Windows 10: Cannot backup to Macrium Reflect Free

That's better, thanks. All I get is Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider, but like I've been saying in the thread it is hidden in the registry and I cannot see a way to make it visible.

 

Do any of the writers show anything other than STABLE in the State field or any that show Last error anything other than No error?

 

The writers default is set to Manual

 

Where should I see that? As I don't have a working provider at all I'm assuming that there won't be any data about it other that the error message I gave in #1

 

What do you see from that "vssadmin list writers" command? Mine looks something like this:
Code: C:\WINDOWS\system32>vssadmin list writers vssadmin 1.1 - Volume Shadow Copy Service administrative command-line tool (C) Copyright 2001-2013 Microsoft Corp. Writer name: 'Task Scheduler Writer' Writer Id: {d61d61c8-d73a-4eee-8cdd-f6f9786b7124} Writer Instance Id: {1bddd48e-5052-49db-9b07-b96f96727e6b} State: [1] Stable Last error: No error Writer name: 'VSS Metadata Store Writer' Writer Id: {75dfb225-e2e4-4d39-9ac9-ffaff65ddf06} Writer Instance Id: {088e7a7d-09a8-4cc6-a609-ad90e75ddc93} State: [1] Stable Last error: No error Writer name: 'Performance Counters Writer' Writer Id: {0bada1de-01a9-4625-8278-69e735f39dd2} Writer Instance Id: {f0086dda-9efc-47c5-8eb6-a944c3d09381} State: [1] Stable Last error: No error Writer name: 'System Writer' Writer Id: {e8132975-6f93-4464-a53e-1050253ae220} Writer Instance Id: {6acedd7f-4a22-4fac-8490-b5331eae5ef7} State: [1] Stable Last error: No error Writer name: 'ASR Writer' Writer Id: {be000cbe-11fe-4426-9c58-531aa6355fc4} Writer Instance Id: {1569e90b-9cf7-4956-baab-e75e37684516} State: [1] Stable Last error: No error Writer name: 'Shadow Copy Optimization Writer' Writer Id: {4dc3bdd4-ab48-4d07-adb0-3bee2926fd7f} Writer Instance Id: {398b885e-b5a7-4560-a2b9-b6c2efdc9b2f} State: [1] Stable Last error: No error Writer name: 'COM+ REGDB Writer' Writer Id: {542da469-d3e1-473c-9f4f-7847f01fc64f} Writer Instance Id: {0f968e47-0d26-4471-ae9c-16ebe32c4b15} State: [1] Stable Last error: No error Writer name: 'Registry Writer' Writer Id: {afbab4a2-367d-4d15-a586-71dbb18f8485} Writer Instance Id: {ccfff96f-7fa3-434b-91b5-cc4a237b30b7} State: [1] Stable Last error: No error Writer name: 'MSSearch Service Writer' Writer Id: {cd3f2362-8bef-46c7-9181-d62844cdc0b2} Writer Instance Id: {82f604ae-7f28-4d4d-b2c6-c8d3d6eb9c20} State: [1] Stable Last error: No error Writer name: 'WMI Writer' Writer Id: {a6ad56c2-b509-4e6c-bb19-49d8f43532f0} Writer Instance Id: {3cd21e76-8a0f-4556-929f-493ec3622513} State: [1] Stable Last error: No error[/quote]

 

Best I could with Paint!

 

You do not say if you see any errors or State no stable.

Your post one indicated a COM error thus the need to restart the COM services I pointed out. Make certain when you are looking at Services that you actually get the correct ones as there can be others with similar names.

You should also check vssadmin list shadows and see how many shadow copies exist on your system. If you have a fair number and given the size of your backup it is probable that you do not have sufficient room on your drive to create the shadow copy for the backup. As a test you could try making a backup of a few folders and see if that works. If it does that even points more towards insufficient disk space.

 

Ah, the image is difficult to read,apologies but all the entries say stable and no errors.

Vssadmin list shadows gives "No items found that satisfy the query".

And as my Macrium is the free version I cannot back up folders, only partitions.

 

Might be worth seeing what happens if you try to use System Restore to create a new Restore Point?
I believe System Restore also uses VSS, so it may give some useful info/ error messages.

 

Trouble is, like I said earlier as soon as I open System Restore I get SR1
and if I open Configure System Restore I get SR2.

In the first pic you can see 'searching' which it does until I close the window. It never finds any drives.

 

Hi,

Acronis is still present and the cause of the VSS problem.
Short of reinstalling the lot on a clean disk I don't know of any other solution.

Cheers, *Wink

 

Have you tried the shutdown I suggested? If not you should. Doing so will stop anything that might be stuck in a sleep state and release the drive from a locked state

 

Yes, I've done that three times but still problems mentioned above!

 

I did have Acronis until about a year ago and the system has been fine until about 3 days ago so I don't see how it can suddenly fail like this! I did a search in the registry and found no trace of it. Have you seen anything in my error reports telling you that Acronis is the culprit? If so, I could re-install it using Revo Uninstaller and then remove it under Revo control. I do have an Acronis recovery partition but I don't see how I can remove it without re-installing Acronis.. And I seem to have 3 recovery partitions so I don't know which is which anyway! Although that hasn't been a problem and may not be now.

 

Hi,

OK. In that case it must be something else. I'll see if I can of further help then.

Cheers, *Wink