Volume Shadow Copy Service problems

G

Guest

Hi,

I hope this is the right forum to try to obtain help on this issue. If not,
and someone can point me in the right direction, I will take the issue
elsewhere. (Note that I am here because considerable time on the phone with
both MS and application-vendor technical support has not solved the problem.)

I recently read on one Web site that XP’s volume shadow copy service (VSCS)
is easy to break and notoriously hard to fix. After two weeks of struggling
with the service, I’m a believer. If any one can supply any additional help,
I will be incredibly appreciative.

Background:

Problem: VSCS does not work.

Computer: XP Pro with SP2, Intel P4, 2 GB RAM, plenty of disk space. System
restore turned off on all drives.

Note: I don’t know if VSCS has ever worked. I just recently started trying
to use Dantz Retrospect Professional for backups, which uses VSCS. I also
tested with Windows Backup when Retrospect couldn’t use the service.

Symptoms:

1. On a small test backup, Windows Backup returns:

Backup Status
Operation: Backup
Active backup destination: File
Media name: "Backup.bkf created 8/14/2005 at 6:17 PM"

Error returned while creating the volume shadow copy:80042301
Reverting to non-shadow copy backup mode.
….
Blah blah, then cannot copy open files

2. On a small test backup, Dantz Retrospect Professional returns:

Executing Immediate Backup at 8/14/2005 6:23 PM
To Backup Set Junk...
Can't use Open File Backup option for My Documents on DRIVE C (C:), error
-1017 (insufficient permissions)
….
Blah blah, then cannot copy open files

Note that both Windows Backup and Retrospect are turning VSCS on. So, when
they try to use VSCS, VSCS isn’t cooperating.

Efforts to date:

1. Spent about 1 hour on the phone with Dantz technical support and was
finally told that we had tried everything Dantz new to try and to call
Microsoft.

2. Called Microsoft and spent about 1.5 hours on the phone with a gentleman
in India who was very polite but didn’t seem to know much about VSCS. Tried
some simple stuff, then the problem was referred up the line.

3. Spent about 2.5 hours on the phone in two calls with a lady in India who
was very polite but also didn’t seem to know much about VSCS but did seem to
know a reasonable amount about how to find possible fixes. After two phone
sessions, was told to do a repair install first to service pack zero, then
test, then install service pack two, then test. (My XP Pro CD is a
service-pack-zero CD.)

a. This is not an optimal solution if another solution is available,
given the time and effort involved in a repair install.

b. I have serious doubts that this would solve anything, given that a
repair install was done on this computer about 3 weeks ago. If anything, the
repair install may have caused problems with VSCS.

4. Spent considerable time on the Web researching the problem.

Current status of system as a result of efforts to date:

1. Services

a. MS Software Shadow Copy Provider set to manual. (Setting it to
automatic makes no difference.)

b. Volume Shadow Copy set to manual. (Setting it to automatic makes no
difference.)

c. COM+ reinstalled using the procedure at:
http://www.jsifaq.com/subN/tip6900/rh6951.htm

2. Registry

a. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\system\setup. Ensured "UpgradeInProgress" value
was 0.

b. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\system\setup. Ensured “SystemSetupInProgressâ€
value was 0.

c. Ensured that HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\system\CurentControlSet\Services\VSS
did not contain a VssAccessControlKey. (Creating this key and setting it made
no difference as per the advice at
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/d...se/security_considerations_for_requestors.asp)

Observations:

1. MS Software Shadow Copy Provider service cannot be started from the
administrator services console. I don’t know if this breaks VSCS, but if it
does, this may be the problem.

2. Trying to start MS Software Shadow Copy Provider returns, “Could not
start the MS Software Shadow Copy Provider on local computer. Error 1053: The
service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion.â€

3. If MS Software Shadow Copy Provider service should be able to be started
from the administrator console, I cannot find information on the Web as to
how to fix it.

Again, if any one can supply any additional help, I will be incredibly
appreciative. I can try the repair install, but I expect to spend a day of my
time not solving the problem.
 
G

Guest

Same problem, tried the same steps too and didn't find anything else in the
web. Wrote just to say that MS Software Shadow Copy Provider service should
be able to be started from the administrator console. Mine does.
Check the cmd "vssadmin list witers". I get "error 0x8000fff". and event id
5013. But still didn't found the solution...
And you ?
Regards of Chile.
 
G

Guest

Christian-Arica said:
Same problem, tried the same steps too and didn't find anything else in the
web. Wrote just to say that MS Software Shadow Copy Provider service should
be able to be started from the administrator console. Mine does.
Check the cmd "vssadmin list witers". I get "error 0x8000fff". and event id
5013. But still didn't found the solution...
And you ?
Regards of Chile.

Hi,

I'm sorry it took me so long to reply. I think that Volume Shadow Copy
Service is, for some reason known only to Microsoft, permanently broken on my
XP Pro installation. As a result, I am using disk imaging software for backup
and have given up on using Dantz Retrospect. Who knows? Maybe when the next
version of Windows is available and I upgrade it will fix the problem. But,
until then, I have decided to stop worrying about the problem. The only
suggestion I can get from MS technical support is to do a repair install.
But, a reqpair install had been done on my system about a week before this
problem popped up. I really don't think another would help, and it would be a
major pain in the butt.

When, as you suggest, I check the cmd "vssadmin list witers". A windows
command box pops up and just shows the cursor. No message is displayed. I
don't know if that is good or bad.

Regards,
Scott
 
G

Guest

Giving it up too. I'm now using Acronie Trueimage to incremental HDD backups
and it is not using vss.
Regards,
Christian.
 
G

Guest

Christian-Arica said:
Giving it up too. I'm now using Acronie Trueimage to incremental HDD backups
and it is not using vss.
Regards,
Christian.

I'm not familiar with that program. How do you like it?

Regards,
Scott
 
G

Guest

Hi,

I have a similar (?) problem. I am using XP x64 Pro service pack 1 (the
latest), and Windows Backup. Things I have found...

- the problem seems to be a clash between SQL Server (I am using MSDE
edition) and VSS. Deinstall MSDE and VSS works. Reinstall it and VSS fails.

- using MSDE 3a or 4 makes no difference

- you can "test" VSS by typing "vssadmin list writers" at a command prompt.
If VSS fails you get a long pause and then an error. If it works you get not
such a long pause and success messages

- I haven't found any (helpful or otherwise) fixes for XP, only the 2003
Server fixes on the MS site.

Any help, etc.

Andrew.
 
G

Gerry Cornell

Andrew


Post exact copies of Error messages. Look in Event Viewer.

You can access Event Viewer by selecting Start, Administrative Tools,
Event Viewer.
When researching the meaning of the error, information regarding Event
ID, Source
and Description are important.

HOW TO: View and Manage Event Logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308427&Product=winxp

A tip for posting copies of Error Reports! Run Event Viewer and double
click on the
error you want to copy. In the window, which appears is a button
resembling two
pages. Double click the button and close Event Viewer. Now start your
message
(email) and do a paste into the body of the message. This will paste the
info from the
Event Viewer Error Report complete with links into the message. Make
sure this is
the first paste after exiting from Event Viewer.

Are you getting any BSOD Stop Error messages?

What is the make and model of your computer?

--


Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FCA

Using invalid email address

Stourport, Worcs, England
Enquire, plan and execute.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please tell the newsgroup how any
suggested solution worked for you.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
G

Guest

Hi Gerry,

The exact error is:

Sqllib error: OLEDB Error encountered calling IDBInitialize::Initialize. hr
= 0x80004005. SQLSTATE: 08001, Native Error: 17
Error state: 1, Severity: 16
Source: Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server
Error message: [DBNETLIB][ConnectionOpen (Connect()).]SQL Server does not
exist or access denied.

It also seems (from reading around) that VSS can only be expected to work
with MSDE if the databases are set for 'simple' recovery. Mine are, however,
the system db 'model' was set to 'full' - I changed it to 'simple' - no
difference. (Odd it should be set to full since I only have MSDE edition.)

I have now discovered that the problem is due to the VSS process vssvs.exe
hanging (when a snapshot is attempted or I run 'vssadmin list writers').
Attempting to restart the service doesn't succeed (just says 'stopping'
indefinitely) supporting the hypothesis that it is hung. I can kill it
however, and then stop SQL server and after that VSS operations succeed.

The PC is a AMD X2 64-bit dual core / Asus A8N-SLI motherboard / 2Gb PC4000
memory.

Cheers,
Andrew.
 
G

Guest

I have the same problem. I am using NovaBackup Pro. The error returned when
I try to Backup open files only is ""Microsoft Visual C++ RunTime Library
RunTime Error!
Program: C:\program Files\NovaStor\NovaBackup\nsengine.exe
abnormal program termination."
Support at NovaStor asked me to run vssadmin list writers which returns
"Error: 0x80000ffff. I checked my event viewers and it appears that ASP.NET
and mySQL fails to start. I checked my installed programs and I don't see
that mySQL is even installed. I would really be happy to get my open file
backups running. Any help is appreciated.
 

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