Solved Unable to activate System Restore

[cbiweb]

I don't know if this was an issue before installing SP1, but afterward I happened to notice it. I went to Control Panel > System > Advanced system settings > System Properties > System Protection. The list of available drives looked like this:

RECOVERY
(F: ) Iomega HDD
(C: ) OS (System)
OS (C: ) (Missing)

The "missing" item is a little odd, but I then did the following:

• Clicked (C: ) OS (System)
• Clicked the Configure... button where it says "Configure restore settings, manage disk space, and delete restore points"
• Chose "Restore system setting and previous versions of files"
• Moved the "Max Usage" slider to 12%
• Clicked Apply

And this error popped up:

There was an unexpected error in the property page:
The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect.
(0x8007007B)

Please close the property page and try again.

I rebooted and tried again, with the same result.

Any idea what's going on?

 

[VistaKing]

Hi Cbiweb

Can you upload an image of your disk management

:ar: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/274797-disk-management-post-screen-capture-image.html

 

[whs]

Try this - in an elevated command prompt type or paste this command:

vssadmin resize shadowstorage /For=C: /On=C: /MaxSize=12%

 

[cbiweb]

Try this - in an elevated command prompt type or paste this command:

vssadmin resize shadowstorage /For=C: /On=C: /MaxSize=12%

"Successfully resized the shadow copy storage association" - Seems to have worked.

Hi Cbiweb

Can you upload an image of your disk management

Here you go...

 

[whs]

Looks like we are making progress. Now if you want to check what restore points you have, the command is:

vssadmin list shadows

 

[cbiweb]

Thanks, whs. It's good that I can do those things, at least I know that system restore is working as it should, but now I'd like to find out what's causing the problem as described in my opening post. Any ideas?

 

[NoelDP]

Interesting you should mention this - I hardly ever look at that, so when I checked, I was surprised to find the same status here.

Monitoring is switched on, but the space allocation is 0 - and attempting to change it gives a 7b error.
Attempting to turn off monitoring gives a 0x8100010b error.

Looking in the Event log (as advised by the 10b error)
gives

Log Name:      Application
Source:        SPP
Date:          15/03/2013 09:22:11
Event ID:      16388
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      NoelAsus-PC
Description:
Failed to delete shadow copy [URL="file://\\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy3"]\\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy3[/URL] on volume [URL="file://\\?\Volume{2bc8d7d0-2a4c-11e2-8092-806e6f6e6963}\"]\\?\Volume{2bc8d7d0-2a4c-11e2-8092-806e6f6e6963}\[/URL].  VSS error:  The specified object was not found. (0x80042308)  User action Retry the deletion or examine the event log for related VSS entries.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="[url=http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event]Error[/url]">
  <System>
    <Provider Name="SPP" />
    <EventID Qualifiers="0">16388</EventID>
    <Level>2</Level>
    <Task>0</Task>
    <Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
    <TimeCreated SystemTime="2013-03-15T09:22:11.000000000Z" />
    <EventRecordID>37296</EventRecordID>
    <Channel>Application</Channel>
    <Computer>NoelAsus-PC</Computer>
    <Security />
  </System>
  <EventData>
    <Data>\\?\Volume{2bc8d7d0-2a4c-11e2-8092-806e6f6e6963}\</Data>
    <Data>\\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy3</Data>
    <Data>The specified object was not found. (0x80042308)</Data>
    <Binary>0000000043240000212400000000000042BEB7C79AB23D79A6E400000000000000000000</Binary>
  </EventData>
</Event>

I have no problems on this system that I'm aware of - and SP1 was installed 18 months ago.

I'll have a hunt and see if I can work out what's causing this.

 

[NoelDP]

Hunting through the registry it seems that the GUID referred to relates to drive E: (!) - which does exist on my system, and appears in the System Restore listing as being switched off.

Switching the monitoring of E: on removes the OS (C (Missing) entry - switching the monitoring off again seems to have turned the trick

 

[cbiweb]

Tried your method, NoelDP, but no go. So I switched off monitoring of OS (C:) (Missing), which made it disappear entirely, and now I can set the Max Usage setting with no errors. Very odd. Thanks for the nudge in the right direction.

 

[NoelDP]

Glad to be of assistance!

 

[cbiweb]

I'll mark this solved, but if anyone in the future knows of or finds the cause of this issue, feel free to chime in!