A couple of months ago I posted a problem I was having with the Vista backup application. The thread was closed because I didn't check back to the forum for a while. I am still having the problem so I'm going to post the original question plus an update. A few other people also posted on the thread saying that they had the same problem as well. I was being helped by Joson Jhou from Microsoft Online Community Support so if your reading this Joson, thanks for the help so far but I'm still having a problem with backup. Original question: I am having trouble using Vista Backup with my network HDD. I'll quickly give you relevant specs: Windows Vista Home Premium on a Laptop. Filesystem NTFS. Packard Bell Netstore 3500 Network HDD. Filesystem FAT 32. Laptop connected wirelessly to Wifi router. Network HDD connected via Cat 5 at 100Mbps. I can select the HDD from the network selection when trying to do a backup. It asks for my username and password for the drive. I then get the following error "The RPC Server is unavailable. (0x800706BA)" Now I may be being a bit dumb but what am I missing. Is this error being caused due to the different filesystems? I can save files directly to the network HDD and if I use a third party backup (McAfee and Packard Bell) it works fine. I would really like to get the Vista backup to work so any ideas would be brilliant. As an extra note, I have been told that the problem might be that Vista is trying to access the network drive before a connection has been made by the router. Does this seem correct? Surely the connection has been made because I can save files directly to the drive and other third party backup applications work. And my update: Joson, Thanks for the help so far. Unfortunately the issue is still unresolved. To be sure that the different filesystems (FAT 32 and NTFS) did not make a difference, I connected by network hard disk directly to my laptop by USB. The backup worked perfectly. I also tried running my network with the firewall down and again no luck. The HDD is on the vista compatability list. I have also asked about this issue at the Packard Bell website and been told that the problem does not lie with the drive. As it seems that there are other people out there who are having the same problem as me with windows vista backup but with different drives it would suggest the problem is either with Vista or with the way we have got vista set up. Any ideas would be really appreciated.

I am having similar problems. i have a 2.5" laptop drive in a external enclosare connected via usb, 60 GB. I am running windows vista Ultimate. When trying to use the windows complete PC backup it gives me the same error as Colin's. The drive shows up in my computer as NTFS and it shows up in computer management under disk management.

I am also having this problem, except I'm trying to backup to a 320gb wd usb 2.0 drive (3.5"), vista biz. Dell laptop inspiron 9400. Curiously, I was able to doa full backup (from backup & restore center) in mid-december. Now, the backup proceeds to the point of making a shadow copy on the external drive and gives the RPC error message. I've disabled virus scanning, shutdown sql server, disconnected all mapped drives (I'm away from the office, so the drives are not available anyway).

This seems to be a reported and easily repeatable problem. I too recieve the RPC Server Unavailable error when I try to use BackUp over a network share. There have been several comments about NTFS file systems however all of those are mis interpretations or simply misleading. When creating the backup Vista warns that only NTFS files can/will be backed up. I saw nothing that said it needed a NTFS file structure to backup to. Regardless, the issue appears to be an issue with Vista and Samba file shares. Everyone that has complained about the problem has been using some sort of NAS vice another windows machine sharing a drive/directory. Can Microsoft confirm that the behavour is a Samba issue? Perhaps a non-standard or non-compliant Samba stack? I have an Aiport Extreme with an attached 500GB Iomega drive. I can mount and copy data to and from this drive, Gigs of data, without a problem. However as soon as I start a Back Up, I select Network Location, find the Airport Extreme, provide a username/password, it enumerates the shared drive directories, I select the directory I would like to use and click Ok, Vista tests the Network Location and immediately pops up the RPC error message. Is there a fix in the works for this? With Apple out there pushing the TimeMachine and allowing you to back up all of your computers I would think that Microsoft would be very interested in getting a flexible and reliable BackUp solution for their customers that doesn't require users to install a Windows 2003 Domain Server just so we have a network share that Vista Backup likes.Jeff

Hi, I have similar problem. I posted it on the previous Forum topic and surprisingly my post was answered as "solved" by someone from Microsoft :-))) I have metother people unsuccessfuly trying to make Backup on Vista, to an external (network) drive. I think something is seriously flawed here, as Microsoft is advicing to open ports on router firewall (or other firewalls in between PC and NAS), when actually some of the people are even not using routers !! I got an external NAS drive, with a 400GB WD drive. It has got USB 2.0 and LAN connectors. First I tried to connect via USB and make a Vista Backup.Not possible, because the filesystem on the NAS is not NTFS. OK then I tried to connect via LAN,directly to my PC. There is no firewall in between, other than Windows firewall. However it is not working as well. After a LONG while the system opens a warning box, saying: "The network share could not be accessed for the following reason: The RPC server is unavailable. (0x800706BA) Please ensure that the network location is valid." Do I have to addthat the drive is of course perfectly visible in normal Windows Explorer (thru SAMBA) and thru FTP. This is similar as to the other people there - they can see their NAS drive, but any Backup attempt will fail. There is NO event recorded in the Event Log. There is NO notification from the firewall. The PC is a brand new IBM / Lenovo R60x, with Lenovo-supplied Vista Business English, build 6001 Microsoft sent me a test version of Vista Service Pack 1, so currently it is installed as well.

I note that no one has posted a suggested fix for this problem and I have searched and searched and apart from a reference to copying a reg entry on a machine that is working on to the machine that is not working I have seen no fixes. I am using Acronis back up utility and was trying to do a simple back up and got te same error message. I then used another backup piece of software smartbackup that worked no problems and enabled me to backup to my separate hard drive that is just plugged in using usb connection on to my main small office pc( Dell ) and the hard drive is a Maxtor one touch and the os is Vista small busines hope someone posts a fix otherwise I will contact acronis but nothing is on their website about this nigel blanchard

First of all, I appreciate everyone sharing this issue. I just purchased a 1TB MyBook (LAN version) today. I am also using Vista Ultimate. These posted entries kept me from having to return the MyBook (thinking that the problem was the fault with the hard drive). I could copy files to this HD, read from it, map it, blah blah blah, but could not use the native MS software to back up to it. I simply gave up on the Vista backup (as I was getting the userID/Password challenge when none were established) and purchased Genie Backup Manager 8.0 as it was a recommended buy by PC Mag. This backup software has no problems hitting the LAN drive and I have successfully backed up to it wirelessly. I look forward to a real solution from MS.

I have the same problem (with Acronis TrueImage 11) backup on Vista.It worked perfectly for the last 5 months but on 14th March 2008 Windows automatically installed an update.The next day the backup failed - tried twice but it stuck in a loop with message"1hr 33 mins left [or similar time]" .On trying again it began giving the message: E00640068: Failed to create the scheduled task. Error #1722 - The RPC server is unavailable (0xFF0). I am using an external NTFS 320Gb drive on USB2.Of course, the backup wiped out my existing backup before failing so I feel very vulnerable now.It does seem possible that it was the Windows update that triggered this problem but what can we do about it? Note the update installed was: Definition Update for Windows Defender KB915597 (Definition 1.29.7671.0) 14/03/2008 I have tried turning off Defender Real Time Protection and Firewall but this made no difference.

I am also getting the rpc error but I am not techy enough to be doing backups and stuff. I simply got myself a dell laptop and wanted to wirelessly access the printer in my main office-following instructions and everyhting worked great-could print to my main printer from anywhere in the house on my laptop. Now all of a sudden when I go to print I get the rpc server unavailable error. Can anyone help a simple ranch cook with this issue?

I was hoping that this issue would be resolved when Vista Service Pack 1 was released. Unfortunately SP1 did not resolve this issue. Did anyone else have any luck? Has anyone come up with a solution for this yet?

I think I've found the solution to my problem with Acronis Tru Image 11: I searched the Acronis User Forum for "1722" which lead me to this link:http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?p=689115There are several solutions offered but the first one worked for me; 1. Make sure that Acronis Scheduler 2 Service Startup type - which is found at: C:\Program Data\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Administrative Tools\Services\Acronis Scheduler > Properties -is set to Automatic in Properties. If it is not so, make it so. In my case it was disabled. I changed it and have done one full backup since, so it seems to be working OK. Perhaps this will help someone.

Thanks for that Crossleyan. If Microsoft don't or can't fix this problem then I will give Acronis a try. What annoys me though is that there seems to beno fix for Vista Backup. Maybe I will have to wait for VISTA SP2 or 3 or 4!!

ColinHempsey wrote: A couple of months ago I posted a problem I was having with the Vista backup application. The thread was closed because I didn't check back to the forum for a while. I am still having the problem so I'm going to post the original question plus an update. A few other people also posted on the thread saying that they had the same problem as well. I was being helped by Joson Jhou from Microsoft Online Community Support so if your reading this Joson, thanks for the help so far but I'm still having a problem with backup. Original question: I am having trouble using Vista Backup with my network HDD. I'll quickly give you relevant specs: Windows Vista Home Premium on a Laptop. Filesystem NTFS. Packard Bell Netstore 3500 Network HDD. Filesystem FAT 32. Laptop connected wirelessly to Wifi router. Network HDD connected via Cat 5 at 100Mbps. I can select the HDD from the network selection when trying to do a backup. It asks for my username and password for the drive. I then get the following error "The RPC Server is unavailable. (0x800706BA)" Now I may be being a bit dumb but what am I missing. Is this error being caused due to the different filesystems? I can save files directly to the network HDD and if I use a third party backup (McAfee and Packard Bell) it works fine. I would really like to get the Vista backup to work so any ideas would be brilliant. As an extra note, I have been told that the problem might be that Vista is trying to access the network drive before a connection has been made by the router. Does this seem correct? Surely the connection has been made because I can save files directly to the drive and other third party backup applications work. And my update: Joson, Thanks for the help so far. Unfortunately the issue is still unresolved. To be sure that the different filesystems (FAT 32 and NTFS) did not make a difference, I connected by network hard disk directly to my laptop by USB. The backup worked perfectly. I also tried running my network with the firewall down and again no luck. The HDD is on the vista compatability list. I have also asked about this issue at the Packard Bell website and been told that the problem does not lie with the drive. As it seems that there are other people out there who are having the same problem as me with windows vista backup but with different drives it would suggest the problem is either with Vista or with the way we have got vista set up. Any ideas would be really appreciated.

I am adding this post for two reasons. Unfortunately neither of them are solutions. 1. To keep this question open. The last time I left the question for a couple of months, it was magically marked answered!!! What a way to keep your stats up moderators!! 2. To point you guys to another forum where this problem is also being discussed to see if any of their solutions help any of you guys: http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?p=11901368#post11901368 By the way as additional information, I have uploaded the Packard Bell Netstore 3500 new firmware.No luck for me but then I knew that there was nothing wrong with the drive, I can access the files on it no problem!! It also works fine on an XP machine!! The finger is pointing straight at Vista. Has anyone got any more news about this subject? Would MS care to comment or try to help? It would be appreciated!!

Mark me down for having the same problem. I can access my Apple Time Capsule through the network, share data with it and everything. The minute I try to use the Vista Backup program I get the RPC error. Dell Latitude (wireless or wired) Apple Time Capsule 1TB

I have found the same problem with Vista too. I have tried using MS backup linked to a network HD (Freecom 250gig) and get the same error. I have tried turning the firewall on/off, changing users + permissions all to no avail. Any assistance would be appreciated Cheers, Mick D

I have experienced exactly the same issue, getting the same error when I try to point the backup location to a network attached Freecom 500Gb drive. I can copy files to the drive when mapped but Backup does not seem able to work with it.

I wonder why MS is doing nothing to resolve the issue with the RPC Server error 0x800706BA?! This issue is opened for months and months now and NOTHING was ever done by Microsoft! I reported my post to this forum few months ago. Since then I believe this forum thread was even attempted to be closed (!) by MS officials, saying issue was resolved. I'm sorry MS, but what was resolved? I hoped that the SP1 will heal that, but it is the same stuff as usual. Nothing is resolved, except for speed in games. There are tens of other problems in Vista, like say the Windows Explorer crashing every other hour, that seems ot be untouched as well. It is simply sad..

I am having the same issue. I just purchases an Iomega. I get the same error when I try to do a backup but I can manually save files to it all day. I wish they would get something figured out for us!

I have the same problem: Windows Vista Backup and Restore works OK with one NAS (WD Netcentre (formatted as NSTC)) but not with my new NAS, anIomega Home Network 500 (Formatted as FAT32). I get the same error. I can read/write to it fine otherwise

Curious. Has anyone who has NAS or backup servertried bypassing the switch/router, and use a cross-connect cable from the workstation to NAS, or backup server?

Yes. I have tried to connect my Welland network drive via a crossed cable, directly to my Vista Business box. It will not work as well. I'm tired of this thread. This issue with backup to a network driveremains opened for years now and nothing was done and will be done by Microsoft. I think this is a time to buy an Apple, hoping they have less issues than MS...

Hi, I have similar problem How did they silve it, Do you know any idea about that.plz may i know any workaround for that issue( "The RPC Server is unavailable. (0x800706BA)" If you have any option plz let me know my Email-ID:karthi.dev@hotmail.com

I'd like to add my name to the list of people having this issue and keep this thread alive. I'm sure if there is a solution it would be on here by now. I have a Freecom 500Gb NAS and Vista Home PremiumSP1 running on a Dell Inspiron. My router is a BT Home Hub. I can access the drive absolutely fine and copy files to it manually. The reason I want to use Backup and Restore Centre is the shoddy software that comes with the Freecom NAS is awful. I was expecting something a bit more professional from Microsoft...

I manage computer systems at a large university, and all of our Vista users are experiencing this same exact issue. No solution has been found yet, after several techs have spent way too much time trying to research the issue. MS, please give us an answer.

I don't know if this will help anybody but I was having a problem creating a full backup. I am runnig Vista Ultimate x64 and every time I would try to do a complete backup I got the "The RPC Server is unavailable. (0x800706BA)" error. I found that if I go into Administrative Tool and select services. In the services list I found that "Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Locator" was set to manual. I have be trying out different anti-malware software and one of them may have set it to manual. Because it was set to manual it did start with windows. I told it to start and then Complete Backup worked and completed successfully.I have set it to automatic and we'll see if it stays working but for now all is well. Please let me know if this was helpful.

I tried the solution and it does not work. After opening my Vista 32-bit "Services" panel I have noticed two services: a)"Remote Procedure Call (RPC)" which was up and running, and set in Automatic regime b) "Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Locator" which was down and in Manual regime Unfortunately putting the latter service (the Locator) in Automatic regime and starting it manually did not help. So - after 1.5 years I'm still unable to perform a Windows backup on a network drive, using backup and Restore Center, because of error 0x800706BA..

Did you start the service as well as switching it to automatic? I believe switching it to auto will only start it up upon reboot. The strange thing is that I had this problem on an internal SATA drive.

Yes, I started the service. By saying "...and starting it manually" I said exactly that. >I tried the solution and it does not work. After opening my Vista 32-bit "Services" panel > I have noticed two services: > > a)"Remote Procedure Call (RPC)" which was up and running, and set in Automatic regime > b) "Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Locator" which was down and in Manual regime > > Unfortunately putting the latter service (the Locator) in Automatic regime and starting it > manually did not help. So - after 1.5 years I'm still unable to perform a Windows backup > on a network drive, using backup and Restore Center, because of error 0x800706BA.. soundmanocc wrote: Did you start the service as well as switching it to automatic? I believe switching it to auto will only start it up upon reboot. The strange thing is that I had this problem on an internal SATA drive.

Sorry I couldn't be more help. I don't really have any training I just stumbled across something that worked for me and figured I post it.

Anyway, thanks for your messages! It was one of few posts on this forum, that really brought hope for solving the problem. Sad thing it didn't, but thanks and we should all keep looking soundmanocc wrote: Sorry I couldn't be more help. I don't really have any training I just stumbled across something that worked for me and figured I post it.

I am with Barek. I have VHP and an Iomega NW HD. I get the same error. RPC locator service workaround did not work for me either. Hello Microsoft, it is due to "glitches" like this that those Apple commercials "It's so glitchy" ring true. There's a lot of people who reported this, it must be reproducable in your labs in 5 minutes. May I quote "Oscar Rogers" from Saturday Night Live: FIX IT!

Same problems here. My laptop is VISTA64 HP DV2700 with Iomega Home Network Drive 500gb attached through LAN. Set it up and mapped it no problems, it shows up in drives, can manually drag files there. No problem so far...When I try to use either VISTA's "Backup and Restore" or Norton's "Save & Restore" - after browsing to the network drive and folder - I get a VISTA prompt for "User Name" and "Password". So far I can't find anything that works, always get the error message "The RPC server is unavailable... Please ensure that the network location is valid"

Another 'me too', although mine is with an Iomega storcenter ix2. The error message from windows backup (on vista ultimate) seems to imply a permissions problem. That I should make sure the user is a co-owner of the share with full control. The user does have permission, in fact it doesn't work if the share has open access either.

I have a similar problem, but it only exists when logged into one particular use account.I'm running Vista and I print to a printer which is connected to a remote PC. I can send prints from my local Vista PC even when the remote PC is powered off, and the prints are queued LOCALLY and get sent across the network and printed when the remote printer is eventually powered on. This is a very handy facility.But when I log into ONE of the local accounts and do the above, I get a "RPC Server is unavailable" instead of the print being queued locally.Surely the same services should be running no matter what user account is logged in?Both accounts are normal unprivileged user accounts.

Unbelievable!!! For this problem to be unresolved for almost a year is totally unacceptable... Or is it typical. My comments won't help with the "The RPC Server is unavailable" issue and I am having the same problems on my home network. I just want to reinforce the fact that Microsoft does not understand, and probably never will, that it's all about the customer and not Microsoft. Unfortunately they have us by the the short hairs.Especially true of thelarge companies and organizations with so much invested.They continue to funnel the billions in profits into research, development and integration of the same systems and solutions of the past without much regard to thereal consumer. And even when they do come up with a solution or new product, it is always over priced. Several years ago I met with a group of colleagues at Microsoft's facilities in Redmond. We were designing our Windows2000 enterprise network. We sat down with some of their best software and development engineers to discuss management and configuration issues for a large network. They were very interested in our views,solutions andthoughts for improving the network administrator/manager customer interface/experience. I can't say that any of our recommendations were ever implemented. Sorry, I am rambling but but the point is, Microsoft has a way of sounding sincere, when in reality, it is mostlyrhetorical. --Concerning data disaster and recovery management: I manage a militarynetwork of 600+ workstations, all but a few are XP SP3 with a standard desktop configuration. We will be rolling out Vista over the next year and this issue will certainly cause grief. We currently use an EnterpriseGhost 2003 solution. Difficult to initially setup and configure, but works well after the initial pain. Although I haven't seen Altiris in action, I understand most like it better than Ghost. The plus side to this is that Altitis was bought out by Symantec and, I think, will or haveincorporated thefeature-rich capabilities of Altiris. We also use Backup Exec for backing up and restoring our servers. However we are behind the curve with an older Ultra 160 SCSI interface to a tape library making backup and restore a slow and painful process. In the next year, we will be upgrading to a NetApp network storage, imaging, backup, restore and archiving solution. () I am smiling. Although expensive, as most enterprise solutions are, Microsoft cannot provide what your larger networks require for disaster recovery. --On to the home front data management solution: Sorry if this is a little off track from the problem, but the point is, Microsoft has never had a good solution tothebackupproblem andprobably never will. I currently have 2 Vista pc's (one 32-bit and one 64-bit), 1 wk2 pc and a w2k3 server. I used to use the featureless Windows native backupas a solutionbecause I was too cheap topurchase anything else. A couple years ago I bought Ghost for my home network and thought I was somewhat satisfied. Unfortunately, especially when problems arise creating or restoring an image, the typical user can't resolve the issue. Even with my experience in networking and backup/restore operations, I've had difficulty at times. --My recommended solution I have recently purchased Acronis True Image Home 2009.It offers storage management solutions that are technically advanced for critical applications but easy to use.Acronis provides disaster recovery, backup and restore, partitioning, boot management, privacy, data migration, and other storage management solutions for enterprises, corporations and consumers at all levels. It is reasonably priced, easy to use and feature-rich. You can:easily migrate between your oldhard driveand a new one without having to reinstall the system every time,backup and restore the entire system on the fly,schedule backups automatically by time or system events,customize categories for individual data, images, etc.,archive your files to a disk and a USB drive simultaneously,boot and restore a system without additional boot media,createa hidden partition on your disk to securely store backups in,shred files so noone will be able toretrieve your sensitive data,it has auser-friendly interface (Vista-like, but I don't hold that against them ),and wipe clean your computer usage history. I am not affiliated with Acronis in any way, but this is the best solution forhome pc data disaster recoveryI've seen to date. After losing some very important data during my last hard disk crash, I have a product I am confident will get me back up and running in no time.

splash4500 wrote: Unbelievable!!! For this problem to be unresolved for almost a year is totally unacceptable... Or is it typical. My comments won't help with the "The RPC Server is unavailable" issue and I am having the same problems on my home network. I just want to reinforce the fact that Microsoft does not understand, and probably never will, that it's all about the customer and not Microsoft. Unfortunately they have us by the the short hairs. This is so true.... I could not write it better that you did. By the way - I was investigating the issue the other day. I have come to this Web page on MSDN: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa373803(VS.85).aspx http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa374351.aspx I have enabled this extended RPC Error Information. What I do get now, is that apart from the normal: "0x800706ba The RPC server is unavailable" error, I got another message: "Please ensure that the network location is valid." Of course my network location IS valid because I can access it from Windows Explorer. But wow!! After so many months I at least know one more detail about the error!! Yupi!! Maybe after 10 years someone at Microsoft will finally tell us what the 0x800706ba error was about. But wait - isn't the Windows 7 operating system coming soon? I can bet it will also be impossible to make a backupto a networked drive in that OS

Unacceptable for this wait. BUMP!

I have a network of 3 VISTA and 3 XP machines. I added a 1TB network drive (NTFS formated). All bar one of the Vista machines can see it (it just refuses to see it).The 5machines can sign on using IE, and have a network mapped drive (Z:). They can see, copy, delete files and folders on that drive. The XP machines (all on SP3) can also do backups. The Vista's (all SP1) cannot, although (I repeat) I can copy/paste file/folders to the drive.Backup on Vista gives 0X800706BA RPC... I have made sure that RPC is active. Two of the VISTA machines are no more than 2 months old so registry problems are very unlikely. They are all running Norton 2009 and I have tried running without the firewall. Like an earlier poster, I took off all passwords on the drive, but am still prompted for "username/password" just before it gives the error message.If I have to revert the vista machines to XP, I will, but as this will take some considerable effort I am looking for a Vista solution first.

I have a similar problem, but it only exists when logged into one particular use account.I'm running Vista and I print to a printer which is connected to a remote PC. I can send prints from my local Vista PC even when the remote PC is powered off, and the prints are queued LOCALLY and get sent across the network and printed when the remote printer is eventually powered on. This is a very handy facility.But when I log into ONE of the local accounts and do the above, I get a "RPC Server is unavailable" instead of the print being queued locally.Surely the same services should be running no matter what user account is logged in?Both accounts are normal unprivileged user accounts. Like tiresias above (Dec 3rd), I too have an obviously related user specific network issue on a VISTA laptop... whether or not my firewall is running. In a mixed XP/VISTA home network I run a 'poor man's' NAS setup using any suitable storage device plugged in to the USB port of my BT Home Hub 2.0 router. My XP m/cs read/write to the devices without problem. An admin a/c, one user a/c and even a GUEST a/c on my VISTA laptop do likewise, albeit after a short initial network discovery operation in each case. The 4th a/c (another 'standard' a/c) is hopeless. The BT Hub appears but just getting the storage device to appear takes up to a minute, getting a file list up takes many minutes and accessing a file takes almost forever. The common factor is the network discovery bar. On the problem account it seems to start afresh for each command and ties itself it increasingly tight knots depending how far down the directory tree you are. Must be just a discovery service or registry issue, surely, screwed up by VISTA for a specific account. Ring any bells for any techies out there? Likely this could be behind the original back up problems too? With Windows 7 in the offing, we might as well Wait for Godot as expect MS to help us! SORRY ABOUT LACK OF PARAS...they're there when I 'SUBMIT'!!?

I've the same "error 0x800706BA not rc"... unbelivable... i'm using vista64 with raid0 and i need an integrated and scheduled backup system. I've an home network and a no brand nas, works perfect on XP, but with the backup utility of Vista there is still this problem. I've to wait WIN7 or I've to buy a Mac to resolve this issue? I hope in a little and usefull hotfix from MS...

I have exactly the same problem and feel compelled to add my name to the list.I have a Freecom 500GB network storage drive which I have previously been using through USB, but decided to plug it into the router so I could use it to backup all the computers in the house. Its taken ages I first had to remove all the data stored in order to reformat it to FAT32 for the LAN connection. Having got it up and running on the network and all the data restoerd,I find I cant use it with MS Backup and Restore any more. WhenI reconfig for 'on the network'Iget RPC Server is Unavailable 0x800706BA. Like everyone else.Making Bakups is fist principles stuff, and home networks are now quite common. I find it incredulouse that Microsoftare incapable of combining the two dispitethe problem being around sincelate 2007. They should be ashamed.

Microsoft? Don't tell us we have to wait until Windows 7 (if it is even changed at all)!

Joining to the list, I have avista business 32 bit and samba server in a NAS, I can map to the folders but having RPC unavailable when trying to use the vista backup util and the local mapping does not gets detected by the backup sofware.A pitty as Microsoft is making enemies from friends and many of us take decitions about which OS to purchase in our companies.Good luck all

I have found a somewhat bulky solution. After changing all exe's to be compatable with XP (which I'm not sure I needed to do) I decided to have the back up destination my C: drive. It worked. After it was completed I transfered it to an external hard drive. Everything is there.

I had the same problem. The problem is that after a few minutes the TC "sleep", and so gets down for Vista. The secret is to keep the connection alive. I have a lot of mp3 stored in TC, so what I do is: play the mp3!!! While playing, the connection keeps alive, and the Vista Bkp can finish your job. It works for me.

What happens if you share a folder on the backup drive and attempt to browse to it over the network using Explorer? Weird things can happen if you do not have the same local account WITH A PASSWORD. Blank passwords can cause nightmares as well.In summary, try to access the drive over the network by sharing a folder on it. If that does not work, ensure you have the same user account name AND password on both systems.Chris

Chris, this hasn't worked. Using Vista to create a Share and sign-in credentials on a NAS such as the Buffalo TB HD series, only creates an extra security layer that adds to the problem. Try this yourself using the USB cable to create the share and you will find that as long as your machine stays up and manages the share users will be allowed to write data to the share, once that is taken off the local connection and you begin the network access no one (including the machine that created the share) can access the volume - even with correct credentials. Since Vista Business and Ultimate have a real sweet image type backup (I have restored many machines after Hard Drive replacements)it would be nice to be able write to a Linux Based NAS w/Samba on. I suspect there is no RPC service or the equivalent on the NAS devices. Unfortunately I am no Linux expert and the support at Buffalo anyway, will not even aknowledge or address the issue since it is a "Vista" problem. It will also be a problem with Windows 7; my RC will not backup to the NAS but will write to the share over the network. Go figure. I personally have been observing this issue for 4+ months and have not yet seen a resolution.

FYI: I tried chatting live with Microsoft and after they exhausted the instruction that are already on the web (I seemed to know more then this person, but I didn't say a thing) - they said this would have to go to PROFESSIONAL HELP and that costs $60+. If anybody has money to fork, I guess that's the way to go (just help us who don't want to pay)

Yeah, not sure if they could even help. My work around for this is to use Robocopy under a Scheduled Task for all 3 machines in the little network the Buffalo Device is sitting on. That way the shares on the device still can be accessed through the network and the backups themselves also have access to the shares. Sad. I would really like to be able to use the image capability of the Ultimate to be able to back up to a NAS device. I am hoping the final release of 7 will address this since the various NAS manufacturers won't..

I don't know if this will help you guys or not. I have had the same problem with the rpc server is unavailable when it comes to networking my vista laptop with my wife's xp pc. I tried to think like Microsoft (you know, bass ackwards) and I got to thinking...what if the rpc server is a part of another program? since vista is obsessed with the windows media thing, i used msconfig (start/run/msconfig) to turn on the windows media sharing under the services tab. i turned on every windows media sharing thing and it worked perfectly. rebooted and it found everything just fine.... you may want to try that and see if it works for you.....oh, and on the back up thing. you might want to check to see if the windows backup is checked in the services too.

RPC is usually related to a firewall stopping access to a given port. You may need to check which port backup is using. Also make sure the disk you save to has permissions equal to admin on your machine. If you are sharing a backup disk, make sure the admin account that launches the backup has admin privilege on the backup disk.Remote Service Management may need enabling on the machine which acts as a gateway (or is the owner of) the backup disk. Remote Service Management is a service (Start | Run | Services.msc). Generally servers run backups but with Vista and Windows 7 it became a part of the OS. My post may be mis-informative - I cannot understand why backup would run on a machine if the required services were not already switched on. I am making a guess above that the disk is shared somehow and it is causing permissionproblems.

Is there still no answer for this almost 3 years later??

I would move on to a commercial option. It seems you get what you pay for. I haven't tested any of this in Windows 7.

Check to make sure that DCOM is enabled on the PC. From a run line open dcomcnfg.exe and then navigate to Component Services > Computers. Right-click on 'My Computer' and then select properties. Go to the 'Default Properties' tab, check the 'Enable Distributed COM on this computer' checkbox, Click OK, and restart the PC. This resolved my issues with an 800706BA 'RPC Server Not Available' error I was receiving when performing certificate requests using certreq.exe to a remote server. It seems DCOM is disabled by default in Vista.

After spending ages googling the problem with no success , I finally found your answer - and it worked beautifully. Thank you so much! I am fairly technical, but this problem came out of the blue for no good reason - except that a host of Vista updates could have had something to do with it! Thanks again John