Thanks for the additional information. NTBackup is a somewhat out
of date utility as far as capabilities/options. Also USB transfers can
use a good bit of the Controller bandwidth. It might not be a Ntbackup
issue as much as a USB Controller/Hub problem. You might want to
consider a more modern/efficient backup utility, something like Acronis
True Image. I'd also run a Read-Only Chkdsk on both your internal &
external hard drive. The aborted backup may be due to an inconsistency
on one or both of the drives. I can't really give you any definitive steps
to get a complete backup done as there are just too many variables in
what might be wrong.

"gomer pyle" <he@whire.net> wrote in message
news:%236esIA4LIHA.3976@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> The disk format is NTFS.
> The backup ends (stops) with a system hang (Program not responding)
> Using the Windows XP backup facility. As I mentioned, this happens time
> after time when trying to backup.
> My big concern is: If something is incompatible in the system, why does
> the
> program bothers to back up about 20 gig but then hangs?
>
> As far as 3rd party backup tool is concerned, I used Roxio 8 and had no
> issues.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "R. McCarty" <PcEngWork-NoSpam_@mindspring.com>
>
>> What disk Format is the external USB drive ? Also does the Backup
>> end abruptly with a error message or simply appear to stop working ?
>> Are you using the built-in backup facility or a 3rd-Party backup tool ?
>>
>>> I've tried - several times - a full backup with Windows XP to an
>>> external USB drive but the backup hung after backing up 20 gigs of files
>>> of about 27. Why? What am I doing wrong?
>>>
>>
>>
>
>