but it “failed to create a backup copy” of a listed file). The first time, I was using the program the file was for, so I shut that off and ran it again. The second time, I didn’t have anything running (in the foreground, can’t speak to background processes) but realized I didn’t need the folder the file causing the error was in, so just removed that from the backup setup. This last time, the process was 98% complete and then failed, but no file is listed this time.

For what it’s worth, the last few files that had been backed up before the error were in the AppData folder. 

[Flood and Flood's wife]

Hello @jetsetbunny, 

Welcome!

1. Which W11 build - How to find the version & build of the operating system? 
2. Which KTS version & patch(x), x = letter, on the Windows Taskbar or hidden icons, rightclick the Kaspersky icon, select About? 
3. Is the Backup “On demand” or Scheduled? 
4. Have you been able to do a small “test” Backup to the same external hard drive? 
5. Have you been able to do a small “test” Backup to the Desktop? 
6. Just to confirm, you’re doing a backup of the entire computer or? 
7. In KTS, Backup, Reports, please save the report  as a text file & attach to your reply  - if the report shows your name or information you consider private, please edit the text file, before posting. 

Please let us know? 

Thank you🙏

Flood🐳+🐋

Resource:

(please) Read before you create a new topic!

[jetsetbunny]

Thank you for the detailed/specific questions (makes it easy to answer!). My apologies for the first new post here, I see that there some details that should be included in the initial post.

I had actually just saved a copy of the latest backup report before I posted this. I have not saved the reports for the other two backups I referenced, let me know if those would help as well. (The second attempt was referencing something for HP - it’s an HP laptop - so there may have been something running in the background that interfered.)

1. 22000.493
2.  21.3.10.391 (g)
3. On demand (haven’t done a full backup yet so set it do an on demand backup for the first time)
4. No, can try setting this up in a moment.
5. Same as #4
6. Subset of folders with particularly important information. In short, it’s set to back up Program Files, Program Files (x86), AppData, and a couple folders from my user folder like Documents and Pictures.
7. Backup report attached. (Note here: Looking at the report, it clearly didn’t get as far as I thought, even though it was at 96% when it errored this last time. The same thing happened the first time I had an issue - as if ahead of time it’s going to stop at the point where it gets an error. It had only just gotten to my actual user folder (trevo), which contains a large chunk of the data being back up, at least 100GB.)

[Flood and Flood's wife]

Hello @jetsetbunny, 

You’re most welcome☺ !

Thank you for the detailed information👏

There’s nothing to apologise for, the goal is to understand the specifics, you’re on the right track!

• If you look at path C:\Program Files & path C:\Program Files (x86), note two important things, one, Kaspersky folders/files are in those paths, as are Windows files/folders…. hmmm…
• Leave aside the  Documents and Pictures for the moment… 

1. Are you seeking to backup specific folders / files from  C:\Program Files & C:\Program Files (x86) ?
2. What’s the purpose of backing up C:\Program Files & C:\Program Files (x86); what are you hoping to achieve? 

Please let us know? 

Thank you🙏

Flood🐳+🐋

[jetsetbunny]

To answer those two questions: Basically, yes, I’m looking for specific folders, although, to be honest, for some folders I’m not sure if they contain much that is really critical. It was more a decision of, “these folders contain a lot of important things/history for some of my programs, might as well grab the whole folder.” All that to say, yes, it would probably be fine for me to pick out several folders I know are important (like C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam, which has a bunch of saved game data), I might just need to go through the other folders a bit more.

Note that in the case of the run that the error report is attached for, it was in my user AppData folder when the error occurred (I understand it doesn’t necessarily run completely linearly).

Side note: I plugged the drive back in a little while ago, and it appears that it started trying to do a backup automatically without my realizing it. It failed almost immediately on the exact same Steam file as the very first time this happened, and I have several programs open (including Steam), so I think I can at least confirm that the first time this happened was due to the program in question being open, and I know how to address that issue.

[jetsetbunny]

P.S. I have not downloaded the reports for the first two times this happened (what I mentioned in the original post), but for reference, the first time I got an error (when Steam was open), the error occurred when trying to back up C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\bin\cef\cef.win7x64. The second time it stopped midway and errored (Steam was shut down), the error occurred when trying to back up C:\ProgramData\HP\HP Audio Switch

Again, it is a little odd/confusing to me that, unlike the first two times, the third time it happened (before I posted), I did not get a line item/file showing “Failed to create backup copy” before the next line said “Backup task failed Unknown error.”

[jetsetbunny]

P.P.S. I just successfully tested backing up a few small folders from my documents to both the external hard drive and my computer.

[Flood and Flood's wife]

Hello @jetsetbunny, 

Thank you for the detailed information👏

The Kaspersky Reports are not user-friendly - they will not show a “nice” error, like “file locked - unable to access” etc.

IF you try to back up from the top of the tree →   C:\Program Files & C:\Program Files (x86), there’ll be so many folders/files/objects “in use”, it’ll bomb every time. 

1. 💥 Is the device/computer a HP? IF “yes”, this path C:\ProgramData\HP\HP Audio Switch, will be “in use”; why are you trying to back this path up? 
2. Make sure none of the folders/files/objects you’re wishing to save are “in use” when you run the Backup → Kaspersky needs full access to perform the Backup, nothing can be “in use”. 
3. IF Steam is fully shutdown, make sure, in Taskmanager, no Steam processes are running, you should be able to back up C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam, but, (ioo), that’s overkill…. (ioo), it would be better to drill down to specific folders/files/objects; always make sure no processes are accessing what will be saved by the backup & go from there. 
4. Also, create System restore points, before making any significant system changes. 
5. Always have a current System image available. 
6. Try again to do the Steam backup, according to our advice & let us know the outcome please? 

Thank you🙏

Flood🐳+🐋

[jetsetbunny]

Thank you. I’m doing a small backup of some particularly important files now and will add to that incrementally later, including the Steam folder. I will update post if there are any issues with particular folders. The Steam folder was not the most important, just something that stuck out when looking at the Program Files folders. Also, when shut down, the backup works just fine on the Steam folders, that is no longer an issue.

1. Yes, it is an HP computer. I was attempting to back up the majority of the system folders on the computer when doing this (as I used to with other backup software clients with no issue) without selecting the entire hard drive. I wasn’t targeting the HP folders in particular. If I ever wished to back up the entire hard drive, how would the backup and restore tool handle this? (I understand I have WAY too many applications running to do a full backup right now and would at least need to shut everything down on the front end and end a few background processes, but there is bound to be some HP files still being used.)
2. Is there a way you’d recommend to check if any files are in use before running the backup tool (to avoid this issue of its running for so long and then erroring - although hopefully my adding folders a bit at a time will help with that)? I know enough to recognize when/why a program is being used, hence my shutting down Steam (that was resolved), then on the next run I excluded the folder that had the HP files in it, for the reason you state - I realized that those were probably being used in the background somewhere. I didn’t articulate it too well in the original post, but I would say that’s why I originally posted - the first two times, I could see it was something being used and figured that was the issue, but the third time it errored, there was no file showing that I could identify to target. Regardless, I understand it doesn’t make much sense to troubleshoot my initial problem when I had so many folders with files being used, so if/when I run into anything where it should not be in use (like a Word doc in my documents), I will update this.

[jetsetbunny]

P.S. I wondered what folder/program it was trying to run through when it errored this third time I was just bringing up, and I tried to look it up, but without a whole lot of success. C:\Users\trevo\AppData\Local\Apps\2.0 appears to have something to do with the .NET framework (speaking of things in use).There are some important folders under AppData as well, but again, I can probably pick out the ones I’m really concerned about when it comes to a backup.

[jetsetbunny]

(Actually, the fact that the folders created under 2.0 contain no files might provide a clue as to why it would have errored if it couldn’t find anything, and then unlike the other two times, I didn’t have a file I could reference.)

[Flood and Flood's wife]

Hello @jetsetbunny, 

You’re most welcome!

Thank  you for the update!

1. Re: C:\Users\trevo\AppData\Local\Apps\2.0 - .NET framework, are File Explorer →  Hidden items checked? On this one, we do not know why you’d specifically back it up…. As part of a full system back up yes, but, not a a separate folder/file/object set, unless you were targeting a specific problem & from what we can ascertain, you’re not… 
2. However, to categorically tell you, “the error happened because of xyz”, is impossible, without data/logs/traces from your system, all of which has to be done thru Technical Support… 
3. Treesize run as admin, is very useful, to see/find & manage files.
4. Procmon for determining what’s in use & preparing for a Backup so that folders/files/objects are available. 
5. A few more tips: IF running KTS Scheduled backups, always specify the user name and password of your Windows account on the computer, this is necessary to give KTS authority to access the files. 
6. In all Kaspersky software, in the top right of every screen/window, there’s a small ?, the ? represents Help, selecting the ? will open the Help documents, specific to that module//window - for example, Backup and Restore window. 

Any questions, please let us know? 

Thank you🙏

Flood🐳+🐋