Vista - Catastrophic failure 0x8000FFFF

My Vista system keeps messaging me that my last backup failed, and gives an error message, "Catastophic failure 0x8000FFFF". I Googled the error message, and was directed by Vista to a download for Registry Booster 2009 by Uniblue. I downloaded the program, ran it, and got still another error message from the "registrybooster.exe.log". It reads as follows:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "main.py", line 2, in <module>
File "zipextimporter.pyo", line 82, in load_module
File "rbconfig.pyo", line 4, in <module>
File "zipextimporter.pyo", line 82, in load_module
File "fwconfig.pyo", line 10, in <module>
File "ntpath.pyo", line 97, in join
TypeError: 'NoneType' object is unsubscriptable
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "main.py", line 2, in <module>
File "zipextimporter.pyo", line 82, in load_module
File "rbconfig.pyo", line 4, in <module>
File "zipextimporter.pyo", line 82, in load_module
File "fwconfig.pyo", line 10, in <module>
File "ntpath.pyo", line 97, in join
TypeError: 'NoneType' object is unsubscriptable
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "main.py", line 2, in <module>
File "zipextimporter.pyo", line 82, in load_module
File "rbconfig.pyo", line 4, in <module>
File "zipextimporter.pyo", line 82, in load_module
File "fwconfig.pyo", line 10, in <module>
File "ntpath.pyo", line 97, in join
TypeError: 'NoneType' object is unsubscriptable
Does anyone know what this means? Or, better yet, just explain to a blonde how to fix the original problem.

T

Im assuming you dont have a backup from before the problem started to restore. One thing you can try is to run the system file checker (in command prompt) by running sfc /scannow.

Another is if you have your vista dvd to do a repair install.

If you dont have a backup I suggest you backup before the repair install

Finally and best option is to do a clean re-install. that will get rid of your reg problems but you will have to re-install you apps, etc

Ken

I have "last successful backup on (about two weeks ago)". But more often than not, I get this message between successful backups. My "D" drive is full, so I re-routed the backups to an external hard drive where there's plenty of room. I really don't want to re-install Vista, as I have thousands of photos (most of them on the external drive, MyBook) and don't want to lose any. Can I just delete everything on my "D" drive which was my original 10g drive, or are there program files there--or something else that I would not want to delete? My system was happy as long as it could send the backups to the "D" drive. Thanks for your input.

Hold on a sec. There's no way that Vista itself would be directing you to something called "Registry Booster 2009 by Uniblue". In fact, that sounds like one of those borderline malware confidence trickster apps - I'd definitely suggest keeping as far away from that as possible.

Can you explain in more detail how (and where) Vista is "messaging you that your last backup failed"?

Where did you see the suggestion to get/buy "Registry Booster" - in Vista itself?

Are you using the built-in backup utility or something else? Do any of these errors/messages come up within the backup utility, or do they pop up while you're doing something else?

It's never too late to reinstall, so you might as well try a bit of troubleshooting first.