Backup fails catastrophic error 0x8000FFFF

[Baba O'Reilly]

Creating shawdow copy fails on Vista Home Premium when
I try to backup my system using Backup and Restore center.
I have not seen this before. Are there options available
which do not require me restoring my installation?

 

[billr]

I have the same problem which just began today. Having been using Backup and
Restore successfully for almost a year until today. Can someone help?

Thanks.

 

[Adam Albright]

I have the same problem which just began today. Having been using Backup and
Restore successfully for almost a year until today. Can someone help?

You're basically screwed. Maybe not, see below. Why I don't like or
use imaging software or the build-in backup feature. You never know
what something might go wrong. If it does, there is little you can do.
On the other hand if you simply backup your data by making duplicates
on some other hard drive the odds any file will fail at the same time
on two different drives is astronomical.

The Hail Mary fix:

If you get some scary catastrophic error message it MIGHT mean the
file system service got hung-up which might have corrupted something.

Go to a command prompt, run with administrative rights then CAREFULLY
type or just copy and paste what you see below. All the spaces as you
see them MUST appear exactly as show below. Assumes you installed
Vista on your C drive. If not change to the letter it's on.

fsutil resource setautoreset true C:\

Reboot after and keep your fingers crossed.

Vista has tools that can help fix itself. FSUTIL is one such tool and
can be used to display and configure file system properties.

WARNING! Do not mess with FSUTIL unless you are desperate and are
close to throwing in the towel because nothing else worked.

You can learn more about what it is and does here:

http://itsvista.com/2007/03/fsutil/

 

[billr]

Thanks, Adam. It's odd that I can use my Maxtor 500GB external HD software to
perform a backup (first time I have used it) but cannot now (after about one
year) use the Vista Back and Restore function. However, I don't think it's an
image backup like Acronis. I believe the image backup capability is in other
versions of Vista, but not Home Premium which I am using. Anyway, it's
stopped working and gives me the error. I may pursue your route with the
FSUTIL later. By the way, what do you use for backups?

Thanks.

 

[Adam Albright]

Thanks, Adam. It's odd that I can use my Maxtor 500GB external HD software to
perform a backup (first time I have used it) but cannot now (after about one
year) use the Vista Back and Restore function. However, I don't think it's an
image backup like Acronis. I believe the image backup capability is in other
versions of Vista, but not Home Premium which I am using. Anyway, it's
stopped working and gives me the error. I may pursue your route with the
FSUTIL later. By the way, what do you use for backups?

I just use BounceBack from CMS which use to come with all Seagate
external drives. It allows you to make "backup sets" of files, and if
necessary easily restore from that. It just makes copies of files you
select, but automates the process. It isn't a true "system backup",
since I've rejected those as too problematic years ago. It isn't for
everybody, but if you want just to backup your data it's hard to beat
since it tells you which files haven't been backed up yet and also
offers to delete backups of files you have deleted and no long need
thus avoiding another common problem of backup imaging programs,
having "backups" of files you no longer need and will never use again.

While the "pro" version offers some system backup I just use the
Express version.

http://www.cmsproducts.com/product_bounceback_professional.htm