Solved Shadow Copy Creation Failure (0x81000101) VSS running

[I Am Nobody]

About two weeks ago an internal program from HP warned me about an imminent HDD failure and advised me to make a backup. From that point on the system has been running slower than normally.

Today i got an external HDD and tried to create a system backup image, and subsequently a normal backup. Both operations failed with the Error message:
"The creation of a shadow copy has timed out. Try this operation again. (0x81000101)"

I checked other solutions and have determined that most of the solutions don't apply since the Volume Shadow Service is up and running. I have no previous restoration points that could be corrupt, and the volume i am trying to do the back up on is compatible with VSS.

Currently i am completely at a loss about what could cause the program to fail at the same point in the process all the time.
I am hesitant to assume that it is a simple I/O error, because the HDD does not seem to have failed yet, since i can perform all tasks (albeit slowly) and access any file.

 

[whs]

I would try an imageing program like free Macrium.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/73828-imaging-free-macrium.html?ltr=I

 

[mjf]

You could also try running diagnostics on the HP internal HDD. You can use Windows checkdisk or the HDD manufacturers diagnostics (you'll need to find the HDD HP are using).

 

[andrew129260]

You also drag and drop your user folder from C\users onto the external, thus backing up all your files.