This is a standard procedure I am using to backup a SQL Server database:

    Public Function Backup() As Boolean
        Dim loBackup As Backup = New Backup
        Dim loServer As Server = New Server

        oOriginator.Status.Text = "Backing up database..."

        loBackup.Devices.AddDevice("D:\Data\Optic.bak", DeviceType.File)
        loBackup.Database = "Optic"
        loBackup.Action = Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.BackupActionType.Database
        loBackup.Initialize = True
        loBackup.PercentCompleteNotification = 1
        AddHandler loBackup.PercentComplete, AddressOf ProgressEventHandler
        loBackup.SqlBackup(loServer)

        Return True
    End Function

    Private Sub ProgressEventHandler(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As PercentCompleteEventArgs)
        oOriginator.Status.Text = "Backing up database: " + e.Percent.ToString + "% completed..."
        Application.DoEvents()
    End Sub

Basically, to adapt it to a new environment, I simply change the loBackup.Devices.AddDevice line with the path and database name I wish to have and the loBackup.Database line to specify the database. However, in one particular environment, this code doesn't work. The error says that the backup failed. There is no more information. That server is SQL Server 2008, such as many other servers I have run this procedure into. Once I installed the SMO objects to be able to manipulate that remotely, I was able to have the code to execute up until the loBackup.SqlBackup(loServer). Does anyone know what kind of setting locally would affect it so it woudn't work?