Troubleshooting problem with Volume Shadow Copy

Restart the VSS service with the following procedure:

1. Open Services.msc, click Control Panel, double-click Administrative Tools, then double click Services.

2. Right click Volume Shadow Copy, then Restart.

   

3. Restart the following related Windows Services as well: COM+ Event System, COM+ System Application, MS Software Shadow Copy Provider and Remote Procedure Call (PRC).

Perform the following procedures to ensure that all VSS related components are correctly registered:

In the administrative command prompt, execute the 'RegisterVSS.bat' script file available in the AhsayOBM installation home, reboot the machine afterward.

${Install-Home}\bin RegisterVSS.bat

Check if you have installed the latest Windows Updates. There may be known issues identified by Microsoft that can be resolved in a hotfix / update:

Backup task fails with a time-out error in Windows

For machine with Visio installed, check if the following event is found:

Event Type: Error
Event ID: 5013
Description:
Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Shadow Copy writer ContentIndexingService called routine VsServiceChangeState which failed with status 0x8007041d (converted to 0x800423f4).

To resolve the issue, delete the following registry key with regedit.exe, reboot the computer afterward:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\ContentIndex\Catalogs\Visio

Refer to the following instruction to troubleshoot the VSS related issue:

• Ensure that status of all VSS writers and providers are stable:

  • To output the list of writers and their status, enter the following command in an elevated command prompt:

    >vssadmin list writers

    All writer should have status of [1] Stable.

  • To output the list of providers present, enter the following command in an elevated command prompt:

    >vssadmin list providers

    If no provider is listed, there may be issue with the installation of operating system itself. Resolution should be pursued with Microsoft support staff.

• Ensure that left-over snapshots are cleaned up:

  • Enter the following command in an elevated command prompt:

    >vssadmin delete shadows /all

    This will clean up all VSS snapshots.

    Defective operating system may often accumulate hundreds of VSS snapshots that persist in the system and cause Windows to become un-responsive.

• In some case, you may not be able to delete the VSS snapshots with the above command. Perform the following instead:

  • To decrease the maximum shadow storage size, enter the following command in an elevated command prompt:

    >vssadmin resize ShadowStorage /For=C: /On=C: /MaxSize=400MB

    If there is no VSS writer error displayed, but the system is not creating a new VSS snapshot, increase the max shadow storage size on the system instead.

  • To increase the maximum shadow storage, enter the following command in an elevated command prompt:

    >vssadmin resize ShadowStorage /For=C: /On=C: /MaxSize=10GB