I cannot help you much more perhaps some expert will chime in.
However, you did not ask but for what it is worth I've been in IT side for along time and never had a lot of luck with MS backup.
Even when their software "worked" I worried about if/how-well it would restore.
Kind of like A/V.......MS has their own.....just not good at it.
So, for what it is worth the FREE version of Macrium Reflect is terrific !
http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspxI've used it for years to image off to USB HDD my PCs....and with HDD failures over the years had to restore to new HDD.
The recover CD environment is terrific and flexible.....example....different HDD size to original image/HDD.
You can mount your images and see/pull/copy files from Windows Explorer....and FREE version has scheduler too.
Anyway, I'm sorry to hear about your Windows Backup problem and wish I could help more and please don't be offended from my inputs above....there is just a lot of software out there and sometimes it is nice to hear about a good one.