Windows Backup timed-out [...], copy of Windows not genuine, the creation of a shadow copy has timed out.

[JanRo1985]

Hello,

As per the subject line you can tell that my Windows 7 copy has started acting up to say the least! Some background for it below.

It started on Wednesday night. Windows wasn't responding to any commands and I ran Restore to see if going back to a previous point would help. The Restore attempt was unsuccessful, Windows told me. Thursday after work I started the Defragmenter which took 26 hours until it finished. That didn't help. Last night and today I have attempted to create a system image, which has also been unsuccessful. I was not able to save one to an external drive, nor could I create a disk.

The latest on this is that I noticed a few hours ago that it now says in the bottom right corner, 'Windows 7 Build 7601 This copy of Windows is not genuine'. I bought this laptop a few months ago, custom made from the Sony website with Windows 7 pre-installed.

I tried to validate the serial number on the Sony site but the 'validate' button doesn't seem to do anything. Mind you, I was doing it on my mini-laptop so perhaps it has to be done on the actual machine, which is currently trying to run Microsoft Genuine Advantage Diagnostic Tool. It won't open any browser (Firefox is in the Task Manager but it never actually appears on the screen) so I can't use the Internet for anything.

Other than setting fire to my laptop or throwing it out the window, what can I do to make this mind-bogglingly frustrating problem go away?

My laptop's model name is SVE1511C5E.

Thanks in advance

Message was edited by: JanRo1985