Suddenly System Backups Fail, but Files Backups Continue to Work Fine
I'm using ATI 2014 on three Windows 7 computers. Two out of the three are to local external drives, which work properly with both System and Files Backups. One computer, however, backs up over my network, and for over a year has worked flawlessly; right up until last week. Suddenly, however, the System Backup over the network fails - with an "Access Denied" error, yet the Files Backup still works correctly.
The full text of the error is:
"Access to the specified file is denied: \\?\UNC\Tower755\LT-Backup\ATI System Backups\LaptopM6600_Systems_Backup_full_full_b1_s1_v1_tib" There are three option buttons on the error dialog; Retry, Browse and Cancel.
In the Above, "Tower755" is the network computer containing the backup drive, "LT-Backup" is the drive's volume name and "ATI System Backups" is the folder on the drive into which the backup is to be written.
I checked the log, and there're no entries for the backup attempts.
I'd be very grateful for some assistance with this problem.
Thank you Enchantech, and yes, I'm able to access the Tower 755 via Windows Explorer, AND ALSO by ATI when setting up the backup specs.
I tried your idea to use the IP address, and what an ordeal, each time I'd enter a digit, the cursor would jump all the way to the end, and I had to then "left arrow" back to where I'm entering the IP address. That said, however, once entered it appears to be working, but since that computer does not have a static IP, so I'd suspect that I'll have to check to see if I have to change the backup specs before every backup.
What really frys my mind is that; 1) for well over a year the backup has been working fine with the standard path format (i.e. \\Tower 755\LT-Backup\ATI System Backup\) and 2) Three other computers on the network - besides Tower-755 - STILL work correctly with the standard path format.
What could have suddenly gone haywire to cause this?????????
Just for kicks, I've attached a copy of the System Report that I generated when the last failure occurred.
You are probably experiencing DNS resolution issues in which the host name of the PC cannot be resolved. Those issues are tough to solve sometimes. You may have some luck by editing the host names file. Do some Google searches on DNS hostname resolution and try some of the suggested fixes found. With any luck you will find a solution.
Hi Enchantech, and thanks for the reply.
I'd like to edit that "Host Names File", but one question, where is it? Is it on the target computer, on the source computer, on the internet somewhere?
I'll do the Google searches, but if that host names file is on one of my computers, I'd like to check that out straightaway.
The hosts file is on your computers. It is a system file and is hidden normally so you would need to allow viewing system files. You can use Windows search for lmhost and locate the file.
Thanks again Enchantch, you've been a big help to me and I truly appreciate it. I'll get on that right away and see what I can find.
Be advised that your underlying problem is most likely a DNS (Domain Name Server) error meaning that your PC cannot resolve a computer name into an IP address. This could be a result of your ISP changing which DNS Server it uses or the IP address of such server and is at root of your problem. Fixing your DNS issue will have a dramatic impact on your network performance especially on a speed basis. Many users use DynDns service to avoid issues like what I have described, you may wish to follow suit. Google DynDns for further on using that service.
HI Enchantech, and thank you for your suggestions.
I'm familiar with DynDns, as I used to use them before I changed my ISP and got a static IP address for remote access to my server, and because my current ISP uses NAT, dynamic DNS service doesn't work; - port 443 is blocked - but that was over two years ago. This problem only cropped up two weeks ago. Prior to that I had been successfully backing up with ATI since I purchased it over a year ago, and without assigning an internal static IP; which apparently I'm going to have to do if I have to continue using the target computer's IP instead of its UNC address. Till now the target computer is using automatic IP and DNS addresses. I believe Yahoo is my web hosting service and provides my DNS service because I had to go there to set up my DNS records when I got my Static IP address. However the static IP address is from my ISP, so I don't know which place to look for the trouble.
I just searched for imhost on the C: drives of my laptop (the source of the backup), my tower (the target of the backup), and just for kicks my server (which is not involved in the backup), with Windows Search, but no files were found. Neither my laptop and Towerer are joined to the server, but are simply in a workgroup & homegroup. So now I'm confused about how to proceed.
I also checked my router, and while I don't know what/where the DNS settings are pointing, let me list them here:
Internet IP address: 66.119.98.227; Subnet Mask: 225.225.225.224; Default Gateway: 66.119.98.225; DNS 1: 66.119.96.9; DNS 2: 70.158.128.9
Maybe you can interpret those for me, with regard to who to choke for messing up my DNS.
I would check with your ISP for any changes done on their side. Could prove beneficial, they can certainly tell you what your DNS server should be and how to verify that your connections are setup appropriately. By what you say it could be that Yahoo has changed things and notification of that has slipped through the cracks! Wouldn't be the first time!
Thanks again, I'll be checking with both the ISP and Yahoo tomorrow.