Solved Starting Windows Backup... ... ... ...

[hortwort]

I'm hoping someone may have some insight into what's going on here. I'm running on a new machine (the first I've built myself) with a fresh copy of Win 7 Pro on it. I've hardly installed anything at this point, just things that came with my motherboard, a few games, and openoffice.

The problem is that when I click to "set up backup", a window pops up saying "Starting Windows Backup: Please wait while Windows Backup starts". I let that window stay open for an hour before having to close it with the task manager. Clicking the cancel button just makes it say "canceling..." indefinitely.

Things I've tried:

1. Clean boot with msconfig
2. sfc /scannow
3. Ensuring that the backup and shadowcopy services are set to auto
4. Flipped a couple settings in the uefi, bios, or whatever it's called these days
5. Spread a circle of salt around my desk and said a prayer :sarc:

I would simply move on to another backup program, but I have a feeling that there is some underlying issue here. Windows installer seems to be *very* slow sometimes. For example: When installing openoffice, I was staring at a "preparing to install" window for about half an hour while I did my laundry.

 

[hortwort]

:banghead:
Well, that was an ordeal.

After failing to open Windows Backup on my new computer for so long, I sought out different software, spending hours reading reviews. I settled on trying Cobian.

In troubleshooting *that* program (which refused to work for me either), I determined that things seemed to run more smoothly when I had a non-administrator username. I decided it would be a good idea for security as well, so went ahead and downgraded my account to a non-administrator.

Guess what starts up just fine now! Windows Backup sprung to life on the first try!
I am very annoyed. I didn't even change my username, just downgraded my privileges. I really didn't expect anything to change except for it to yell at me more often when I tried to install software.

 

[The Howling Wolves]

Don't take it too seriously horwort!
We all have had our share of bruises on our foreheads for doing something silly!

 

[mjf]

so went ahead and downgraded my account to a non-administrator.

Guess what starts up just fine now! Windows Backup sprung to life on the first try!
I am very annoyed. I didn't even change my username, just downgraded my privileges. I really didn't expect anything to change except for it to yell at me more often when I tried to install software.

Maybe it's early - I don't get it.

 

[hortwort]

Alright, I'm bumping this because this problem has reared its ugly head again. I figured out what was slowing down my windows installer: the creation of restore points. After a lot of troubleshooting, disabling system restore allowed me to install things quickly as they should. But... I like system restore, so I'd like to figure out what's wrong.

The first thing I notice when looking into configuring system restore is that the amount of memory that was allocated to by default was 0! "Aha!", I thought, "This is the problem, I'll just allocate some memory and it'll work fine!" No joy. After giving it a healthy 100GB to work with and clicking the "create restore point" button, it sits there for several minutes then comes back with a message that Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) has timed out.

Again, I tried a clean boot and disabling my virus protection with no success. I look at the Resource Monitor while it's working -- not too much is going on.

HELLPPPP!!!!
I'll give out cookies for help.

 

[hortwort]

I'm not a happy hort_wort.
I just finished a repair reinstall of Win 7 Pro 64-bit, and I'm *still* having the same issues.

I try to create a system restore point, I get a message that the "creation of a shadow copy has times out." (0x81000101)

I try to open windows backup and the screen still indefinitely says "starting windows backup".

Also of note, when I run the command "vssadmin list writers", there is no response after half an hour. It's like everything that touches the VSS just goes into limbo. :shock:

I got Win 7 Pro so I would have the enhanced backup ability, and instead I have *no* backup ability. This sucks.

 

[mjf]

I believe:
Volume shadow copy
Windows backup
Microsoft software shadow copy provider

Should all be set to Manual. They should start as required.

Maximum disk space usage setting on backup partitions seems default to 30%.
Not the amount normally used of course.

 

[hortwort]

Okay! I solved the problem!

I got one of those Western Digital backup drives, which was having trouble communicating. I disabled a program that came with my motherboard called "XFast USB" and the drive started working as expected.

On a hunch, I went back to things that use VSS, and sure enough, they now work!! For some reason, a program that tweaks USB port settings was stopping VSS from working, even when I had nothing plugged into said ports. *sigh*

 

[Bevier]

Windows Backup & Xfast USB

I also got "Starting Windows Backup: Please wait while Windows Backup starts". Installations that should have taken a few seconds were taking 15 minutes or more. I figured out that System Restore Points were actually timing out before continuing with an otherwise normal installation.

I was banging my head against the wall until I saw this thread. Xfast USB was indeed the culprit and preventing Windows Backup from starting. Thank you very much, hortwort!

 

[Brds7t7]

X-Fast USB? I've never heard of that. Did that come pre-installed on your systems? Or was it something you downloaded?

 

[hortwort]

X-Fast USB is a program that comes with ASRock brand motherboards. It's supposed to speed up transfer times by some percentage. I believe they have updated it since then so it will no longer be a problem, but I haven't cared to check it.

They have other cute little things to tweak their motherboards, sending more power to USB ports and such to charge some rechargable gadgets faster and such. They're probably great for some people, but I haven't bothered after wasting so much time with this one.

edit: <Marks thread as solved> I didn't know I could do that.

 

[Bevier]

X-Fast USB

X-Fast USB? I've never heard of that. Did that come pre-installed on your systems? Or was it something you downloaded?

It came on the installation disk of my ASRock motherboard. It can also be downloaded on their website. It is intended for use with select ASRock mobos. Perhaps there is a setting that is conflicting, but I just uninstalled it to solve the problem.

 

[rcozzo]

X-Fast USB is a program that comes with ASRock brand motherboards. It's supposed to speed up transfer times by some percentage. I believe they have updated it since then so it will no longer be a problem, but I haven't cared to check it.

They have other cute little things to tweak their motherboards, sending more power to USB ports and such to charge some rechargable gadgets faster and such. They're probably great for some people, but I haven't bothered after wasting so much time with this one.

edit: <Marks thread as solved> I didn't know I could do that.

Thank you sooooooo much for posting your solution. I've been struggling with a new ASRock based PC build not allowing system restores for a couple days now to no avail. I uninstalled X-Fast USB and X-Fast Lan (for good measure) and system restore works perfectly now after a reboot.

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You. Hopefully other ASRock X-Fast USB victims will find this thread.

(Just to hopefully get this some more Google hits, here's my original error code info: the creation of the shadow copy has timed out 0x81000101)

 

[Machineguy]

I am another Asrock victim who is thankful for your solution. It worked!!! I didnt find XFast very useful anyway. Never dreamed it was blocking so many services. Thank you. Thank you.

 

[rontom]

And yet another AsRock MB owner that can now create a restore point in Windows 7 (64-bit), by uninstalling the xfast USB utility that came with the MB. What a great find hortwort and THANKS so much for posting. I have worked on this problem for a long time!

 

[bseales]

An old thread I know but many thanks for picking up on Xfast being the problem with creating restore points. I had tried everything on a new build but could not get create restore to work. Having uninstalled Xfast the create restore worked in seconds. My system is also way quieter as the hard drives are not being written to as frequently. The whole system is now much faster. I also had issues with install shield hanging for ages while installing software. That appears to be gone also! Regards, Brian

 

[Suz59]

another user thanking you for the Xfast answer, I never dreamed that could be causing this problem but now I hope it might solve some of my others too. I build this machine 2 or three years ago mostly just to fool with, play games nothing important but I started to get alot of data that I didn't want to risk losing. I thought would take advantage of windows back up to back up to my second drive. But I thought it was something I was doing wrong since it was to the second internal and an external. I am so glad I looked up why it was taking so long to start up, sometimes never!

Thank you thank you even years after the original post!

 

[Bevier]

another user thanking you for the Xfast answer, I never dreamed that could be causing this problem but now I hope it might solve some of my others too. I build this machine 2 or three years ago mostly just to fool with, play games nothing important but I started to get alot of data that I didn't want to risk losing. I thought would take advantage of windows back up to back up to my second drive. But I thought it was something I was doing wrong since it was to the second internal and an external. I am so glad I looked up why it was taking so long to start up, sometimes never!

Thank you thank you even years after the original post!

Hey, it's not necroing if it is still applicable; people certainly still have these mobos! I have found this forum to be one of the best around for the given topic.

Glad it worked out for you, too.

 

[Smoggert]

I also use an Asus motherboard, not being able to run backups caused several errors each time I tried to run msi installers, causing increasingly slower instals for each new one.

Just removing X-fast USB fixed .... everything.

I'm never buying asus again.

edit: You guys helped me a lot ! Thank you very much.