ntbackup crashes on system state backup

[news]

- xp sp2 with all the latest patches from windows update
- thorough AV scan is clean
- complete anti malware / spyware is clean
- chkdsk c: /f /r is clean
- rebooting makes no difference
- no event log errors

The problem is that when I do a system state backup, it gets to the
c:\windows\system32\drivers\rootmdm.sys file and then crashes. (The
error is the one where it says that the app has had a problem and it
sends a report to Microsoft.) Because of this, I am unable to do a
system state backup at present. Apart from this, all is well with the
PC.

Any ideas?
TIA
Mark

 

[Kerry Brown]

Are there any errors in the event logs or the ntbackup logs?

 

[news]

Are there any errors in the event logs or the ntbackup logs?

- no ntbackup log errors either.

 

[Kerry Brown]

If it gets a system error and you get the dialog about sending a report to
Microsft there should be an event in one of the logs. It may be seemingly
unrelated other than the time when it occurs. It should identify an event id
and possibly an application.

 

[news]

If it gets a system error and you get the dialog about sending a report to
Microsft there should be an event in one of the logs. It may be seemingly
unrelated other than the time when it occurs. It should identify an event id
and possibly an application.

I agree - there should be an error in one of these logs. But there
isn't. (The only references are, as expected, the normal vss services
starting and stopping.) There is, of course, the debug report which I
punt to Microsoft each time it happens:

appname: ntbackup
appver: 5.1.2600.2180
modname: ntbackup.exe
modver: 5.1.2600.2180
offset: 000a63f8

(For some strange reason, MS don't allow the debug detail to be copied
and pasted, and there's no way I'm typing in all that module info!)

Is it just "one of those things that windows does every now and then"
that requires an os reinstall?

 

[news]

I agree - there should be an error in one of these logs. But there
isn't. (The only references are, as expected, the normal vss services
starting and stopping.) There is, of course, the debug report which I
punt to Microsoft each time it happens:

appname: ntbackup
appver: 5.1.2600.2180
modname: ntbackup.exe
modver: 5.1.2600.2180
offset: 000a63f8

Just to be clear, there is no system event log error. The above is an
app log error. Also...

- tried a sfc /scannow : no errors on the scan and still getting the
ntbackup crash
- disabled the AV software : still getting the ntbackup crash

Any more ideas? The problem happens with rootmdm.sys every time.

 

[news]

Any more ideas? The problem happens with rootmdm.sys every time.
More info:
- Renamed rootmdm.sys to rootmdm-old.sys (had to disable windows file
protection first to do this which in xp sp2 is a bit of a pain, but I
got there in the end) in drivers and dllcache.
- With windows file protection disabled, the system state backup works.
However, it only backs up a 1/4 of the files, presumably because with
the wfp disabled, it is the equivalent of asking ntbackup not to backup
files protected by the system? Anyway, i digress...
- I reenabled file protection and rebooted and tried again. It still
crashed, but this time, the file it bombed out on rndismpx.sys instead.


Now interestingly, rndismpx.sys is the file that comes exactly before
rootmdm-old.sys in the file system when ordered alphabetically! So,
does ntbackup have a limit on the number of files it can back up when
backing up the system state?

 

[news]

Beginning to look like a bug: someone else is having the exact same
problem as me.

http://groups.google.co.uk/group/mi....help_and_support/msg/fe2ce512d82e6a4d?&hl=en

 

[Kerry Brown]

Where are you backing up to? It sounds like the backup is failing when it
hits a certain size. What is the size of the backup file when it fails?

 

[news]

Where are you backing up to? It sounds like the backup is failing when it
hits a certain size. What is the size of the backup file when it fails?

2189 out of about 2500 files.
378MB out of about 500MB
Backing up to a disk with about 16GB of free space.

 

[Kerry Brown]

I'm out of ideas. Hopefully someone else will chime in.

 

[vlixvlax]

I found out today that I have exactly the same problem. NTBackup
crashes when it reaches rootmdm.sys during a system state backup. I
hope somebody finds a solution.

 

[news]

I found out today that I have exactly the same problem. NTBackup
crashes when it reaches rootmdm.sys during a system state backup. I
hope somebody finds a solution.

A third person with the same problem. AFAICT, there is no known fix
and there are no articles on this on the public MS knowledgebase.
Strange that you get the problem with the same file. My testing showed
that it wasn't the file per se that is the problem. Could you post the
same stats as I did earlier? (I.e. how many were backed up out of a
total number, space backed up out of the total and so on?) Cheers.

 

[vlixvlax]

Here's yet another person with the same problem:

http://groups.google.com/group/micr...02569e73d2d/a6c24dba29d77060#a6c24dba29d77060

The thread is in German though.

I'll post the stats you requested later today.

Regards,

vlix

 

[vlixvlax]

On my system, a system state backup wants to process 2474 files,
totalling about 460MB. The backup crashes at file number 2208
(rootmdm.sys), at roughly 369MB.

-vlix

 

[news]

On my system, a system state backup wants to process 2474 files,
totalling about 460MB. The backup crashes at file number 2208
(rootmdm.sys), at roughly 369MB.

-vlix

Cheers. I was hoping to see a distinct pattern, but AFAICT ther isn't
one: the figures are very close to mine but not the same.
I'm out of ideas other than to wait for:
1. MS to acknowledge the problem
2. MS to fix it!
Oh dear.

 

[Lunacy]

Hello people.

I had the same problem and I found several versions of this thread on google, but none of them had the answer. So, since I (think I) found it, I decided to post it here.

Do any of you happen to have daemon tools (or some other program that uses SPTD, like Alcohol or who-knows-what-else)? If you do, there should be a file named "sptd.sys" in system32\drivers.

I had updated daemon tools to 4.06 right before the problem started (sorry, don't remember which SPTD version is included with that). So now, after I upgraded to the new 4.08, which includes SPTD 1.39, the problem disappeared and I can back my system up again.

You can download the latest driver here

I hope this helps.