Automated System Recovery: Catastrophic failure!??

[Trond Ruud]

Several attempts at generating an Automated System Recovery set all show a
"Catastrophic failure" message in the log file (I have copied the first log
file messages, below)
Does anyone know what the reason for the failure message might be, and if it
means that the generated Recovery set, is useless?
Trond Ruud,
Norway
-------------------
Backup Status
Operation: Backup
Active backup destination: File
Media name: "Automated_System_Recovery-set.bkf created 31/1/2004 at 16:57"


Error returned while creating the volume shadow copy:Catastrophic failure


Reverting to non-shadow copy backup mode.
Backup of "C: WinXP"
Backup set #1 on media #1
Backup description: ""
Media name: "Automated_System_Recovery-set.bkf created 31/1/2004 at 16:57"

Backup Type: Copy

Backup started on 31/1/2004 at 16:57.
Warning: Unable to open "C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Local
Settings\Temp\Perflib_Perfdata_714.dat" - skipped.
Reason: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by
another process.


Warning: Unable to open "C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Local
Settings\Temp\~DF999C.tmp" - skipped.
Reason: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by
another process.

 

[Roger Abell]

What this is saying is that shadow copy service failed to
initialize for the backup. Shadow copy normally will cuase
redirection to temporary "shadowing" files so that no files
will have to be skipped because they are in use. In your
backup this did not happen. Whether this means that your
backup is worthless depends on what was skipped, What
you posted only shows temp files, but it is likely that critical
registry files may also have been skipped.

Check in your services and make sure that you have not
disabled the Volume Shadow Copy service.

 

[Trond Ruud]

Thanks,
You were quite right about the Volume Shadow Copy service not running (it
was set to Manual) so I set it to Automatic and rebooted, before running the
Automated System Recovery set backup again, but the "Catastrophic failure"
message was repeated anyway:
------------------
Backup Status
Operation: Backup
Active backup destination: File
Media name: "Automated_System_Recovery-set.bkf created 31/1/2004 at 19:37"


Error returned while creating the volume shadow copy:Catastrophic failure


Reverting to non-shadow copy backup mode.
Backup of "C: WinXP"
Backup set #1 on media #1
Backup description: ""
Media name: "Automated_System_Recovery-set.bkf created 31/1/2004 at 19:37"

Backup Type: Copy

Backup started on 31/1/2004 at 19:37.
Warning: Unable to open "C:\itouch_crash_info.txt" - skipped.
Reason: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by
another process.


Warning: Unable to open "C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Local
Settings\Temp\Perflib_Perfdata_6bc.dat" - skipped.
Reason: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by
another process.
....
------------------

Also, in the services table the Volume Shadow Copy service is now shown as
running.
One very strange thing however, was that after setting the service to start
automatically and rebooting, my ZoneAlarm firewall prompted me to allow the
service to access the internet when starting the Automated System Recovery
set backup again.
But, why on earth do the Volume Shadow Copy service need to access the
internet? Could I be infected by some bug? (I allowed it to access the
internet, on the assumption that failing to do so, would probably disable
the service again.)
Regards
Trond Ruud
PS
The "Reverting to non-shadow copy backup mode" message seems to indicate
that something disables the Shadow Copy service immediately when the backup
starts. Virus/Worm//Trojan?
DS

 

[Roger Abell]

So we still do not know whether the VSS is or is not started.
If you run services.mcs is it stated to be started ?
If it is then we have some cause to chase down as to why backup
is not able to use it, whereas if not we need to find why it does
not start. With it set to manual as it had been it should have been
started on demand when you did the backup.
Try starting it and watch the event log for related messages.

 

[Trond Ruud]

So we still do not know whether the VSS is or is not started.
If you run services.mcs is it stated to be started ?
If it is then we have some cause to chase down as to why backup
is not able to use it, whereas if not we need to find why it does
not start. With it set to manual as it had been it should have been
started on demand when you did the backup.
Try starting it and watch the event log for related messages.

 

[Trond Ruud]

I'm not sure I get you right, but as I wrote in my previous posting, I
checked the Volume Shadow Copy service status (through: My
Computer>Manage>Services and Applications>Services immediately after running
the backup, and in the Services table the Volume Shadow Copy service was
listed as Started and "Automatic", as it still is.
Start>Run 'services.mcs' yields an error message that "Windows cannot find
'services.mcs' ..." though, so I have to check the service status through
Computer>Manage>Services and Applications, but I assume that ought to give
the same result (?)

The cryptic messages at the beginning of the log file indicates that VSS is
disabled right at the start of the backup:
Error returned while creating the volume shadow copy:Catastrophic failure
Reverting to non-shadow copy backup mode

Trond Ruud

 

[Roger Abell]

I'm not sure I get you right, but as I wrote in my previous posting, I
checked the Volume Shadow Copy service status (through: My
Computer>Manage>Services and Applications>Services immediately after running
the backup, and in the Services table the Volume Shadow Copy service was
listed as Started and "Automatic", as it still is.

Actually, what you said was

You were quite right about the Volume Shadow Copy service not running (it
was set to Manual) so I set it to Automatic and rebooted, before running the
Automated System Recovery set backup again

and that only indicates that it probably did start after the reboot,
but it does not unambiguously rule out failure to start

Start>Run 'services.mcs' yields an error message that "Windows cannot find
'services.mcs' ..." though, so I have to check the service status through
Computer>Manage>Services and Applications, but I assume that ought to give
the same result (?)

my bad, that is services.msc not .mcs
and yes, it is the same snap-in as access with compmgmt.msc

The cryptic messages at the beginning of the log file indicates that VSS is
disabled right at the start of the backup:
Error returned while creating the volume shadow copy:Catastrophic failure
Reverting to non-shadow copy backup mode

I guess that we did not verify that you are using XP Pro,
as ASR is not supported in XP Home
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=302700

At this point I think you would be best off wth a new post in such
as the newsgroups
windowsxp.perform_maintain
or
windows.filesystem
indicating that the VSS service is running, you have XP Pro (?) and
you get these messages (event log source and event id info helps).

Roger