Windows 10: Previous Versions does not work on system drive but second drive

Hi There!

I have two physical disks in my notebook, one simple partition each, BitLocker encrypted. Drive C:, which is my system drive and drive D:, for some media stuff.
Windows Version is Windows 10.0.10586 x64

I have configured VSS to use the "Previous Versions" feature in case I accidentally delete or overwrite a file. I did this on my Win7 install to and it saved my butt at least three times.
Anyway, I am IT Tech and I usually know what I am doing. VSS is running (Volume Shadow Copy Service set to "Manual"), snapshots are there but when I right-click on a modified file (or on the root of the disk) and click "Previous Versions", my D: drive correctly displays the existing snapshots, on my system drive C: there is always a "There are no previous versions available" message. But, when I click the "System Restore..." button, I get a list with my snapshots, so I guess I could restore my system.
Googling around I was not able to find a solution, not even a hint. I am hoping for help here.

Here is the output of vssadmin. As you can see, configuration seems to be ok and the two manual snapshots are there on both drives. For the moment there is no system restore point, but it does not work with snaps created by them either.


C:\WINDOWS\system32>vssadmin List ShadowStorage
vssadmin 1.1 - Volume Shadow Copy Service administrative command-line tool
(C) Copyright 2001-2013 Microsoft Corp.

Shadow Copy Storage association
For volume: (D\\?\Volume{46482e7e-0000-0000-0000-100000000000}\
Shadow Copy Storage volume: (D\\?\Volume{46482e7e-0000-0000-0000-100000000000}\
Used Shadow Copy Storage space: 4,11 GB (3%)
Allocated Shadow Copy Storage space: 4,40 GB (3%)
Maximum Shadow Copy Storage space: 5,96 GB (5%)

Shadow Copy Storage association
For volume: (C\\?\Volume{1e47260b-0000-0000-0000-501f00000000}\
Shadow Copy Storage volume: (C\\?\Volume{1e47260b-0000-0000-0000-501f00000000}\
Used Shadow Copy Storage space: 2,44 GB (0%)
Allocated Shadow Copy Storage space: 3,21 GB (0%)
Maximum Shadow Copy Storage space: 18,6 GB (2%)


C:\WINDOWS\system32>vssadmin List Shadows
vssadmin 1.1 - Volume Shadow Copy Service administrative command-line tool
(C) Copyright 2001-2013 Microsoft Corp.

Contents of shadow copy set ID: {5d6ff27f-4b16-4a51-bb1f-df7d889eaa48}
Contained 2 shadow copies at creation time: 07.01.2016 01:19:12
Shadow Copy ID: {9dd2c632-d0a4-4ca0-9380-8436da3bbc0e}
Original Volume: (D\\?\Volume{46482e7e-0000-0000-0000-100000000000}\
Shadow Copy Volume: \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy8
Originating Machine: mypc
Service Machine: mypc
Provider: 'Microsoft Software Shadow Copy provider 1.0'
Type: ClientAccessibleWriters
Attributes: Persistent, Client-accessible, No auto release, Differential, Auto recovered

Shadow Copy ID: {5a90963f-1a18-4744-a0c1-59a4899e7d7f}
Original Volume: (C\\?\Volume{1e47260b-0000-0000-0000-501f00000000}\
Shadow Copy Volume: \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy1
Originating Machine: mypc
Service Machine: mypc
Provider: 'Microsoft Software Shadow Copy provider 1.0'
Type: ClientAccessibleWriters
Attributes: Persistent, Client-accessible, No auto release, Differential, Auto recovered

Contents of shadow copy set ID: {656c520d-be88-4616-8f8b-5f6019909f29}
Contained 2 shadow copies at creation time: 08.01.2016 16:32:16
Shadow Copy ID: {bf7474fa-f0df-4f3f-9b54-571c33202845}
Original Volume: (D\\?\Volume{46482e7e-0000-0000-0000-100000000000}\
Shadow Copy Volume: \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy18
Originating Machine: mypc
Service Machine: mypc
Provider: 'Microsoft Software Shadow Copy provider 1.0'
Type: ClientAccessibleWriters
Attributes: Persistent, Client-accessible, No auto release, Differential, Auto recovered

Shadow Copy ID: {e4f03489-5f9e-4bac-bdf8-575eaa6eeca5}
Original Volume: (C\\?\Volume{1e47260b-0000-0000-0000-501f00000000}\
Shadow Copy Volume: \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy17
Originating Machine: mypc
Service Machine: mypc
Provider: 'Microsoft Software Shadow Copy provider 1.0'
Type: ClientAccessibleWriters
Attributes: Persistent, Client-accessible, No auto release, Differential, Auto recovered


Really appreciate any thoughts!
(Except those who want to "sell" the "File History" feature

Regards,

:)

 

Volume Shadow Copy Service not working on C: drive, error: "There are no previous versions available", on Windows 10

Thank you Paul_W, but it did not help, my administrative shares are there.

I cant see any previous versions from the Properties dialog, neither on the disk, nor on a file or folder.

But ONLY on my system disk. On the second drive it works like expected.

Regards,

Ernst

 

How to backup Windows 10 to separate internal hard drive?

Changing the drive letter of the second internal drive was one of the first things I tried after upgrading to Win10. It did no good. The primary issue is that the BACKUP feature in Win10 does not recognize the internal drive regardless of the drive letter.

And to one of the previous posters, creating a separate partition on the drive that has Win10 installed does you no good if that drive crashes...which is what I'm trying to prevent against by using a different internal hard drive.

When I had Win7, I could save an entire system image (docs, drivers, and all) without issue. But now, there is NO ONE stepping up from Microsoft to explain why we cannot backup to a second internal drive.

 

I have tried to create a symbolic link to the shadow copy and this actually works, not really as expected, but basically it does.

C:\>mklink /d c:\shadow \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy17
symbolic link created for c:\shadow <<===>> \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy17

C:\>dir shadow
Volume in drive C is System
Volume Serial Number is E2ED-A141

Directory of C:\shadow

File Not Found

C:\>dir "shadow\Users\My Name\AppData"
Volume in drive C is System
Volume Serial Number is E2ED-A141

Directory of C:\shadow\Users\My Name\AppData

06.01.2016 14:38 <DIR> Local
03.01.2016 14:09 <DIR> LocalLow
06.01.2016 23:45 <DIR> Roaming
0 File(s) 0 bytes
3 Dir(s) 201.821.536.256 bytes free

I mounted a snapshot from my C: drive (remember, I do not get any Previous Versions in the GUI).
It works. I cannot see any files or folders from the root of the drive. When I try to access the "C:\shadow" folder from Windows Explorer I get an access denied error.
But I can browse and read all sub-folders of the mount and I can create the link directly to a sub-folder as well.

Seems to me like a bug in the Previous Versions GUI?

 

A brief update on this.
I was curious if this is a configuration problem on my notebook and did a clean Windows 10 install in a virtual machine. Directly from DVD, Version Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.10240].
I did not apply any updates, configured or installed nothing else, just turned on System Protection, created a file in my Documents folder and then created a restore point. Then I have modified the file, saved it and went to the file properties, Previous Version and... know what: "There are no previous versions available".
So, this behavior is out-of-the-box and has nothing to do with my notebook.
Can anyone please try if there are previous versions of files/directories/disk on the system drive? I guess it is a Bug. Or by design with a workaround (some hidden settings, GPOs, whatever) to get over it?

 

Good News.
After installing Windows Update KB3124263 today, previous versions are there for my system drive, for all files and folders!

Marked as solved.

 

Ah, good news. I was watching this thread but didn't have anything useful to contribute (as I use file history).