Windows Backup Utitility Issue

[badadjective]

Dear Readers,

I regularly use the built in Windows backup utility to backup my data files
(music, documents, etc.) from a secondary internal drive to an external USB
drive. The backup runs fine most of the time, but often enough it simply
freezes Windows completely. No ctrl alt del, no BSOD, no nothing, just
complete freeze. Whatever is on the screen stays there until I press the case
restart button.

Upon restart, everything is fine and windows runs normally otherwise with no
other errors. There are absolutely no entries in Event Viewer regarding the
problem. No errors anywhere, no regular entires. Just an entry saying that
backup was started.

I am running XP SP2 with all updates, latest drivers/bios/firmware/etc. on a
home built PC that is a few years old and has no other hardware, software, or
OS problems. The external drive I am using is connected via USB 2.0 and is a
Western Digital Mybook Essential 250GB.

Any help is appreciated! Thank you!

 

[DelJo63]

during the backup process, be sure to disable all power saving features (PSF):

1. screen saver
2. hybernate mode
3. standby mode

It's likely that the process take more time than your PSF timeout and attempting
to drop into PS mode, the system just locks up

 

[badadjective]

Thanks, but all of those things are off. None of those power save settings are enabled. I can't imagine what this could be.