Windows System / System State Backup error "One of the volumes specified for backup is invalid because it is either not on a fixed drive, is not formatted NTFS/ReFS, or is read-only."

5 Mar, 2025

Product Version

AhsayACB / AhsayOBM: 7 and above

Operating System

Windows

Symptom

When performing a MS Windows System or System State backup, the following error message is displayed on the backup client interface, or in the backup report:


[ ... ] "One of the volumes specified for backup is invalid because it is either not on a fixed drive, is not formatted NTFS/ReFS, or is read-only.
[ ... ] "To convert the file system on a volume from FAT32 to NTFS, at an elevated command prompt type:"
[ ... ] "CONVERT /FS:NTFS"
[ ... ] "[Error]"

Cause

This issue will occur if one of the source volume selected for the backup (system reserved or recovery partition) is not formatted in NTFS or ReFS.

To display a list of volumes in a disk:

Open an elevated command prompt, run diskpart.
Enter the following command:
```
DISKPART> list volume
```

Resolution

To resolve the issue, convert the corresponding volume to NTFS format:

Open an elevated command prompt.
Enter the following command (drive_letter is the letter of the drive to be converted):
```
convert ${drive_letter}: /fs:ntfs
```