I'm having a problem with the backup for Windows 7. I get an error message "The backup application could not start due to an internal error. Class not registered (0x80040154)"

I recently installed Windows 7 on a new hard drive, I'm backing up to a new external hard drive.(both 1TB) I didn't make rescue CD's when I installed it because I figured I had the installation CD. Now I wish I had because I would have caught the problem earlier. Now I have all kinds of updates on here. Some Microsoft, some programs and some driver updates. I don't really want to have to do a clean install if I don't have to to fix this. I have run sfc and there doesn't seem to be any system problems. I also ran a disk check on both hard drives, no problems. I don't know what "internal" error there would be. I ran Memtest on the Ram, not problems detected. I also used AIDA64Extreme to do a stress test on the hardware, software and system. All running well within parameters. I can't think of anything else to try. I did try to use some third party backup software (Acronis TI for WD and Macrium Reflect) I could not get a verifiable image from either. Something is wrong somewhere, just don't know where.

When I ran a search on the 0x80040154 it seems that code covers a plethora of stuff. It's hard to track something down when they throw a generic error code on it.

If anybody knows of a way to fix this (without doing a clean install) I'd appreciate some help.
Thanks

Which version of Windows 7 is this? Is it 32-bit or 64-bit?

What are you using for security / anti-malware / etc? Have you installed any kind of operating system 'optimizer'? Have you run any online 'optimizers' or cleanup utilties?

What do you mean by 'cannot verify' the Acronis backup?

Sorry about that, it's Windows 7 Pro version 32 bit. Security is Windows firewall, Microsoft Security Essentials anti-virus, Malwarebytes for malware.
I'm not sure what you mean by "on-line optimizers"? The only program I can think of that optimizes is my Acer Empowering Technologies see attachment for what that does.
I run RegCure for registry cleanup, again see attachment. I have "drivecleanup" which gets run from command prompt, but that only removes drivers no longer associated with anything.

If an image can't be verified as a good, usable image it's next to useless. I also threw in a screenshot of why the Acronis fails verification. I have no idea what this "0-0" partition is, unless it's the reserve partition.
I also have Macrium Reflect for image backup but that wouldn't verify the image either so I uninstalled it.
Thanks

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