my backup seems to be stuck at 43% i am backing it up on a dvd+r maxwell disc. in laymans terms can someone explain to me what i should do?

Try backing up after performing clean boot (disables startup programs and Non Microsoft Services), and also ensure the following Backup services are started and running from Windows Services console. Click on Start , type Services in Start Search. When the Services page is open, scroll the page to find Volume Shadow Copy and Backup service. Right click on them and check if they are started If the services are disabled, start the services and set it to Automatic. If none of them was disabled, this problem may be due to one or more profiles under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList with missing ProfileImagePath. To check whether you have missing profiles: 1. Open regedit, navigate to the above registry key. (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList). Expand the list 2. Click on each of the profiles listed. The first 3 profiles should have ProfileImagePath value of %SystemRoot%\System32\Config\SystemProfile, %SystemRoot%\ServiceProfiles\LocalService, and %SystemRoot%\ServiceProfiles\NetworkService respectively. 3. Starting from the 4th profile, the ProfileImagePath should contain path to the user profiles on your machine, such as C:\users\Christine 4. If one or more of the profile has no profile image, then you have missing profiles. To work around this, delete the profile in question Important This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry refer the below link. Back up the registry http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Back-up-the-registry 1. First, export the ProfileList key for safekeeping. (Right click on the key, choose “Export”, and save it to the desktop.) 2. Right click on the profile in question, choose delete. 3. Try backup again. For more information refer the below link. http://blogs.technet.com/filecab/archive/2008/03/12/common-causes-and-solutions-to-backup-system-restore-and-complete-pc-backup-problems-updated.aspx Hope it helps. Reference: http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7performance/thread/927097d7-4ede-4877-9e03-d0e274f655ed This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees , and confers no rights.

sweet, i am glad you explained everything so well and i will try what you said, i'm about to go on vacation so it may take me a couple weeks before i attempt the backup again but i will let you know if it worked. Thank you so much for taking the time to help me.