Cannot get Windows Backup to complete successfully! Error 0x81000037

[PatrickGSR94]

Back in 2015 I set up a USB 3.0 external HDD for backups, and used Windows Backup for awhile to make weekly backups of the system. It worked for a short while, then the backups started failing, and I never got around to fixing it. I went over a year with no real backup in place.

Now I'm trying to get the backups going again, and so far have been unsuccessful at every turn.

I have removed all previous contents from the USB drive and reformatted the drive several times today. Every time I run Windows Backup and set it up to run at 1 AM every day, it starts the backup immediately I guess to create the initial backup, and after 1-2 hours it errors out with error 0x81000037, and the message: "The backup was not successful. The error is: Windows Backup failed while trying to read from the shadow copy on one of the volumes being backed up. Please check in the event logs for any relevant errors. (0x81000037)."

I did some reading and thought the problem was caused by choosing to backup the root C: drive plus several of the subfolders on C:. I tried NOT checking the root C:, and instead only selected a few of the subfolders. That didn't work.

I tried not backup up C: at all, and instead only backing up my user profile folder and the entire D: data HDD, plus checked the option to make a system image of C:. Still no good.

Any other suggestions what to try? I had a catastrophic HDD failure in 2009 with no backup in place, and I'd rather not go through that again.

 

[Ranger4]

This MS website might help you. Read through it & follow some of the links as well.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/kb/973455

 

[PatrickGSR94]

Yeah tried that, there were no "Mounted Volumes" found at any of the listed junction points.

I made sure VSC and the Backup services were all running, turned off Windows Defender and unplugged my network cable, and finally the backup completed after running about 8 hours.

Now I seem to be having an issue where Windows is making the tone when removing a device, over and over at random times, and it's popping up a message saying I need to format Drive F (the USB backup drive) before I can use it, with choices to Format or Cancel. I keep hitting Cancel, and checking Windows Explorer, and the F drive comes up just fine. Not sure why it keeps giving me the message that it needs to be formatted.

 

[SIW2]

Might be time to consider a clean reinstall - or possibly a refresh ( repair install).

Microsoft Windows and Office ISO Download Tool - HeiDoc.net

View attachment Dism++x86x64.zip

View attachment Dism++x86.zip

View attachment Dism++x64.zip

 

[PatrickGSR94]

Yeah I've been thinking of doing that. I built the system almost 4 years ago May 2013, and have not reloaded or reformatted anything since then.