Installed Toshiba Portable External Hard Drive with Shadow software. The "first-time" backup failed because "The specified file could not be encrypted." Strange. I did not ask it to encrypt. The files I want backed up were created in Windows XP with encryption turned on. What do I need to do to get the Toshiba Shadow to complete the backup? Thanks Dean Rochester, NY

Which program did you create the backup with? You'll need to install a copy of that software on your new computer. Then you will let the software find the backup and restore it. This will only work if you used a file backup. Many backup programs do not restore to systems with different hardware (different CPU, hard drive, OS, etc.).

However, I don't know which software uses *. PFT, pfi or pfp extensions. PBF is the format for one of the older Paragon Backup software versions. Acronis uses *.TIB . For a list of many of the software extensions used for backups, see https://www.file-extensions.org/filetype/extension/name/backup-files .

Canvio drives used to include NTI BackupNow EZ software. However, I believe that NTI backups use BJF or NTI extensions. The installer for that is here: http://support.toshiba.com/sscontent?contentId=3044104 . To check for other software for your external drive, try looking up your drive at http://support.toshiba.com/support/home . The available drivers and software should be listed. Alternatively, check if the backup software installer is still on the external drive.

I hope this helps.

Cindy Wells

im assuming you want to back up your laptop

Determine how much space you'll need to back up your Toshiba laptop's hard drive.

If you are intending to back up your entire hard drive, or have a lot of video and music files you want to save, you'll likely need an external hard drive.

On the other hand, if you only want to back up your most important documents, a USB drive should suffice.

Separate your video, music, pictures, games and documents into separate folders.

Right-click each folder and then click "Properties." Do this for your C: drive, too.

Locate the "Size" or "Capacity" section on the "General" tab.

The number to the right indicates how large the folder is, with all the files included.

This information should give you an idea of what kind of secondary storage system you'll require. If you're looking at over 100GB of storage space needed, you'll probably want an external hard drive.

Purchase an appropriate drive that includes backup utilities.

Some external drives and USB drives come with backup software.

Once you install and configure the software, all you have to do is press a button--either on the drive itself or on your computer's desktop or taskbar--to start the backup process.

Schedule your drive's utility software to back up your Toshiba laptop files once a month.

Your USB or external drive should be plugged into the laptop on the scheduled backup dates.

Store your most important files on an online storage facility, such as Mozy, DropBox or Toshiba Online Backup.

In case anything causes damage to both your laptop hard drive and your spare drive, you will still be able to access the files online.

http://download.cnet.com/macrium-reflect-free/3000-2242_4-10845728.html

Backing up your computer shouldn't be a tedious task. Macrium Reflect Free Edition makes file backup incredibly easy thanks to its intuitive user interface and helpful wizards.

bonus its free

hope this helps

Determine how much space you'll need to back up your Toshiba laptop's hard drive.

If you are intending to back up your entire hard drive, or have a lot of video and music files you want to save, you'll likely need an external hard drive.

On the other hand, if you only want to back up your most important documents, a USB drive should suffice.

Separate your video, music, pictures, games and documents into separate folders.

Right-click each folder and then click "Properties." Do this for your C: drive, too.

Locate the "Size" or "Capacity" section on the "General" tab.

The number to the right indicates how large the folder is, with all the files included.

This information should give you an idea of what kind of secondary storage system you'll require. If you're looking at over 100GB of storage space needed, you'll probably want an external hard drive.

Purchase an appropriate drive that includes backup utilities.

Some external drives and USB drives come with backup software.

Once you install and configure the software, all you have to do is press a button--either on the drive itself or on your computer's desktop or taskbar--to start the backup process.

Schedule your drive's utility software to back up your Toshiba laptop files once a month.

Your USB or external drive should be plugged into the laptop on the scheduled backup dates.

Store your most important files on an online storage facility, such as Mozy, DropBox or Toshiba Online Backup.

In case anything causes damage to both your laptop hard drive and your spare drive, you will still be able to access the files online.

http://download.cnet.com/macrium-reflect-free/3000-2242_4-10845728.html

Backing up your computer shouldn't be a tedious task. Macrium Reflect Free Edition makes file backup incredibly easy thanks to its intuitive user interface and helpful wizards.

bonus its free

hope this helps

Hello bobdurack
I'm not shure this is the solution but it's a possibility : has the letter of your external Toshiba eventually changed ?
Regards ,
fanaudi .

This issue needs to go back to Newtech. They can guide you through the issue. Is the external drive LARGE enough? Windows backup takes huge amounts of room. I suggest Handy Backup Pro, it can pull backup across networks, and push the data to drives and ONLINE locations.

The same program that you used to do the "backup" must be used to "restore" from the backup copy.

This depends entirely on how the backup program you use works. Usually they will go with whichever file/folder has been edited most recently, so if you edit them on your backup drive, they will not be replaced by the ones on your C drive. It would probably be easier just to edit them on your C drive and let the backup program do all the transferring, though.

Also, if your drive comes with one, you should usually use it, and no, having two would be inadvisable because you would end up with two identical sets of your data on the same drive, which serves no logical purpose. 

Hopefully that is a more exact answer!

You must have installed software that probably came with the portable hard drive to back up or sync files. The backup/sync option is doing just that on your back up drive. Open the software you installed and tell it not to delete files that you delete on your computer.

That will typically mean that the backup software was trying to backup a file that was deleted sometime between when the initial index of all the files was made and when the actual file was to be backed up. This typically happens with temporary files or files in a browser cache or similar. If you were using your machine at the time of the backup, it is even more likely to occur. I would suggest you look at the log file and see exactly what file(s) wasn't backed up.