[Albert Lionheart]

It all started when the NAS drive failed. This was replaced under warranty by Freecom but of course the replacement came back with a new drive in it and our backup files were lost. Being a good scout and thinking ahead I had lent the user a little 20Gb 2.5" drive in an external USB caddy to keep him going.
When I reconnected the replacement NAS drive and set up up with the same mapped drive letter I blithely thought that it would work - not a chance!
The first backup run worked fine but the second incremental backup fell over with a message saying that ""Backup Monitor. The job failed to load due to naming or permission errors. Please check that the job exists with the created name and of your account settings."
Hmm - thinks: the drive is new and will accept not only the first backup in a set but also any files copied to it via Windows Explorer. The software might be at fault so I removed it and reinstalled it. I also sent a message to Genie-Backup telling them of the fault - they were singularly useless and failed to respond despite several reminders. Anyway, after a reinstall I tried again but no improvement. I tried the uninstall routine using Revo-Uninstaller which found a whole load of stuff in the registry that should have been cleared away but wasn't - tried again but still no good.
Reinstalled the backup software again and also remapped the drive to a different drive letter - still no good.
This is really beginning to hack me off, especially as it had got to the point of my professional reputation being at risk on this one, and I had stopped the charges clock at 2 hours. Bear in mind that every time I reinstall the software and run a backup it takes at least 45 mins.
Sorry if I am beginning to ramble, but we will get there soon. I did fix it in the end. Eventually.
Having checked as best as I could that all the hardware was OK and that the software was the latest edition despite the stunning silence from Genie, I tried again and this time instead of hitting the backup with a full set of files I added a few folders at a time before running the incremental backup. It kept working right up until it fell over when backing up the (Genie) preselected set of Windows Explorer files. Woops - there it goes - take them off the backup file list and everything is hunky dory. Yippee!
Moral - the first: you can go on wasting time flogging a dead horse to the point of stupidity
Moral - the second: it is not always the thing under your nose that is the problem

[wladicus]

Originally Posted by Albert Lionheart

... you can go on wasting time flogging a dead horse to the point of stupidity ...

Good point Albert. I have run into similar problems where a backup or other process crashed when a certain file or folder was the 'fly in the ointment'. It is a great feeling when you find why something keeps failing. But trying to include the problem 'goat' is the stupidity of the 'repetitive idiot mind-set' that seems to plague us all at times...
Thanks for sharing your story.

[Gunner]

Good Grief, Charlie Brown, you're such a nice guy.
I don't do anyone's backups. When something fails and I ask, "Where's your backups?"
If they say, "What Backups?????" I laugh (to myself) while watching them cry.
If I were in total data and system support it would be different.
But I don't charge for it and they don't want to pay for it.
Way to go and thanks for the info.