hp Pavillion Gaming Laptop 15-dk0xxx - Backup and Restore (Windows 7) was working, fails. 0x8007007B

[Mitch29]

I have been using BACKUP and RESTORE (Windows 7) to automatically backup my hp Pavilion Gaming Laptop 15-dk0xxx, but about two weeks ago I began to get an error message saying "Check your backup. The filename, directory name, of volume label syntax is incorrect. Error code: 0x8007007B. " I tried going back to my earliest Restore Point but that did not fix the problem. My laptop is a little over a year old and the Windows 10 OS was installed new with the laptop. Windows 10 is the latest version and is automatically updated. There have been no new software installations or hardware changes. I am using a home WiFi set up the same for a long time, no changes but my backup is a USB connected external hard drive. I have tried two different external hard drives but still the same error message. My backups have worked since I bought the computer but only in the last few weeks began to give me this error code. I have not changed anything. I am running the Windows Virus and Threat protection and this has not changed. Any suggestions?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

The only suggestion I can offer would be to use the free Macrium Reflect software to make periodic system images and store them on a portable hard drive.

Macrium Software | Reflect Free

The software will have you make a bootable rescue USB flash drive or DVD that you boot from and access the system image stored on your portable hard drive.

I have used this software for several years now, and even used it to recover some desktop and notebook PC's, so I know it works.

I used to use the built in W7 backup and restore utility and it always successfully created backups of my system.

When I went to use it one day, the recovery image failed to restore to the PC, so I was up the creek without a paddle, and had to reinstall Windows from scratch and reinstall my programs and files.

[Mitch29]

Thanks for the reply. I may have to do that if I cannot get it to work again.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

[Mitch29 · Accepted solution]

I fixed the problem by resetting Windows 10. I actually had this and other problems with the Windows 10 OS and they were all fixed by resetting Windows 10. Took a while but it had been over a year since I bought the computer and resetting not only fixed my problem but removed a bunch of software I no longer needed. My computer works now like it did when I first bought it. This was my solution.