failed backup on windows

[dave1248]

for the last two months i cannot backup my system, error message on the backup and restore page says, check your backup,  the last backup did not complete sucessfully. use an external thumb drive with 116 GB available.

[TheOldMan]

I assume it was Windows backup. Without an explanation for the error, I would try a different backup software.  Since the name was not mentioned.  Here are some choices

https://www.pcworld.com/article/3201971/best-windows-backup-software.html

However, a USB drive might not be the best choice since that laptop has a 500GB hard drive, and could easily have too much data on it for the USB drive.

[WAWood]

@dave1248 

I find it disturbing that PC World does not even mention the very best free backup/restore app out there -- Macrium Reflect -- and the only entry for it is well over a year old, since it shows version 6 and they have been releasing version 7.2 for some time now.

Macrium Reflect (MR) provides a FREE version that can be used to image and restore partitions or entire drives.

What I recommend is the following:
1) Download and install Macrium Reflect (MR) from here: http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx
2) Run MR and choose the option: "Create an image of the partition(s) required to backup and restore Windows" to write a full backup to an external drive or USB stick
3) Use the option to create a boot USB stick or CD

My experience is that MR, when using the High Compression option, typically can compress the saved image file to about 50% of the USED space in the OS partition. This means if you have an 80GB OS partition, and 40GB is used, MR only needs about 20GB to store the image file.

I use this all the time and it typically takes less than 15 minutes to do the image backup and about the same time or less to do a restore.

Plus, MR has the option to Add a Recovery Boot Menu entry. This allows you then to boot into WinRE, and you can then use that to do a restore -- when you can't boot into Windows!

NOW, you have the means to restore a full working system from the external drive or USB stick in only a few minutes.