Backup failure to external hard drive

I'm using Norton 360 v5.1.0.29.  I backup to an external disk drive with 500GB of disk space.  Backups on my system fail on various files on my system.  No explanation is given.  I also, get the same symptom when I backup to a locak hard drive.  What gives?  Why do my backups fail on specific files, with no explanation?