"Shadow copy not created" on backup

[Rick]

I often start a full backup and leave my computer, only to come back at
the end of the day to find that the backup failed:

"A shadow copy could not be created for the following reason:
The shadow copy provider had an unexpected error while trying to process
the specified operation."

Not sure what's going on. I look in the Event Viewer and I see two items:

"Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Error calling a routine on a Shadow
Copy Provider {b5946137-7b9f-4925-af80-51abd60b20d5}. Routine details
PreFinalCommitSnapshots({b78c3744-6858-4c09-8bb1-db299de7cae9}, 1) [hr =
0x8000ffff].
Operation:
Executing Asynchronous Operation
Context:
Current State: DoSnapshotSet"

and then a split-second later:
"File backup failed because a shadow copy could not be created. The
system might be low on resources. The error is: The shadow copy provider
had an unexpected error while trying to process the specified operation.
(0x8004230F)."

I can't imagine that I'm low on resources since I closed all apps.
Thanks much for any thoughts on this.

 

[the wharf rat]

I can't imagine that I'm low on resources since I closed all apps.
Thanks much for any thoughts on this.

Maximum disk space for shadow copies. I think it's under Volume0>
Properties.

 

[Rick]

Thanks -- I don't see this setting anywhere. I looked in all tabs of my
C: drive Properties and don't see this setting. I have a 300 GB drive
that's only 25% full -- I can't imagine it's a problem of disk space,
especially cause it only happens occasionally. It seems that
something's causing it to hiccup but I can't figure out what this item
in the Event Viewer is telling me.

 

[the wharf rat]

Thanks -- I don't see this setting anywhere. I looked in all tabs of my

Disc Cleanup, More Options tab, System Restore and Shadow Copies,
click Cleanup. That will *also* delete all but your most recent restore
point, though, so you might want to use vssadmin from the command line:

This is a pain. VSS reserves 15% of the disc for shadow copies.
If you have a 300GB disc that's 45GB. You can make that lower by opening
a DOS window and typing vssadmin resize shadowstorage /on=c: for=c: /maxsize=30GB
or you can delete the oldest shadow copy with
vssadmin delete shadows /for=c: /oldest, or /all will delete all of them
if you really want to.

I was sure this was available through a properties page somewhere
but can't seem to find it in vista. Here's a pretty good explanation of
vssadmin + a stupid hack to get around it not being in the properties page on
Vista.

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/...rage-space-usage-size-in-vista-with-vssadmin/

Oh, BTW, you can put the shadow copies for C: on some other drive
if you need more space on c:

vssadmin resize shadowstorage /for=c: /on=d: maxsize=50GB

for instance. vssadmin list shadowstorage will get you oriented.

Remember to run as administrator...

 

[Rick]

[a week later...] I figured VSSADMIN was the way to go, but after
typing the command in the command prompt I'm being told that I don't
have the correct privileges to run this command and that I need
"elevated administrator privileges". I'm the only user on my computer,
and I *am* the administrator. Help! Thanks.

 

[PD43]

[a week later...] I figured VSSADMIN was the way to go, but after
typing the command in the command prompt I'm being told that I don't
have the correct privileges to run this command and that I need
"elevated administrator privileges". I'm the only user on my computer,
and I *am* the administrator. Help! Thanks.

Find "Command Prompt" under All Programs/Accessories

Right-click, Run as administrator

 

[Rick]

OK, thanks. For my 300 GB drive here's what I see:

Used Shadow Copy Storage space: 28.97 GB
Allocated Shadow Copy Storage space: 30.855 GB
Maximum Shadow Copy Storage space: 43.561 GB

Is there any reason why these settings would cause my problem of backups
not completing and generating this error:

A shadow copy could not be created for the following reason:
The shadow copy provider had an unexpected error while trying to process
the specified operation."

Thanks for any help.

[a week later...] I figured VSSADMIN was the way to go, but after
typing the command in the command prompt I'm being told that I don't
have the correct privileges to run this command and that I need
"elevated administrator privileges". I'm the only user on my computer,
and I *am* the administrator. Help! Thanks.

Find "Command Prompt" under All Programs/Accessories

Right-click, Run as administrator

 

[Nonny]

OK, thanks. For my 300 GB drive here's what I see:

Used Shadow Copy Storage space: 28.97 GB
Allocated Shadow Copy Storage space: 30.855 GB
Maximum Shadow Copy Storage space: 43.561 GB

Those are normal settings for a drive that size and they shouldn't be
causing you any problems.

Is there any reason why these settings would cause my problem of backups
not completing and generating this error:

A shadow copy could not be created for the following reason:
The shadow copy provider had an unexpected error while trying to process
the specified operation."

Thanks for any help.

[a week later...] I figured VSSADMIN was the way to go, but after
typing the command in the command prompt I'm being told that I don't
have the correct privileges to run this command and that I need
"elevated administrator privileges". I'm the only user on my computer,
and I *am* the administrator. Help! Thanks.

Find "Command Prompt" under All Programs/Accessories

Right-click, Run as administrator

the wharf rat wrote:
Thanks -- I don't see this setting anywhere. I looked in all tabs of my

Disc Cleanup, More Options tab, System Restore and Shadow Copies,
click Cleanup. That will *also* delete all but your most recent restore
point, though, so you might want to use vssadmin from the command line:

This is a pain. VSS reserves 15% of the disc for shadow copies.
If you have a 300GB disc that's 45GB. You can make that lower by opening
a DOS window and typing vssadmin resize shadowstorage /on=c: for=c: /maxsize=30GB
or you can delete the oldest shadow copy with
vssadmin delete shadows /for=c: /oldest, or /all will delete all of them
if you really want to.

I was sure this was available through a properties page somewhere
but can't seem to find it in vista. Here's a pretty good explanation of
vssadmin + a stupid hack to get around it not being in the properties page on
Vista.

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/...rage-space-usage-size-in-vista-with-vssadmin/

Oh, BTW, you can put the shadow copies for C: on some other drive
if you need more space on c:

vssadmin resize shadowstorage /for=c: /on=d: maxsize=50GB

for instance. vssadmin list shadowstorage will get you oriented.

Remember to run as administrator...

 

[the wharf rat]

Those are normal settings for a drive that size and they shouldn't be
causing you any problems.

UNLESS his new shadow copy (which depends on changed blocks) requires
more than 15GB.

It's not likely, because that would require actually changing 15GB
of data. What I bet is happening is that the guy writes a full backup of his
10-15GB of used space to a .bkf on C:. The next backup pass makes...a shadow
copy of that 15GB of "new" data. So his .bkf's AND the associated file system
shadow copy grows by like a factor of 2 at each backup pass.

Bet you lunch that if you remove the current shadow copies and
create a full backup on an EXTERNAL or SECOND INTERNAL drive the problem
goes away.

Or run backup without making a shadow copy. You won't be able to
back up open files but on a quiet single user system that shouldn't be a
total lose.

 

[Rick]

Ah, thanks. Maybe this is a clue: I always set it for a full backup --
at least that's my plan -- once a week. (I'm backing up to a USB drive
on drive J: -- I assume that's an 'External' Backup, right?) I've
turned off Vista's incremental backup feature (which I guess is called
'Automatic backup') since I figure just doing a full backup once a week
is all I need. So after I do that new, full backup (which now usually
fails!) I turn off Automatic Backup since Vista seems to always turn it
back on after either a successful backup or an unsuccessful backup ( and
like I say it mostly is unsuccessful now).

Maybe all these shenanigans are causing the problem?

How do I remove the current shadow copies? Is that the same as removing
all but the most recent restore point as explained in that "Reclaim and
Release Disk Space from System Restore and Shadow Copies" article?

I just looked at Vista's Backup and I don't see how to do it without a
Shadow Copy.

Thanks for all your help; much appreciated.

 

[Joe Morris]

OK, thanks. For my 300 GB drive here's what I see:

Used Shadow Copy Storage space: 28.97 GB
Allocated Shadow Copy Storage space: 30.855 GB
Maximum Shadow Copy Storage space: 43.561 GB

Is there any reason why these settings would cause my problem of backups
not completing and generating this error:

A shadow copy could not be created for the following reason:
The shadow copy provider had an unexpected error while trying to process
the specified operation."

Are there any event log entries relating to VSS at the time you get the
error? What do they say (and what EventID do they show)?

Just yesterday I had a user with a VSS failure (on XP, not Vista); the
problem was caused by a bug in the UNinstaller for Visio, which when
removing the program left behind inconsistent Registry entries which
confused the poor little mind of VSS. (Clearly, whoever wrote the VSS code
never heard of the strange concepts of either defensive programming or
useful error messages...but what else is new?)

Joe Morris

 

[Rick]

Are there any event log entries relating to VSS at the time you get the
error? What do they say (and what EventID do they show)?

Just yesterday I had a user with a VSS failure (on XP, not Vista); the
problem was caused by a bug in the UNinstaller for Visio, which when
removing the program left behind inconsistent Registry entries which
confused the poor little mind of VSS. (Clearly, whoever wrote the VSS code
never heard of the strange concepts of either defensive programming or
useful error messages...but what else is new?)

Joe Morris

Yes, here's the VSS error, Event ID 12293:
Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Error calling a routine on a Shadow
Copy Provider {b5946137-7b9f-4925-af80-51abd60b20d5}. Routine details
PreFinalCommitSnapshots({8e323fb6-edac-468b-9276-08fdf4656cac}, 1) [hr =
0x8000ffff].
Operation:
Executing Asynchronous Operation
Context:
Current State: DoSnapshotSet

Immediately thereafter this generated the Windows Backup error, Event ID
4100:
File backup failed because a shadow copy could not be created. The
system might be low on resources. The error is: The shadow copy provider
had an unexpected error while trying to process the specified operation.
(0x8004230F).

Thanks for any help.

 

[Dave]

Even if you have an Administrator account, you normally operate with the
powers of a normal user.
You still need to invoke your superpowers when needed, like Popeye and his
spinach.

1. On the Start menu, click "All Programs".
2. Click "Accessories".
3. Right-click "Command Prompt" and choose "Run as Administrator" from the
shortcut menu.
4. When the User Account Control dialog appears, click "Continue".
5. Now run VSSADMIN

--
Vista Home Premium 32 SP1
http://get.live.com/wlmail/overview

[a week later...] I figured VSSADMIN was the way to go, but after typing
the command in the command prompt I'm being told that I don't have the
correct privileges to run this command and that I need "elevated
administrator privileges". I'm the only user on my computer, and I *am*
the administrator. Help! Thanks.

Disc Cleanup, More Options tab, System Restore and Shadow Copies, click
Cleanup. That will *also* delete all but your most recent restore
point, though, so you might want to use vssadmin from the command line:

This is a pain. VSS reserves 15% of the disc for shadow copies.
If you have a 300GB disc that's 45GB. You can make that lower by opening
a DOS window and typing vssadmin resize shadowstorage /on=c: for=c:
/maxsize=30GB or you can delete the oldest shadow copy with
vssadmin delete shadows /for=c: /oldest, or /all will delete all of them
if you really want to.

I was sure this was available through a properties page somewhere
but can't seem to find it in vista. Here's a pretty good explanation of
vssadmin + a stupid hack to get around it not being in the properties
page on Vista.

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/...rage-space-usage-size-in-vista-with-vssadmin/

Oh, BTW, you can put the shadow copies for C: on some other drive
if you need more space on c: vssadmin resize shadowstorage /for=c:
/on=d: maxsize=50GB for instance. vssadmin list shadowstorage will get
you oriented.

Remember to run as administrator...

 

[the wharf rat]

Yes, here's the VSS error, Event ID 12293:

That's caused by exceeding the maximum number (not size) of shadow
copies per volume. I don't know of a way to set this but if you delete a
shadow copy then backup should proceed. Maybe call vssadmin and
ntbackup from a script so that one vss is always deleted before backup runs??

 

[Foxycat]

I get the same. There seems to be no pattern, sometimes it works, sometimes
not. I've tried closing all other programs, to no avail. Yesterday it
worked despite the fact I had a mail merge generating emails and Outlook
sending them. Today it failed. Outlook was running, but not doing anything
as far as I am aware.

I was hoping SP1 would fix this fault, but it is no better.

Are there any event log entries relating to VSS at the time you get the
error? What do they say (and what EventID do they show)?

Just yesterday I had a user with a VSS failure (on XP, not Vista); the
problem was caused by a bug in the UNinstaller for Visio, which when
removing the program left behind inconsistent Registry entries which
confused the poor little mind of VSS. (Clearly, whoever wrote the VSS code
never heard of the strange concepts of either defensive programming or
useful error messages...but what else is new?)

Joe Morris

Yes, here's the VSS error, Event ID 12293:
Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Error calling a routine on a Shadow
Copy Provider {b5946137-7b9f-4925-af80-51abd60b20d5}. Routine details
PreFinalCommitSnapshots({8e323fb6-edac-468b-9276-08fdf4656cac}, 1) [hr =
0x8000ffff].
Operation:
Executing Asynchronous Operation
Context:
Current State: DoSnapshotSet

Immediately thereafter this generated the Windows Backup error, Event ID
4100:
File backup failed because a shadow copy could not be created. The
system might be low on resources. The error is: The shadow copy provider
had an unexpected error while trying to process the specified operation.
(0x8004230F).

Thanks for any help.