Volume Shadow Copy Service causing problems

G

Gerry Hickman

Hi,

(Vista SP1 x86)

Over the last few months I've been seeing an issue where one of my hard
drives becomes unresponsive, then it returns to normal. At first I
thought it was a faulty hard drive, either remapping bad blocks or
failing internal cache, but extensive block-level and SMART testing
indicated the drive was OK.

I now notice there's a pattern to this problem. The Volume Shadow Copy
Service is always being started by Windows around the same time I'm
seeing the problem.

I looked in the scheduled tasks to see what times System Restore (SR)
was running, but the times did not coincide with the problem. I now
wonder if it's something to do with the "Previous Versions" feature?

I'd like to disable what ever is causing VSS to start, I can disable SR,
but don't know how to disable "Previous Versions". I don't really want
to disable the VSS service completely. I'd like to run it like this for
a few weeks and see if it solves the problem.
 
K

Kerry Brown

If you turn off Automatic restore points for a drive it also turns off
Previous Versions.
 
G

Gerry Hickman

Kerry said:
If you turn off Automatic restore points for a drive it also turns off
Previous Versions.
Click to expand...

Thanks Kerry,

Can you remind me how to do that?
 
K

Kerry Brown

Right click on Computer. Pick Properties. In the left hand pane under Tasks
click on System Protection. Click on Continue or supply Administrator
credentials at the UAC prompt. Remove the check mark beside the drive you
don't want protected.
 
G

Gerry Hickman

Kerry said:
Right click on Computer. Pick Properties. In the left hand pane under
Tasks click on System Protection. Click on Continue or supply
Administrator credentials at the UAC prompt. Remove the check mark
beside the drive you don't want protected.
Click to expand...

Ah, it's under "Properties", no wonder I couldn't find it! OK, that's
strange, it says it's only enabled on the C drive, but I was having
problems with my D drive. Might turn it off anyway, and see what happens.

Thing is, I don't really want to disable SR, I only want to disable the
"Previous Versions" feature; is that possible?

The problem I'm having is not coinciding with SR, something else is
staring VSS and causing the problem.
 
R

Ronnie Vernon MVP

Gerry

Kerry is correct about the Previous Versions being tied to System Restore.
You cannot disable these components, individually.

If System Restore is enabled, the way it works is to create a Restore Point
once a day, by default. It then monitors that drive and records any changes.

The only other thing that might be using the Volume Shadow Copy Service
would be if you have a Scheduled Backup set to automatic.
 
G

Gerry Hickman

Hi Ronnie,
Kerry is correct about the Previous Versions being tied to System
Restore. You cannot disable these components, individually.
OK.

If System Restore is enabled, the way it works is to create a Restore
Point once a day, by default. It then monitors that drive and records
any changes.

The only other thing that might be using the Volume Shadow Copy Service
would be if you have a Scheduled Backup set to automatic.
Click to expand...

I don't have any backup jobs defined. I can see VSS service start-up in
the Event log at times that do NOT match the SR scheduled task. I've
disabled SR on the C drive now, will see if VSS ever starts on it's own
again...
 
G

Gerry Hickman

Hi,

OK, I don't think the problem is anything to do with VSS. I now see
what's happening. I'd been running chkdsk at the exact time of these
problems, and it's chkdsk that starts VSS!

The original problem is that the hard disk becomes unresponsive, and the
Event log fills up with

Event 57

volmgr

The system failed to flush data to the transaction log. Corruption may
occur.

\Device\HarddiskVolume3

This is a DYNAMIC volume, otherwise it would probably say something like
the "the device did not respond within the timeout period". Microsoft's
Event help does not have any help on the volmgr Event.

Caching is disabled, so I don't know why it needs to "flush" anything,
it should give an IO error instead.
 
Y

yellowscarf47

Well, I don't know how to "turn on" the Shadow Copy... That is the most
important thing, I guess... Then, maybe, when I try to install MS updates
and other MS software and hardware that I own, it might work without me
sitting here going through everything as I did with Windows 95 - through
Vista...

any help greatly appreciated!
 
G

Gerry Hickman

Hi Ronnie,
There is a lot of information on the net about this problem. It appears
to be an issue with a drive in all cases, but nothing consistent with
the drive type. Take a look at the following link, maybe something will
jump out at you.

"vista" "volmgr" "The system failed to flush data to the transaction
log" - Google Search:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...ta+to+the+transaction+log"&btnG=Google+Search
Click to expand...

Yes, I'd read most of those before posting here, wasn't convinced of the
answers. Disabling ReadyBoost certainly didn't make any difference. I've
ordered a new drive.
 
R

Ronnie Vernon MVP

Yellowscarf47

Go to Start and type services and click services in the results.

Scroll down to Volume Shadow Copy and double click. Set the Start Up Type
to automatic and click the Start Button.

--

Ronnie Vernon
Microsoft MVP
Windows Desktop Experience


yellowscarf47 said:
Well, I don't know how to "turn on" the Shadow Copy... That is the most
important thing, I guess... Then, maybe, when I try to install MS updates
and other MS software and hardware that I own, it might work without me
sitting here going through everything as I did with Windows 95 - through
Vista...

any help greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...
 

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