Windows 10: Macrium Reflect Backup Failures (problema resolutum est)

I noticed today that my daily Reflect backups had failed for the past three days, all with the same log file errors.
The Reflect help file has an entry for VSS Error: 0x8004231f - Failed to Create Volume Snapshot.

I started to research that, which led me to a Microsoft Community entry that suggested running sfc /scannow, followed by runnning:

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Scanhealth

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth

and a restart. None of that helped, but eventually I found a suggestion to reduce the number of Restore Points, but when I tried to enter the Restore Point module, I received yet another error, that RP would not work, with error 0x81000203. I tried to chase down what would fix that, to no avail.

I last created a RP perhaps three days ago, and at this juncture, don't know how to proceed to fix/repair/restore/ameliorate/whatever it is that is causing RP to fail, which, in turn may well be what is causing Reflect to also fail.

As always, advice, solace, imprecations/and other related suggestions are hereby solicited.


:)

 

Cannot perform system image back up using Windows Backup

I gave up using Windows image backup due to failure with creating the image & began using Macrium reflect to image & clone my hard drive.

 

Windows Backup Failure when creating a system image - Windows 10

Hello Sumit,

Thanks so much for your reply to my post concerning Windows Backup failure when creating a system image. I will certainly give Macrium Reflect a try.

 

Does this help at all?
VSS Error: 0x8004231f - Failed to Create Volume Snapshot 1 - KnowledgeBase - Macrium Reflect Knowledgebase

You can get to your restore points and delete them using Ccleaner.

 

Thanks, but no help:

1. Among the steps I followed earlier, I tried those such as removing old VSS snapshots, which stated that I did not have any,

2. I installed CCleaner, went to Tools/System Restore, which did not find a single file to remove.

Most puzzling, indeed.

 

Hi Not Myself

QRM (freeware) from the Windows Club works well in Windows 10 *Smile













http://www.thewindowsclub.com/create...-restore-maker

 

Hi there

You must have sufficient (Disk) storage available or VSS won't work --that's always the difficulty of these types of backup systems that allow you to continue using Windows while taking the backup.

Use something like TREE SIZE FREE to check whats on your HDD and remove any not needed files and in particular see if you've got something like a Windows.old file around.

TreeSize Free - Quickly Scan Directory Sizes and Find Space Hogs

Otherwise you have two solutions -

1) The stand alone bootable version of Macrium will always work - it doesn't need the VSS facility to work.

2) increase the partition size of your Windows installation so there's enough free space -- you will need around 40% of the estimated size of the backup FREE before VSS will work -- I.e if your backup takes around 35 GB you will need to have approx. 20 GB of free space on the "C" drive or the VSS won't work. Things like GPARTED or Partition Magic should be able to re-size partitions for you easily enough.

Paragon Partition Manager Free | Paragon Software

GParted -- A free application for graphically managing disk device partitions

There's a load of Geeky and complex stuff on the forums for discussing VSS -- however in years of fixing Windows stuff it's generally simple and easy remedies that work. You don't need things like ccleaner etc -- if you do then the problems are generally much more serious than just being unable to make backups.

Cheers
jimbo

 

Stephanie: QRM failed. It tried, then gave me a new popup, saying that Restore Point is disabled, asking if I want to enable it after creating a restore point. I said to do so, the process started over and repeated. I tried four times, with no luck. Thanks anyway.

 

Jimbo45: There are 805GB available of 917GB on C:\. Macrium backs up to H:\ , which has 548 of 931GB available; both according to TreeSize Free.

That would not seem to me to be the problem; rather, based on what I have done so far, the underlying cause is that Restore Point is not working--and I have no been able to fix that.

 

Hi there

@Not Myself

have you got in the computer settings - Restore point enabled / disabled - use control panel (Right mouse from menu) -->system --> advanced system settings and see if you can take a Windows restore point (in Windows). Then post back with your results.





Also check that the VSS service is enabled.

Cheers
jimbo

 

Jimbo: I have tried several times to enable System Protection; that gives me Error 0x81000203, as I reported somewhere in this thread.

Volume Shadow Copy is set to manual, which apparently is correct. I did try Automatic yesterday, to no avail. Should there be any other such services such as V S _?

What a "fun" way to spend the early morning, having started around 0400 local; I believe that I am competing with UPS, which shows that a package I am expecting today was loaded on the truck at 0412, whereas the usual time is around 0730.

Your continued assistance is, I hope obviously, appreciated.

 

Try going into Macrium's Other Tasks>Fix VSS Problems

or,

You can let Macrium backup on its own without Windows VSS:
Other Tasks>Edit Defaults>Advanced>VSS Options
and check the box to Exclude all VSS writers to resolve specific snapshot failures

If you can get an image created, then we can do some repair work on your OS afterwards.

p.s. I think Volume Shadow Copy Service should be Manual, (at least mine is), and once you've changed that, Start the service. Any "tune-up utilities" should be undone and removed from the system.

 

simric: Thank you, of course, for trying. Sadly, none of your suggestions worked. There is a fair amount of information in the log files, none of which is meaningful to me; if it might be for others, I can see about posting it here.

 

Open an admin command prompt, and run sfc /scannow, at least 3 times, with reboots in-between. Then enter the following command:
Code: findstr /c:"[SR]" %windir%\Logs\CBS\CBS.log >"%userprofile%\Desktop\sfcdetails.txt"[/quote] That will put a file on your desktop called sfcdetails.txt. Post that here in a code box and we'll see what it says.

 

I've also seen situations where VSS wouldn't work if the PC had not been rebooted for several hours. Maybe you could manually start a backup after a reboot to see if it works.