Hello- I am trying to back up my Documents and Settings by copying to an external hard disk drive. I keep getting the big red cross error message saying: Error copying file or folder Cannot copy NTUSER: It is being used by another person or program. Close any programs that might be using the file and try again. There are no programs running that I can see. I'm just on the desk top and disconnected from internet when I attempt this. Any advice appreciated. Cheers.1 person needs an answerI do too

You can't copy that file because it is in use - it's being used by your user profile. In any case, that's not the way to back up. Even if you could copy ntuser it wouldn't help you in a recovery situation. If you are just copying files to an external hard drive, you need to copy just the data files - your music, pictures, documents, Favorites/Bookmarks. If you are using an email client, you will want to back up your address book and messages, too. How you do that depends on what email client you're using. If you want to be able to restore a working system in its entirety quickly, then get imaging software like Acronis True Image Home. Image your computer and store the image on the external hard drive. http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Backing_Up MS-MVP - Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!