Windows 7: Starting Windows Backup... ... ... ...

I'm hoping someone may have some insight into what's going on here. I'm running on a new machine (the first I've built myself) with a fresh copy of Win 7 Pro on it. I've hardly installed anything at this point, just things that came with my motherboard, a few games, and openoffice.



The problem is that when I click to "set up backup", a window pops up saying "Starting Windows Backup: Please wait while Windows Backup starts". I let that window stay open for an hour before having to close it with the task manager. Clicking the cancel button just makes it say "canceling..." indefinitely.

Things I've tried:

1. Clean boot with msconfig
2. sfc /scannow
3. Ensuring that the backup and shadowcopy services are set to auto
4. Flipped a couple settings in the uefi, bios, or whatever it's called these days
5. Spread a circle of salt around my desk and said a prayer

I would simply move on to another backup program, but I have a feeling that there is some underlying issue here. Windows installer seems to be *very* slow sometimes. For example: When installing openoffice, I was staring at a "preparing to install" window for about half an hour while I did my laundry.

Well, that was an ordeal.

After failing to open Windows Backup on my new computer for so long, I sought out different software, spending hours reading reviews. I settled on trying Cobian.

In troubleshooting *that* program (which refused to work for me either), I determined that things seemed to run more smoothly when I had a non-administrator username. I decided it would be a good idea for security as well, so went ahead and downgraded my account to a non-administrator.

Guess what starts up just fine now! Windows Backup sprung to life on the first try!
I am very annoyed. I didn't even change my username, just downgraded my privileges. I really didn't expect anything to change except for it to yell at me more often when I tried to install software.

Don't take it too seriously horwort!
We all have had our share of bruises on our foreheads for doing something silly!

Maybe it's early - I don't get it.

Alright, I'm bumping this because this problem has reared its ugly head again. I figured out what was slowing down my windows installer: the creation of restore points. After a lot of troubleshooting, disabling system restore allowed me to install things quickly as they should. But... I like system restore, so I'd like to figure out what's wrong.

The first thing I notice when looking into configuring system restore is that the amount of memory that was allocated to by default was 0! "Aha!", I thought, "This is the problem, I'll just allocate some memory and it'll work fine!" No joy. After giving it a healthy 100GB to work with and clicking the "create restore point" button, it sits there for several minutes then comes back with a message that Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) has timed out.

Again, I tried a clean boot and disabling my virus protection with no success. I look at the Resource Monitor while it's working -- not too much is going on.

HELLPPPP!!!!
I'll give out cookies for help.

I'm not a happy hort_wort.
I just finished a repair reinstall of Win 7 Pro 64-bit, and I'm *still* having the same issues.

I try to create a system restore point, I get a message that the "creation of a shadow copy has times out." (0x81000101)

I try to open windows backup and the screen still indefinitely says "starting windows backup".

Also of note, when I run the command "vssadmin list writers", there is no response after half an hour. It's like everything that touches the VSS just goes into limbo.

I got Win 7 Pro so I would have the enhanced backup ability, and instead I have *no* backup ability. This sucks.

I believe:
Volume shadow copy
Windows backup
Microsoft software shadow copy provider

Should all be set to Manual. They should start as required.

Maximum disk space usage setting on backup partitions seems default to 30%.
Not the amount normally used of course.

Okay! I solved the problem!

I got one of those Western Digital backup drives, which was having trouble communicating. I disabled a program that came with my motherboard called "XFast USB" and the drive started working as expected.

On a hunch, I went back to things that use VSS, and sure enough, they now work!! For some reason, a program that tweaks USB port settings was stopping VSS from working, even when I had nothing plugged into said ports. *sigh*

I also got "Starting Windows Backup: Please wait while Windows Backup starts". Installations that should have taken a few seconds were taking 15 minutes or more. I figured out that System Restore Points were actually timing out before continuing with an otherwise normal installation.

I was banging my head against the wall until I saw this thread. Xfast USB was indeed the culprit and preventing Windows Backup from starting. Thank you very much, hortwort!

X-Fast USB? I've never heard of that. Did that come pre-installed on your systems? Or was it something you downloaded?