Windows 7: Creating a System Image Fails

kornfan71 · 03 Jan 2010

Hi all.
Well, I was trying to make a system image in the Backup and Restore center today and ran into an interesting error (see attached screenshot). I went into the Event Viewer and all of the warnings/errors regarding VSS and SPP come down to an error with the ASR Writer.
Here is what the event viewer says:

Code:

Volume Shadow Copy Service warning: ASR writer Error 0x80073bc3.  hr = 0x00000000, The operation completed successfully.
. 

Operation:
   PrepareForBackup event

Context:
   Execution Context: ASR Writer
   Execution Context: Writer
   Writer Class Id: {be000cbe-11fe-4426-9c58-531aa6355fc4}
   Writer Name: ASR Writer
   Writer Instance ID: {dce61b04-8d8f-4c5b-a88f-e29adb1f70a7}

Error-specific details:
   ASR Writer: The requested system device cannot be found. (0x80073BC3)

This one error isn't the only error given, but it pretty much sums up the others. All of them refer to the ASR Writer giving error code 0x80073BC3.

This error is then given by the backup utility:

Code:

The backup operation that started at '‎2010‎-‎01‎-‎04T00:37:24.341000000Z'
has failed because the Volume Shadow Copy Service operation to create a shadow
copy of the volumes being backed up failed with following error code '2155348129'.
Please review the event details for a solution, and then rerun the backup operation
once the issue is resolved.

I've searched around, and I mostly found problems with people using Windows Server 2008. However, I have yet to find my problem. The only other thing I saw was to run "vssadmin list writers" in a command line, which gave me a ton of stuff, with the entry for the ASR Writer saying it had a "non-retryable error."

The problem seems to be limited to the backup utility, because I can make a System Restore point just fine.

What's going on???

zigzag3143 · 04 Jan 2010

Quote: Originally Posted by kornfan71

Hi all.
Well, I was trying to make a system image in the Backup and Restore center today and ran into an interesting error (see attached screenshot). I went into the Event Viewer and all of the warnings/errors regarding VSS and SPP come down to an error with the ASR Writer.
Here is what the event viewer says:

Code:

Volume Shadow Copy Service warning: ASR writer Error 0x80073bc3.  hr = 0x00000000, The operation completed successfully.
. 

Operation:
   PrepareForBackup event

Context:
   Execution Context: ASR Writer
   Execution Context: Writer
   Writer Class Id: {be000cbe-11fe-4426-9c58-531aa6355fc4}
   Writer Name: ASR Writer
   Writer Instance ID: {dce61b04-8d8f-4c5b-a88f-e29adb1f70a7}

Error-specific details:
   ASR Writer: The requested system device cannot be found. (0x80073BC3)

This one error isn't the only error given, but it pretty much sums up the others. All of them refer to the ASR Writer giving error code 0x80073BC3.

This error is then given by the backup utility:

Code:

The backup operation that started at '‎2010‎-‎01‎-‎04T00:37:24.341000000Z'
has failed because the Volume Shadow Copy Service operation to create a shadow
copy of the volumes being backed up failed with following error code '2155348129'.
Please review the event details for a solution, and then rerun the backup operation
once the issue is resolved.

I've searched around, and I mostly found problems with people using Windows Server 2008. However, I have yet to find my problem. The only other thing I saw was to run "vssadmin list writers" in a command line, which gave me a ton of stuff, with the entry for the ASR Writer saying it had a "non-retryable error."

The problem seems to be limited to the backup utility, because I can make a System Restore point just fine.

What's going on???

HI KF and welcome

MS says "
We know what the issue is now. There are a couple of buggy BIOSes which
change the disk enumeration order based on the presence of a bootable DVD.
As one customer reported, when he boots with DVD in drive it works, but when
the DVD is not in the drive, System Restore doesn't work."

Is your bios up to date?

Ken J+

btw just google the error for more info

kornfan71 · 04 Jan 2010

Hi zigzag,
Thanks for the response. My BIOS is the latest version (F6). I also tried the DVD workaround, but I still got the same error. I was looking at Google for a solution, but the DVD thing was the only one I really found....

artinusa · 07 Jan 2010

Hi kornfan71 ...did you ever resolve the issue I have the same problem...I have also searched hi and low..nothing as yet..

kornfan71 · 08 Jan 2010

No, not yet. I'm glad to know I'm not the only one with a non-server edition that is having problems...

computersplus · 08 Jan 2010

Read This

check if Volume shadow copy and windows backup services are running and set to automatic in Services Console.

1. Click on Start, type Services in Start Search. When the Services page is open, scroll the page to find Volume Shadow Copy and Backup service.

2. Right click on them and check if they are started.

3. If the services are disabled, start the services and set it to Automatic and check if the issue gets resolved.

If the services are running and you get Error Message: “0x8007007B - The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect”, file name or volume label has special characters.

The system does not accept the keyboard combination Alt+0 through Alt+32 or the following characters: \\ \\ / [ ] : | < > + ; = . ? "

This gives the system an invalid path, so please correct the file name or volume label and make sure the username you are logged into has no spaces or special characters and then try to perform the backup.

It would also be caused due to Operating System shell corruption. If your file name and volume does not have any special characters and you are getting this error message, Create a new user account and perform the backup from the new user account and let us know if it helps.

kornfan71 · 12 Jan 2010

Thanks for the post computersplus.
I enabled both the Windows Backup and Volume Shadow Copy services, and set them both to start automatically, but the problem still occurs. I also attempted to backup from a new user account, but the error was still present. My volume names have no special characters; they are all just plain text.

Any other ideas on what the problem could be?

computersplus · 12 Jan 2010

here are some things to try

make sure SATA controller in Bios is set to IDE not RAID not AHCI

in the boot device order mark only the main OS drive as being bootable disable the rest of the optical drives and or hard drives from boot device priority

kornfan71 · 13 Jan 2010

Hi again,
-SATA controller is set to IDE, and my mobo doesn't support RAID anyway, so that's a 'check.'
-This one is tricky. I have a multiboot system, with Windows XP and Windows 7 on a disk together. I have each installed with their own dedicated bootloader, and XP is on the MBR. The best I can do is use GRUB to remap the hard drives so that the Windows disk is the first disk. (I also removed any "unneeded" devices from the boot list.)
Result: Windows Backup tags my Windows 7 volume, my WinXP volume, and a FAT32 storage volume all as System, then refuses to backup since one of them is FAT32. I cannot, however, uncheck the FAT32 volume....I think I'll put things back to how they were....

computersplus · 13 Jan 2010

are you trying to backup to the FAT drive?

Windows 7: Creating a System Image Fails

Creating a System Image Fails problems?