Thank you so much for the reply.

To answer your questions.

No, i did not receive any error message.  In fact, just the opposite.  It said backup completed. 

I tried making a backup to my local drive as you suggested (drive C) and I get the same problem -- the message says backup complete, but the attached image below is all that is there in the local folder.  I cannot restore from that.

Any help most appreciated!

paul