Windows 10: Cannot backup to Macrium Reflect Free

OK, here we go. I went for the in place repair install and it worked like a charm! I now have Macrium working properly. I also fixed the problem with Aomei rescue CD not working. This was due to either a bad PE build or the Backupper Pro version that Giveaway of the Day offered. Once I ditched that and installed the Standard version again, all was well again.

Just some tidying up to do now..

Thanks very much folks, I appreciate your assistance!

 

Hi,

Glad to see you have it sorted. It's rarely Macrium that's at fault though. Most often VSS.

Cheers, *Wink

 

berti11,

Glad to see the in-place upgrade worked for you as I was going to advise that approach after doing some more research on your issue.

In your OP the error you posted :

GUID_NULL, &SnapshotID)" failed.
- Returned HRESULT = 0x8004230f
- Error text: VSS_E_UNEXPECTED_PROVIDER_ERROR
ERROR: COM call "m_pVssObject->BackupComplete(&pAsync)" failed.
- Returned HRESULT = 0x80042301
- Error text: VSS_E_BAD_STATE
ERROR: COM call "m_pVssObject->AddToSnapshotSet((LPWSTR)volume.c_str(), GUID_NULL, &SnapshotID)" failed.
- Returned HRESULT = 0x8004230f
- Error text: VSS_E_UNEXPECTED_PROVIDER_ERROR

The VSS_E_UNEXPECTED_PROVIDER_ERROR indicates that the issue occurs when a non standard sector size disk is involved in the backup task. Many users like you report that all was working well until suddenly the error appears.

The error is apparently a Windows issue and may well be tied to drive manufacturers performing some trickery with their drive controllers to accommodate large capacity disk (greater than 2TB) however some report the error with disk of 1TB capacity as well.

Standard sector count for a disk is 512. these larger disk or advanced format disks as they are called use 4096 sector counts. Apparently this results in the VSS error you report.

It is unknown why the in-place upgrade corrects this issue, it does work however the fix may be only temporary. Sounds like you had some other issues on your rig as well that the upgrade also resolved so you should be in great shape going forward. I notice that you also mention here that you have AOMEI Backupper installed. Running 2 similar products may not be the best of ideas as they may conflict with each other. I would suggest avoiding having either app load at system startup to reduce the chance of conflict.

 

Great.. it's a very useful technique. As is routine disk imaging to let you revert to a previously working state and give you a second chance.

 

"The error is apparently a Windows issue and may well be tied to drive manufacturers performing some trickery with their drive controllers to accommodate large capacity disk (greater than 2TB) however some report the error with disk of 1TB capacity as well."

I have been using a Samsung/Seagate M3 1TB for about 6-9 months now and it does seem to behave erratically. It will work for a while (I use it mainly for images) and then it will 'play up'. The progress bar for the image will stop in the same place for ages and if I then cancel the backup the blue light on the M3 is still chuntering away. I cannot even restart the laptop as the drive seems to be blocking it. The only way I can get round this is to pull the USB cable out. Not the ideal thing to do with a very important piece of kit! So it would appear then that there is nothing I can do to prevent this? Are all these 'new' disks going to be the same? I had thought of ditching the M3 or sending it back so I'm not sure now what to do. Several times now, in order to get it to work I have had to move all the files onto another partition or another USB drive, then delete any folders etc so the drive is empty and then it will work again so I move the folders and files back again! A chkdsk never finds any faults either.

 

Hmm, frustrating. I use Hitachi/Toshiba disks (to 2Tb) and have had no problems.

FWIW, I can confirm that having both Aomei Backupper Pro and Macrium free installed causes no problems, but I don't have them running simultaneously.

You could, for what it's worth, check SMART params and do a surface test with Crystal Diskinfo and Macrorit Disk scanner just to eliminate the most basic possibility.

 

Thanks for that! How do I check SMART parameters?

 

Download and run Crystal Diskinfo (free) - easy to find. Also gives a quick green/orange/red indication.

 

I think that error message can cover any error form the VSS provider which is 'Unexpected'. I think it basically translates as "Something bad happened in the VSS Provider which I didn't expect".

So while it might point to the disk scenario mentioned, I think there's no guarantee - there could be some completely different failure which gives the same message

 

Got it, thanks!

 

Ah well, I do like a good mystery*Rolleyes!

 

Well, I think I found what was causing the VSS crashing although I'm not sure I understand why. Doing the Windows repair install fixed all the problems, Macrium, system restore being the main ones but I failed to mention that I was also using Veeam Endpoint Backup as my main backup program. That worked very well for several months but then as I said earlier I started getting problems with my Samsung M3 and I found the only way out of that was to remove everything onto another disk, deleting the Veeam backups leaving an empty M3, then rename the Veeam folder to something slightly different and then doing another backup, starting from scratch basically. Pretty messy, but I couldn't find another way. And this is why I used Macrium as well, belt and braces.

The VSS crashing happened, I now recall, just after I had done the above yet again. The cause of it I have found is that although I was removing Veeam it only removed the program, the database was being left behind, so that when I re-installed Veeam it was trying to connect to the old database and that was when the VSS crashed, why I don't yet understand. So after I had repaired Windows 10 I thought I would install Veeam again as when it worked it was/is a great program. Having installed it, I then ran Macrium and sure enough, it crashed with the messages posted earlier. I did some googling and found a way to remove/reset the database. So another repair install Windows 10 was done, I re-installed Veeam again and yes, no database, it started with a clean sheet. Now a slight deviation, I had installed Veeam this last time using Revo Uninstaller which monitors what is installed and then removes exactly that if the installed program is removed again but sadly, my memory has let me down and I can't remember if Veeam worked or not, did I try to do another backup? I don't remember! But I do remember thinking I've wasted enough time on this, I will use Macrium as the main backup and also Aomei Backupper so I had 'belt and braces'. So Revo 'seemed' to do the database resewithout me having to go through the manual steps as advised in the link shown below.

And that is where I am now, it would be good if I could use Veeam again but I have spent about a week on this and I feel I need a rest!

How to manually reset your Veeam Endpoint Backup FREE database | TinkerTry IT @ Home

 

Good, simpler is better. You should only need one imaging solution. I used to use Aomei, but found a few snags. Veeam is reputable, with a good commercial base, but I've not tried it- much less well-known.

I like Geek uninstaller (free) which I use routinely- just a bit more convenient and quicker to use- (but I also have Revo Pro for more difficult cases). Geek uninstaller is what I use for uninstalls- it very quickly lists all installed progs, with a search box, so quick to access a program. It does a scan after the normal uninstaller has run.

Revo of course gives a wider range of options.

 

Hi there

one problem of running a Windows Backup within Windows itself is the (IMO) WRETCHED VSS system. You have to have a reasonable amount of free space available as a "Volume Lock" is done --this is to allow a user to keep using the system while a backup is being done.

Now IMO if you are backing up a system I don't think you should be using it anyway. If your OS is on an SSD the whole thing will backup in around 15 mins at the most -- so why not run it from a bootable copy of Macrium. No VSS problems in that case either.

I rather think Backup programs shouldn't actually run from within Windows any more -- but that's another issue as I suppose people can schedule automatic Backups.

For DATA backups I use a different approach -- the Windows drives are shared to a NAS server which launches a version of rsync (a Linux program that can be used to ensure files are in sync / latest copy backed up etc etc) every evening so my changed data is backed up nightly at bedtime.

Cheers

Jimbo