Solved macrium reflect not compatible with 4k drives?

[Deleted695]

I use macrium reflect free with a 2tbyte 512bytes/sector drive and it works.
I tried macrium reflect free on a new drive 3tbyte 4k/sector and it gave an error:
Error during the last asynchronous operation.
- Returned HRESULT = 0x8004230f
- Error text: VSS_E_UNEXPECTED_PROVIDER_ERROR
- Please re-run VSHADOW.EXE with the /tracing option to get more details
Completing the backup (BackupComplete) ...
ERROR: COM call "m_pVssObject->BackupComplete(&pAsync)" failed.
- Returned HRESULT = 0x80042301
- Error text: VSS_E_BAD_STATE

does macrium reflect free not work with 4k drives?Does this mean you can use reflect only on 2tb drives or below?

 

[strollin]

What were you trying to do when you encountered the error? Was it when you tried to install the software or when you tried to backup or what?

You might have better luck contacting the makers of Macrium Reflect. Here's a link to their trouble shooting section on their website: Troubleshooting - KnowledgeBase - Macrium Reflect Knowledgebase

They also have a forum that you could ask your question on.

 

[Deleted695]

Hi strollin,
Thanks for your answer.
In the knowledge base i've found the answer:
VSS fails due to disks with a non-standard sector size - KnowledgeBase - Macrium Reflect Knowledgebase
I suppose the standard size is 512 bytes/sectornly this is supported

remark:to put a message on the reflect forum you need an account and you can get only an account when you buy reflect

 

[Deleted695]

maybe i have to take contact with western digital because in the reflect knowledge base there is a note some wd discs may be formatted to " windows vista compatibility" with 512e sector which gives no VSS error
the formatting would be perfomed with a wd software

 

[OvenMaster]

This may shed some light on the subject:

v5: Incompatible Disk Selected (Version 5.x)
Incompatible Disk Selected - KnowledgeBase - Macrium Reflect Knowledgebase (Version 6.x)

The only situation that will not work properly is putting a saved Reflect image using 512 or 512e(mulation) sectors (saved to Drive X:\, for example) onto a 4096 byte target (C:\) drive. You can save the image but you can't actually use it when you need it.
This is why I made sure to buy an older-style 500GB WD 512 byte sector drive to save Macrium images, in order to match my 160GB WD 512 byte sector boot drive. I didn't want to take any chances with so-called "512 emulation" or 4096 byte sectors on a new drive.

 

[Deleted695]

The documentation speaks only about source and target disc but my problem is none of them: my problem is the disc where I save the image file on during the backup.
This saving gives a windows shadow copy error with a 4K disc to save.
I have no "incompatible disc selected" error.
I've tried to backup an image on the 4K drive with windows 8.1 and that works.
For me it's difficult to use a small 500Gbyte drive because de c: drive to image is 650Gbyte (450Gbyte used): so i could take only 1 image.

 

[DavidE]

From an elevated command prompt (Run as administrator) enter this command:
vssadmin list providers
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/783-elevated-command-prompt.html

If you have multiple providers listed that could be part of your problem, post a screen print showing what you have.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/9733-screenshots-files-upload-post-seven-forums.html

I'm on 8.1 right now, but here is an example of what i see for providers, i only have one:

 

[RolandJS]

If the Windows Volume Shadow Service/Copy needs to be fixed, in Safe Mode with Networking, ran tweaking.com's Windows Repair (All in One), VSS checkmarked, and maybe even items #26 & 27. NoelDP brought up an excellent point in another thread about Everyone permission rights during WR's run, you'll have to search for his comment.

 

[Deleted695]

I have also only one provider: see my attached cmd screenshot.
My windows 7 home laptop macrium reflect works with a 512e drive.So i think there is nothing wrong with windows shadow copy.Maybe windows 7 SP1 shadow copy is not compatible with 4k drives.
I want to use the 4k drive because i want to keep the images on 512e drive which is full.
In the following tekst:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2510009
they say 4k drives are not supported in windows 7!
but the shop sellers pretends the wd drive my passport 3tb is compatible with windows 7
i can paste (little)files on the 4k drive with windows 7 file explorer

 

[DavidE]

If the suggestion by RolandJS doesn't help, there is a lot of documentation in the Macrium Help Troubleshooting section for VSS errors.
Troubleshooting - KnowledgeBase - Macrium Reflect Knowledgebase.

From what i read there, I'm not sure if MR will work with 4K sectors.

I have a 3TB HD with 512 sectors.
I don't use USB drives, i prefer the speed of SATA.
I have removable trays so i can pop SATA bare drives in and out easily.

Maybe you can return the drive and exchange it for one with 512 sectors.
You might consider getting a HD docking station so you can use OEM bare drives for backups/offline storage.

 

[DavidE]

I forgot to mention, in the Macrium GUI menu click on
Other Tasks > Edit Defaults > Advanced tab > VSS options

There are some settings there you could play with and see if they help, such as "Exclude all VSS writers..."

Personally i would not trust a backup created without VSS writers until i successfully restored it.
For testing like that, i backup and restore a small partition that is not important.

 

[Deleted695]

Exculde vss writers

Hi Davide,
I saw your message about the reflect option "exclusion of vss writers" in my email box,not on the sevenforum site.
I have tried that option but i got the same Vss error as behoren from which the knowledge base says the cause is probably non-standaard sector size.
I think i am going to format to 512emulation.I've asked the needed software to western digital

 

[DavidE]

Hi louis14,

Let me know what you find out about this.
I'm very interested in knowing, i'm looking at buying some new HD's/SSD's right now.

This 4K sector size issue is new to me, and i'd like to know what specs to look for when buying a new HD/SSD.

FOR ME, there is little value in buying a larger HD if it won't work with Macrium (or other) backup imaging programs.

 

[Deleted695]

Attention:i believe only western digital can format 4k nativ drive to 512e (4096bytes physical sector,512 bytes logical sector) because it needs a special firmware

 

[DavidE]

Thanks louis14,

fyi, my 3TB HD with 512 sector size is a Seagate.

 

[kado897]

FYI. I successfully image with MR from a 512b sector drive to a WD Elements 4GB 4k sector drive and have this morning successfully restored one of those images.

 

[Deleted695]

hi kado897,
which os do you use to backup this image?
BTW I don't know the difference between 512e and 512b

 

[kado897]

512b - 512 bytes
512e - 512 bytes emulated.

I use Macrium Reflect.

I think it is OK in the direction I use (c: drive is 512 backup drive 4096) but not the reverse.

 

[Deleted695]

I've made a Back-up to an image file with reflect from a a c: 512e drive to a 4k drive drive on a Windows 8.1 computer and that succeededs but i have a Vss error in the same situation on a Windows 7 sp1 computer.

 

[kado897]

According to Macrium that should work. Perhaps you have a different problem. VSS is not an area I'm comfortable with.