On my brand new computer, I set up Backup and ran the first one manually. It was set to run automatically at 7 PM on Sundays thereafter, and the Backup was set to write to my USB external hard drive. The following Sunday, I did not have the external drive plugged in, so the backup didn't run at the appointed time. I tried to run the backup manually, but kept getting the error "The last backup did not run successfully". I tried repeatedly to run a backup manually, but the backup refused to run because the previous backup had failed. I've reset backup, I've deleted the original backup, I've removed the backup tasks from task manager. Nothing works. I cannot get the backup utility to "reset its status" so that it no longer remembers that the previous backup failed.

Try performing a System Restore and then initiate the backup to your external hard drive. Here's how to perform a System Restore: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-IN/windows7/products/features/system-restore Please revert back here if this does not resolve your issue. Hope it helps!Kunal D Mehta - a Windows Server Enthusiast | | I'm on facebook.com/serverbaba My first TechNet Wiki Article