Windows 10: Volume Shadow Copy failing because invalid XML document was returned from writer.

I'm no longer able to make image backups of my boot drive because Volume Shadow Copy keeps failing. From the research I've done it seems like there's a partition with a GPT name that has an invalid character. Looking at the XML in the event log the only thing that looks like it might be a bad name is the following GptName="" I downloaded GDisk and tried looking at my drives but don't see any bad named partition. Is there a better tool or fix you can recommend? Dan

:)

 

Attempt to create a system image fails

I am new to Windows 10. I just tried, for the first time, to use the legacy "Backup and Restore (Windows 7)" to create a system image on an external hard drive. The creation failed with an error:

The backup failed. A Volume Shadow Copy Service operation failed. Please check "VSS" and "SPP" application event logs for more information (0x807800A1). Additional information: The writer experienced a transient error. If the backup process is retried, the error may not reoccur (0x800423F3).
As suggested, I retried, but the operation failed again.

I used the Event viewer to check the SPP and VSS events:

SPP: Writer ASR Writer experienced some error during snapshot creation.

VSS: Volume Shadow Copy Service error: An invalid XML document was returned from writer {89374701-e2cf-4855-bd6e-6992c14fc30f}.

VSS: Fail to parse XML file. Reason An invalid character was found in text content.
There was an old (Windows 7) system image on the hard drive. In case Windows 10 was having trouble reading it, I deleted it. But I the operation still failed.

 

Volume Shadow Copy Service error

I've a list of errors in Event Viewer than I'm trying to deal with one-by-one.

This one is Event 8194, VSS

Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Unexpected error querying for the IVssWriterCallback interface. hr = 0x80070005, Access is denied.. This is often caused by incorrect security settings in either the writer or requestor process. Operation: Gathering Writer DataContext: Writer Class Id: {e8132975-6f93-4464-a53e-1050253ae220} Writer Name: System Writer Writer Instance ID: {05e2633c-95d4-422f-a153-d2152f7fba98}

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I've scoured the web (which I normally do before posting here) and every site refers to Windows servers. As I'm using Windows 10, their steps/directions don't match my OS and I'm left dumbfounded.

If this is a 'server' item, why am I having to deal with it on Win10?

And what in the world is it telling me here?

TIA

 

VSS Problems in Windows 10

C:\Windows\system32>vssadmin add shadowstorage /For=C: /On=C: /MaxSize=1.5GB

vssadmin 1.1 - Volume Shadow Copy Service administrative command-line tool

(C) Copyright 2001-2013 Microsoft Corp.

Error: Invalid command.

---- Commands Supported ----

Delete Shadows - Delete volume shadow copies

List Providers - List registered volume shadow copy providers

List Shadows - List existing volume shadow copies

List ShadowStorage - List volume shadow copy storage associations

List Volumes - List volumes eligible for shadow copies

List Writers - List subscribed volume shadow copy writers

Resize ShadowStorage - Resize a volume shadow copy storage association

C:\Windows\system32>

Windows version 1703 FYI.