>Richard,
>what kind of timeout values should I be looking at ?
>If these values are set globally I cannot see why this one should fail since
>I'm backing up much larger databases with no problem.
>Just for reference this database is about 30G large.

Yiannakis - You would approach adjustment of server timeout values if your
            review of the server Activity Log indicated that it terminated
the session due to IDLETimeout or COMMTimeout issues.  (If your server is
using the defaults for these values, I'd recommend boosting them, as the
the defaults are too low for ordinary use.)

As the old expression goes, the size of the database doesn't matter: what
would matter is the responsiveness of the client in its session with the
server.  We've seen how various things going on in a client at the same
time (the classic being virus scanning) can impede progress.

Be sure to follow Del's recommendations in looking into other areas for
possible evidence of cause.

  Richard Sims, BU