New
#1
BSOD volsnap.sys error and steadily decreasing memory
Hi,
Anyways, a few days ago I experienced a blue screen (the reason I'm only posting now is because I originally posted at Tom's Hardware--because I didn't know about these forums--and received no answers). It indicated that the problem was Error 25--volsnap.sys--the text of the error in Event Viewer is as follows:
The shadow copies of volume C: were deleted because the shadow copy storage could not grow in time. Consider reducing the IO load on the system or choose a shadow copy storage volume that is not being shadow copied.
My computer is a Lenovo X1 Carbon running Windows 7 Home Premium.
I actually experienced this about a month ago and relocated the backup to an external drive--assuming this is what shadow copies are. Apparently that isn't the case.
Anyways, since undergoing this blue screen, I've run the following checks/scans on all volumes:
-chkdsk (both /f and /r)
-fsutil dirty query
-hard drive scan through wmic (and the built in Lenovo function for checking hard drive health, as well as other components)
-avast! antivirus
-Malwarebytes
All of these have come up clean.
I also tried to run vssadmin shadow storage to check that status out and possibly relocate the diff area--however even when I tried to run the function as an administrator it was blocked by group policy and I have no idea how to change that or if it would even help. Anyways, that's what the Microsoft service thing told me to do when I checked the Event Log Online Help link in Event Viewer. Obviously that didn't come to anything.
For context: the last few days my c: drive has steadily been losing storage space--suddenly jumping down to about 3 GB of space and then getting lower and lower. I ran disk cleanup and went via WinDirStat to locate and remove redundant files. This got me back up to 15 GB at the highest and it continued to trickle down. I didn't notice this last time the volsnap.sys blue screen happened, but I also hadn't checked. This time the Lenovo Solution Center warned me that my storage space was getting really low. I hadn't downloaded any programs or anything in a really long time and backup was going to an external drive.
After I turned the computer on after the blue screen (note that currently everything is functioning perfectly, just like it always has--there's no slowness or anything) I noticed that my available space on the c: drive had jumped up to 46 GB or so. I mean, this makes sense I guess because all the shadow storage copies were deleted--which probably means that it was shadow storage that was taking up so much space. That also means that it filled up just in the last month since the last time this happened--after which I evidently misunderstood and therefore failed to fix the problem. Oops.
In addition--both times this has happened Windows has attempted and failed to install updates the morning preceding the crash.
Another weird coincidence is that both times this occurred while I was simultaneously writing an email (via gmail) and running a MozyHome backup.
(Note--since this occurred a few days ago, the memory has steadily been going down. Currently it is only at 36 GB)
I don't know how much of this information is useful, but I've tried to include absolutely everything I can think of.
Would relocating the Diff Area for Volume Shadow Service be a good solution? If so, how do I actually access this function given that group policy (I'm also not totally sure what this is or means) won't let me do it even as an administrator?
Is there any other solution I'm overlooking?
I'm just really afraid of this happening again while I'm working on something important and losing important data. I'm a grad student and constantly working on papers and lesson plans and proposals, etc. so having a functioning computer is absolutely critical. I save frequently, but sometimes you're just caught off-guard.
Thank you so much anyone reading this for bearing with me for so long. I'm really just trying to be thorough.
Any help is extremely appreciated.
Again--thank you so much!