Q.  My Backups Freeze when I try to make a Backup. What's wrong?

When the DCMS locks up during the Backup process, it is usually because there is a problem with your backup file, either on the hard drive or on the destination drive (a floppy disk or some other removable disk). Backups are a cumulative thing. When you make a backup, it takes a look at the most recent backup (a copy of which is on the hard drive) and updates it with all the files that are newer than those already in the backup. A new copy is not made, just an updated one.
 
Then, if you chose to make the backup to a removable drive, such as a floppy disk in drive A: or a USB drive, a copy of the backup created on your hard drive is then made on your removable drive. Essentially, this gives you two copies of the latest backup.
 
I strongly recommend having multiple removable disks (floppies) and making backups regularly a rotating the disks. For instance, my favourite method is to have seven floppy disks, labelled Monday through Sunday. When you make a backup, take the appropriate day's disk and use it for the backups. That way, you will have multiple copies of backups at various stages of currency. If you encounter a problem with your latest backup (as you seem to be having here) then you can always go back to the previous one, and if that is bad, the previous one to that... Two-week-old data looks pretty good faced with the prospect of starting over.
 
Anyway, I suspect that there is a problem with your main hard drive backup (the one to which the changes are made). This in turn may have affected the backups on your removable media. So this is a good time to start with fresh backups (you should do so once a year in any case).
 
Here is my suggestion.
 
Take your current backup disk(s) and put them in a nice safe place (we're starting on a new series of backups)
 
Go and get a package of floppies and take seven, and label them Monday through Sunday. Put today's disk in drive A:
 
Go to the Backup Utility and make a Backup, only this time check the box that says "Erase the Current Backup First?". This will create a new backup with all of your data. Just in case the problem was the master backup. When that is completed, a copy will be made to today's backup disk.
 
That should fix it. Start using the new backup disks and you should have your problem solved. Once you have a warm fuzzy feeling that you are back on track with your backups, you can throw away your old backup disk(s) (or better yet, put them in with last years' tax receipts)
 
Finally, if that still doesn't fix it, the problem could be with your floppy drive. I have gone though 3 drives in the past five years. They are cheap to replace and even cheaper to clean. Bring your computer "box" (the CPU) to a computer service depot and ask them to give it a cleaning, including the floppy drive. They will open the box and vacuum the inside and clean the read/write heads of the floppy. They can also check to see if there is a problem with the floppy drive itself. The process is quick and fairly cheap to do. It's a good idea to get your computer cleaned about once every 18 months or so.
 
Hope that helps
 

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