Macrium Reflect V6 Clone Failed & System Volume Permissions

I have two identical computers... Both DELL Inspirons 3847 (16 Gb RAM)... running WINDOWS 7 PRO 64 bit - SP1. Both computers have two 1 Tb hard drives installed. Both computers also have the free edition of Macrium Reflect Version 6.3.1745 installed since 2017. I have routinely Cloned Computer #1's (C:\) drive to its second hard drive and have never had a problem doing so.


Only recently have I started using Computer #2 enough to warrant the Cloning of it's (C:\) drive to its second hard drive, just in case of problems. Unfortunately the cloning process on Computer #2 does not complete successfully with Reflect reporting...


Clone Failed - Read Failed - 13 - Permission Denied - 32 ... repeatedly, at the same point (68%) in the cloning process.


After researching what little I could find on the internet, I ran CHKDSK on both of the hard drives in Computer #2 and found no problems on either drive. I also ran DISK PART > CLEAN ALL on the target drive which also completed successfully. I also disabled my AVG Free antivirus program and tried the clone again, and again.


Unfortunately, the Clone continued to fail at the same 68% progress with the same error message(s).


Clone ID - C839E1B5A23BAF41
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Dismounting drives
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Starting Clone - 18 October 2023 19:05
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Creating volume snapshots
Volume Snapshots Created
Y:\ \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy13
C:\ \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy14
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Source Disk: MBR Disk 1 [54E2A020] - WDC WD10EZEX-75M2NA0 01.0 <931.51 GB>
Geometry: 121601\63\512
BPB: 255\63\512
Destination Disk: MBR Disk 2 [130AACDD] - TOSHIBA DT01ACA100 MS2O <931.51 GB>

Clone Type: Intelligent sector copy
Verify: Y
Delta: N
SSD Trim: Y
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Operation 1 of 3
Copy Partition: 1 - DellUtility
16-bit FAT 116 KB / 39.2 MB
Destination:
Start Sector: 63
End Sector: 80,324
Partition Type: Primary
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Processing: \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE0
Clone completed successfully
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Operation 2 of 3
Copy Partition: 2 - RECOVERY (Y:)
NTFS 7.94 GB / 11.73 GB
Destination:
Start Sector: 81,920
End Sector: 24,686,591
Partition Type: Active
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Checking file system
Processing: \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy13
Clone completed successfully
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Operation 3 of 3
Copy Partition: 3 - OS (C:)
NTFS 253.94 GB / 919.74 GB
Destination:
Start Sector: 24,686,592
End Sector: 1,953,521,663
Partition Type: Primary
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Checking file system
Processing: \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy14
Gathering Windows Events
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Clone failed - Read failed - 13 - Permission denied - 32
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I/O Performance: Read 2.7 Gb/s - Write 2.6 Gb/s
Macrium Reflect Free Edition for non-commercial use v6.3.1745

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I then had a look at the Reflect Cloning Logs which seem to indicate a problem with one or more "Windows Events"... one of the recent Reflect logs is copied below... To my untrained eyes, all seems to proceed normally until reaching "Windows Events."

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(Gathering writer metadata...)
(Waiting for the asynchronous operation to finish...)
Initialize writer metadata ...
- Get exclude files
- Enumerate components
- Get file list descriptors
- Get database descriptors
- Get log descriptors
- Get exclude files
- Enumerate components
- Get file list descriptors
- Get database descriptors
- Get log descriptors
- Get exclude files
- Enumerate components
- Get file list descriptors
- Get database descriptors
- Get log descriptors
- Get exclude files
- Enumerate components
- Get file list descriptors
- Get database descriptors
- Get log descriptors
- Get exclude files
- Enumerate components
- Get exclude files
- Enumerate components
- Get exclude files
- Enumerate components
- Get file list descriptors
- Get database descriptors
- Get log descriptors
- Get exclude files
- Enumerate components
- Get file list descriptors
- Get database descriptors
- Get log descriptors
Discover directly excluded components ...
- Excluding writer '' since it has no selected components for restore.
- Excluding writer '' since it has no selected components for restore.
- Excluding writer 'MSSearch Service Writer' since it has no selected components for restore.
- Excluding writer 'Shadow Copy Optimization Writer' since it has no selected components for restore.
Discover components that reside outside the shadow set ...
Discover all excluded components ...
Discover excluded writers ...
Discover explicitly included components ...
Verifying explicitly specified writers/components ...
Select explicitly included components ...
* Writer 'Task Scheduler Writer':
- Add component \TasksStore
* Writer 'VSS Metadata Store Writer':
- Add component \WriterMetadataStore
* Writer 'Performance Counters Writer':
- Add component \PerformanceCounters
* Writer 'WMI Writer':
- Add component \WMI
* Writer 'COM+ REGDB Writer':
- Add component \COM+ REGDB
* Writer 'Registry Writer':
- Add component \Registry
Creating shadow set {8765411b-24e5-4aad-917e-35c3081d840f} ...
- Adding volume \\?\Volume{045f0d44-b64e-11e4-bb13-806e6f6e6963}\ [] to the shadow set...
- Adding volume \\?\Volume{045f0d45-b64e-11e4-bb13-806e6f6e6963}\ [C:\] to the shadow set...
Preparing for backup ...
(Waiting for the asynchronous operation to finish...)
(Waiting for the asynchronous operation to finish...)
Creating the shadow (DoSnapshotSet) ...
(Waiting for the asynchronous operation to finish...)
(Waiting for the asynchronous operation to finish...)
Shadow copy set succesfully created.
Saving the backup components document ...


List of created shadow copies:


Querying all shadow copies with the SnapshotSetID {8765411b-24e5-4aad-917e-35c3081d840f} ...


* SNAPSHOT ID = {e2ffbc37-a32d-4b40-b68c-e9c9c0590bce} ...
- Shadow copy Set: {8765411b-24e5-4aad-917e-35c3081d840f}
- Original count of shadow copies = 2
- Original Volume name: \\?\Volume{045f0d45-b64e-11e4-bb13-806e6f6e6963}\ [C:\]
- Creation Time: 10/18/2023 7:05:40 PM
- Shadow copy device name: \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy14
- Originating machine: B4MJ942
- Service machine: B4MJ942
- Not Exposed
- Provider id: {b5946137-7b9f-4925-af80-51abd60b20d5}
- Attributes: Auto_Release Differential


* SNAPSHOT ID = {0c98517c-0fe7-48f7-9ca1-5e379d0bf981} ...
- Shadow copy Set: {8765411b-24e5-4aad-917e-35c3081d840f}
- Original count of shadow copies = 2
- Original Volume name: \\?\Volume{045f0d44-b64e-11e4-bb13-806e6f6e6963}\ []
- Creation Time: 10/18/2023 7:05:40 PM
- Shadow copy device name: \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy13
- Originating machine: B4MJ942
- Service machine: B4MJ942
- Not Exposed
- Provider id: {b5946137-7b9f-4925-af80-51abd60b20d5}
- Attributes: Auto_Release Differential


Completing the backup (BackupComplete) ...
(Waiting for the asynchronous operation to finish...)
(Waiting for the asynchronous operation to finish...)


Windows Events
*****************************
Date 10/18/2023 7:05:38 PM
Type Warning
Event 12348
Source VSS


Volume Shadow Copy Service warning: VSS was denied access to the root of volume \\?\Volume{eef0e62f-6d0f-11ee-8f0d-3468952fe602}\. Denying administrators from accessing volume roots can cause many unexpected failures, and will prevent VSS from functioning properly. Check security on the volume, and try the operation again.


Operation:
Automatically choosing a diff-area volume
Processing EndPrepareSnapshots


Context:
Execution Context: System Provider


*****************************
Date 10/18/2023 7:05:38 PM
Type Warning
Event 12348
Source VSS


Volume Shadow Copy Service warning: VSS was denied access to the root of volume \\?\Volume{eef0e62f-6d0f-11ee-8f0d-3468952fe602}\. Denying administrators from accessing volume roots can cause many unexpected failures, and will prevent VSS from functioning properly. Check security on the volume, and try the operation again.


Operation:
Automatically choosing a diff-area volume
Processing EndPrepareSnapshots


Context:
Execution Context: System Provider
*****************************
Date 10/18/2023 7:05:37 PM
Type Warning
Event 12348
Source VSS


Volume Shadow Copy Service warning: VSS was denied access to the root of volume \\?\Volume{eef0e62f-6d0f-11ee-8f0d-3468952fe602}\. Denying administrators from accessing volume roots can cause many unexpected failures, and will prevent VSS from functioning properly. Check security on the volume, and try the operation again.


Operation:
Removing auto-release shadow copies
Loading provider


Context:
Execution Context: System Provider
*********************************************

I can't pretend to be all that familiar with Windows Security and Permissions but after searching for and finding the System Volume Information folder and forcing my way in to access the previously mentioned "access is denied" folder as Administrator, I determined that the permissions on Computer #2's System Volume Info folder, sub-folders, and files, were essentially the same (to my untrained eyes) as the similar System Volume Info folder, sub-folders, and files as those on Computer #1 where cloning has always completed successfully.


I am at a loss to understand what's going on or any clue as to solving the problem. There is precious little info on Reflect V6 on the internet anymore and none at all on the Macrium Reflect Support forum with respect to Reflect V6.


Apparently, Reflect was unable to read Volume{eef0e62f-6d0f-11ee-8f0d-3468952fe602} because Permissions were Denied. Unfortunately I was unable to change or even access the permissions on the specified Volume as I am not the owner and the current owner is unknown. I was somewhat intimidated by the Windows warning about changing an object's owner and I backed out of the System Volume folder, hopefully without changing anything.


I apologize for the long read but I thought the details I provided would outweigh the possibility that the long read would put anyone off from trying to help me solve this problem.
Any guidance or suggestions that anyone can provide will be much appreciated.
ZT