Windows Backup Problem

Hi all, I was wondering if anyone could help me out with a problem, namely that Windows Backup doesn't seem to be working atm. When I try to backup, no matter what the files or destination drive, I get the error "the backup did not complete successfully" during the "creating volume shadow copy" phase. When "troubleshooting options" pops up, it says "The requested system device cannot be found" and gives error code 0x80073BC3.

It worked until recently, I have no idea what caused the problem I haven't updated my hardware or anything. Thanks in advance, Michael.

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Open up event viewer - do you see any vss errors in the system log? Filter by error.

@seekermeister - sorry came too late for that link, but thanks for a tip for a very useful website.

@Frostmourne - The only message I come across in event viewer ("information" level) is:

"The oldest shadow copy of volume C: was deleted to keep disk space usage for shadow copies of volume C: below the user defined limit."

I have in the past tried the fix where you reset the vss space to 300MB and then back to max.

Help appreciated, thanks.

Navigate to C:\Windows\Logs\WindowsBackup and find there any *.log files -if these files exist post here

additional:

Open Event Viewer locate to Application and Service Logs\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsBackup\ActionCenter and read all errors in that and post here

classic sections: Applications and System you should also view

Thanks for the reply. There were no .log files in the specified directory, but there were some ETL files, the last of which (WindowsBackup.1.etl) consisted mainly of the letter y with an umlaut, the only bit which made some sense was:

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SxIsCsvFile  FAILED Î  € CfgSV � « Ûé VÇ7B~µ,
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CFileDescriptorEntry::_Initialize ‚ Inb � « Ûé VÇ7B~µ,
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CComponentEntry::_GetComponentVolumesAndFiles ] Ûé VQ � « Ûé VÇ7B~µ,
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CComponentEntry::_Initialize 
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CWriterEntry::_Initialize } VP � « Ûé VÇ7B~µ,
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CSpp::_GatherWriterMetadata s M � « Ûé VÇ7B~µ,
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CSpp::_CreateSnapshotSet ` ÃM � « Ûé VÇ7B~µ,
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CSpp::CreateGroup ë ÿÿT � « Ûé VÇ7B~µ,
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CSdBackupImpl::_CreateSnapshots   « G � « Ûé VÇ7B~µ,
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CSdBackupImpl::Run ú D � « Ûé VÇ7B~µ,
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CSdAsync::OnRun n  « T � « Ûé VÇ7B~µ,
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CFileDescriptorEntry::_Initialize ‚ Geb � « Ûé VÇ7B~µ,
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CComponentEntry::_GetComponentVolumesAndFiles ] Vf[Q � « Ûé VÇ7B~µ,
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CWriterEntry::_Initialize } P � « Ûé VÇ7B~µ,
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CSpp::_GatherWriterMetadata s M � « Ûé VÇ7B~µ,
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CSpp::_CreateSnapshotSet ` ÿÿÿM � « Ûé VÇ7B~µ,
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CSpp::CreateGroup ë « T � « Ûé VÇ7B~µ,
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CSdBackupImpl::_CreateSnapshots  ÿÿÿÿG � « Ûé VÇ7B~µ,
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CSdBackupImpl::Run ú KD � « Ûé VÇ7B~µ,
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SxIsCsvFile  FAILED Î  € ÿÿÿÿV � « Ûé VÇ7B~µ,
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CFileDescriptorEntry::_Initialize ‚ b � « Ûé VÇ7B~µ,
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CComponentEntry::_GetComponentVolumesAndFiles ] } \ Q � « Ûé VÇ7B~µ,
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CComponentEntry::_Initialize 
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CWriterEntry::_Initialize } éKP � « Ûé VÇ7B~µ,
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CSpp::_GatherWriterMetadata s M � « Ûé VÇ7B~µ,
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CSpp::_CreateSnapshotSet ` M � « Ûé VÇ7B~µ,
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CSpp::CreateGroup ë T � « Ûé VÇ7B~µ,
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There were also a few similarly named .etl files, and one called "SystemImage.etl", which again was mainly y umlauts, the only line with any english in it was:

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:bd P P ÿÿÿÿ, �K « u´ß.ðÇV¦Ó••�º ]�;bd P P ÿÿÿÿ, �+ « +ùAò|Æ7´/ا¼M×:=bd P P ÿÿÿÿ, �/ « +ùAò|Æ7´/ا¼M×AAbd P P ÿÿÿÿž �< « +ùAò|Æ7´/ا¼M×YAbd P P \ \ ? \ V o l u m e { 6 3 5 7 5 b c 8 - c 4 b a - 1 1 d e - 9 6 f d - 9 4 6 7 0 c 2 8 4 7 7 a } \ < N U L L > ÿÿ, �= « +ùAò|Æ7´/ا¼M×ZAbd P P ÿÿÿÿ, �+ « +ùAò|Æ7´/ا¼M×Cbd P P ÿÿÿÿ, �/ « +ùAò|Æ7´/ا¼M×àGbd P P ÿÿÿÿž �< « +ùAò|Æ7´/ا¼M×öGbd P P \ \ ? \ V o l u m e { 6 3 5 7 5 b c 8 - c 4 b a - 1 1 d e - 9 6 f d - 9 4 6 7 0 c 2 8 4 7 7 a } \ < N U L L > ÿÿ, �= « +ùAò|Æ7´/ا¼M×÷Gbd P P ÿÿÿÿ, �L « +Ëü�J�ÿ¿Qi«‰<ê! ûGbd P P ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ

In the event viewer/backup/action centre the only errors ("information" level) are "100" and "101".

Thanks.

*.etl files pack and attache to post.As you can see cannot read it through notepad,wordpad etc,nobody know alens alphabet.SDK is needed to analyze & read it correctly :)

Ok thanks, here are the files. There was also file called "Backup Files 2009-12-03 000105_error.txt" but that was empty.

Questions:

1.Are you sure you didn't have any error related to VSS in Application section,maybe it have status only warning not error.I googled and in my opinion you should have error ID 12290

2.Do you have encrypted disk ? backup fails, VSS event log errors, but vssadmin reveals no errors

Here you are manual how to diagnose unidentified backup issue
Blog of the EMEA SBS Team : Troubleshooting VSS and Backup

I rechecked "applications" just after trying a new backup, and result I found some errors. Not the one you specified, but I get several 8193s from VSS, and a Windows Backup error, saying the same as the original error message, "The requested system device cannot be found", error code 0x80073BC3. I would put it down to a faulty disk or something, but this happens on both my HDDs, which work to all other intents and purposes.

The disk is not encrypted, but I'll check out those links you provided. Thanks again.