SMO Backup Works On One Not The Other

Can anyone enlighten me on sqlexpress smo?

I have compiled an exe using vbc running the folloing code

Imports System
Imports Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo
Imports Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Common
Imports System.IO

Module SMOtest

    Sub Main()
      Try
        Kill(System.Environment.GetFolderPath Environment.SpecialFolder.ProgramFiles) & " estSMO_BACKUP")
      Catch
      End Try
      Try
        System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(500)
        Dim bkpfileName As String = System.Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ProgramFiles) & " estSMO_BACKUP"
        Dim backDeviceItem As New BackupDeviceItem(bkpfileName, DeviceType.File)
        Dim db As String = "test"  ' Define and set db
        Dim bck As New Backup()  ' Instantiate a Backup object
        bck.Action = BackupActionType.Database  ' Set Action

   bck.BackupSetName = db & "_BackupSet"  ' Set Backup

        bck.Database = db  ' Set Database name property
        bck.Devices.Add(backDeviceItem)

        Dim srv As New Server()  ' Instantiate a Server object
        bck.SqlBackup(srv)  ' Invoke Backup object's SqlBackup method
      Catch
      End Try
    End Sub
End Module

This works fine on a win2k dev system though when moving to another win2k system the code will error on non system databases. If db= model,master,tempdb etc it executes fine. When I try to backup a created db (any) I get an error stating the name is not found in sysdatabases.

SELECT name FROM master..sysdatabases

where name not in ('master','tempdb')

shows all the created databases including "test" in this case

keep in mind many recompiles using different db's work fine on one system and not the other. Even restored "test" from a backup from the system with no problems only to have a 3041 error consistently on the other. System databases work fine for all attempts on the offending system.

Any ideas? (the offending system is a SAT raid which has been evil from the get go) corruption seems to be the only conclusion I can reach