Creating a System Image Fails

[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:

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:

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]

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:

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:

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]

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]

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

 

[kornfan71]

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

 

[computersplus]

try this

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]

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]

some things to try

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]

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 Win7 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]

FAT

are you trying to backup to the FAT drive?

 

[computersplus]

Bootloader

Windows 7 should have been able to handle the multi boot with out the need for individual boot loaders this over complicates the process IMHO

 

[Greg S]

-This one is tricky. I have a multiboot system, with Windows XP and Windows 7 on a disk together.

Did you shrink the drive and create a new partition with the unallocated space using something like Gparted Live?

 

[kornfan71]

I'm trying to backup to an NTFS drive. I've tried backing up to other drives...that's not the problem.
As far as the way my computer boots, I've had problems when using Grub2, Windows 7 and Windows XP together, so I prefer to split up the Win7 and XP bootloaders, rather than have XP load from Windows 7's.
Greg, I did use GParted to set everything up. Do you think that could be a problem? Better yet, how would I go about fixing it?

 

[Greg S]

Greg, I did use GParted to set everything up. Do you think that could be a problem? Better yet, how would I go about fixing it?

I don't know. I used it as well is the reason I ask and yes Windows Backup or System Image willl not work for me. My preferred Imaging app will not work either. It shows C partition as an unknown file system with total space and used space being the same amount, all used up. I've done quite a bit of searching, tried all approaches and nothing works. Macrium, Paragon, Drive Image XML are not an option. They didn't work right even when I only had the one partition with XP. Let me re-phrase, they would partially work. With one of them, the boot disk wouldn't work, another the boot disk worked but wouldn't read the drive where the backups were and the other one could never verify that the image backup was good.

 

[Greg S]

Well update for me! I uninstalled Eaz-Fix/Drive Image, rebooted and Win 7 System Image worked, I think,lol. My USB storage drive just got 25gigs smaller but dang if I can find where the image is stored. There is a folder named WindowsImageBackup, but it shows 0 bytes. Any ideas?

 

[drewy]

Unable to create image or backup

Win 7 system image fails
Hi

I have a completly fresh install of Win 7 Ultimate 32 bit and I am unable to create an image or backup to another drive. A Volume Shadow Copy Service failed (0x0807800A1) and the writer experienced a non transient error (0x800423F4). I have checked VSS and SPP in services and both are running. Oddly I have 2 laptops (Toshiba and Sony) both running Win 7 Ultimate 32 bit and both are able to create a DVD image and backup to another drive. All that is installed on the drive apart from OS is Office 2007, and no virus checker installed.
I purchased Win 7 after seeiing how the 2 works laptops performed. Surly Microsoft realise by now that they have a problem yet seem to be doing nothing. I have tried the various suggestions on this forum but am still unable to get it to work.

If any one can help I would be gratefull.

 

[kornfan71]

Well, I finally found my issue. I have since switched to Win7 Home Premium x64 (and got rid of XP), but ran into the same issue. Turns out Windows wants to be the boot drive (my Linux drive was boot). I swapped that and all is well. (Windows can even use hybrid sleep now, which it could also not do beforehand.)

So, now I just need to figure out how I can get this going so that GRUB is my bootloader, but Windows 7 still can do its thing.....Urg.

Windows is too picky!

 

[Greg S]

Well, I finally found my issue. I have since switched to Win7 Home Premium x64 (and got rid of XP), but ran into the same issue. Turns out Windows wants to be the boot drive (my Linux drive was boot). I swapped that and all is well. (Windows can even use hybrid sleep now, which it could also not do beforehand.)

So, now I just need to figure out how I can get this going so that GRUB is my bootloader, but Windows 7 still can do its thing.....Urg.

Windows is too picky!

Are you saying that Linux was your C:? I'm kinda curious about this since at the beginning, I tried to do the Windows System Image but it would fail everytime with the same error that's been posted all over the net. I'm dual booting XP(C partition) and Win 7(E partition). I attributed my failures to the Drive Image app of Eaz-Fix system restore. I uninstalled Eaz-Fix which in turn uninstalled it's Drive Image app and was able to then use Windows System Image for backups.

 

[kornfan71]

No, Win7 was still my C:.
Here's how my computer was:

Linux drive:
MBR: GRUB
P1 - FAT32
Extended:
P2 - Ext4 -- Grub files here
P3 - Ext4
P4 - Ext3
P5 - Swap

Then the Windows drive:
MBR: Windows bootmgr
P1 - NTFS (system reserved) bootmgr files here
P2 - NTFS (Win7)
P3 - NTFS (Files)
(I set it up with bootmgr in the MBR so I could at least use Windows if I ran into a GRUB issue.)

The Linux drive was the first HDD to boot from in BIOS (DVD is still the first boot device).
Windows was second.
The boot order didn't change the drive letters at all, AFAIK.

I would just chainload bootmgr from GRUB when I wanted to use Windows.

Well, now the Windows drive is my first boot HDD (again, DVD is still 1st), and I'm using NeoGrub (in EasyBCD Beta 2) to chainload Grub2 when I want to use Linux...

Windows doesn't share well with others....

 

[adverze]

system image is not allowed to be created on a FAT drive right? that might be the source of the problem