2019 > 2020 upgrade PCs have incomplete .tibx backups. Need both volsnap and fltrsrv registry entries

The reason for my comment about not making changes to the Registry when using the Acronis Cleanup Tool is simply a matter of advising caution for users who are not familiar with working in the registry where a small mistake can have major ramifications.

I have never needed to touch the registry entries personally but can understand that there will be situations for some users where this is needed, so in those cases it is very important that they understand how to make a backup of the whole registry and of specific keys as a safeguard against issues arising.

I would also recommend using a System Restore point before making changes, plus even using a second backup program if feeling paranoid and want 'belt & braces'.

The key point about working with the Acronis registry entries for the fltsrv or volsnap is to follow the instructions in KB 48668 or KB 63024 very carefully, double-checking that the only change being made is exactly as described in these documents, and nothing else is being changed!

There are clear warnings in the first document not to delete the actual registry key!

If you want to do a quick & easy check for the registry values where volsnap & fltsrv entries are stored, then the following Powershell script will do this safely without needing to use the RegEdit registry editor tool.  The script only reads the registry entry data.

RegistryFilters.ps1

# Script to display current registry values used by Acronis True Image for volsnap & fltsrv
Clear-Host
$title = "Displaying Upper & Lower Filters registry values used by Acronis True Image"
$reg1 = "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E967-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
$reg2 = "HKLM:\\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{71A27CDD-812A-11D0-BEC7-08002BE2092F}"
$here = Get-Location
Write-Host $title; Write-Host ""
Set-Location -path $reg1
Write-Host "Registry path $Reg1"; Write-Host "has the following values"
Get-ItemProperty -path. -Name UpperFilters, LowerFilters | Format-List -Property UpperFilters, LowerFilters

Set-Location -Path $reg2
Write-Host "Registry path $Reg2"; Write-host "has the following values"
Get-ItemProperty -path. -Name UpperFilters, LowerFilters | Format-List -Property UpperFilters, LowerFilters

Set-Location $here

The output from running the Powershell script is as below (from my PC running ATI 2021).

To run the Powershell script, copy the script lines into a text file and save using either the name shown or your own named file with a .ps1 file extension.

Then launch Powershell and CD to the location where the script file is stored.

Type the following at the PS prompt.

.\RegistryFilters.ps1   (or using the name you have given).
Note: the leading .\ characters are required!

If you have not used Powershell previously, you will be given a message saying that scripts are not allowed to run!

Type the following at the PS prompt to allow the script to run:

Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned

A new message will be displayed asking if you want to do this!

Steve,

There is a third registry location where Acronis puts the fltsrv Upper Filter. You will find it at:

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{533c5b84-ec70-11d2-9505-00c04f79deaf}

Duplicated post (removed)

Thanks Steve,

My root problem is that large .tibx backups (~1.2TB Disk @ Partitions) run for a period, then always fail on Win 7 PCs that have been upgraded from 2019 > 2020, which do not have volsnap registry entries, whilst a new Win 10 laptop install does have volsnap works fine. 

Is there a process to get a completely clean Win 7 environment to reliably install 2020?

KB63024 does suggest running VSS Doctor that does show configuration errors (see attached) but clicking 'Fix Now' gives a strong warning about knowing the consequences of running the fix, so I have not done that yet, Can you advise what are these consequences and what is a sensible approach to using the tool?

Mustang wrote:

Steve,

There is a third registry location where Acronis puts the fltsrv Upper Filter. You will find it at:

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{533c5b84-ec70-11d2-9505-00c04f79deaf}

Thanks Paul, have added that to my Powershell script to include it in the output.  Interesting that that is not mentioned in either of the two KB documents on this topic!

Updated Powershell script file attached as a .txt file with instructions in comments at the top of the file.

Edit: modified script file after testing on Win 7 as didn't like split lines using ` character!

W Thomas Phillips wrote:

My root problem is that large .tibx backups (~1.2TB Disk @ Partitions) run for a period, then always fail on Win 7 PCs that have been upgraded from 2019 > 2020, which do not have volsnap registry entries, whilst a new Win 10 laptop install does have volsnap works fine. 

Is there a process to get a completely clean Win 7 environment to reliably install 2020?

KB63024 does suggest running VSS Doctor that does show configuration errors (see attached) but clicking 'Fix Now' gives a strong warning about knowing the consequences of running the fix, so I have not done that yet, Can you advise what are these consequences and what is a sensible approach to using the tool?

There appears to be more than one issue at work here...

Volsnap missing on your Win 7 PC's.

VSS issues.

I would recommend allowing VSS Doctor fix the issues it is highlighting - you uploaded 2 different VSS Doctor logs, one with more drives connected than the other where you look to have removed the extra drives.

What I would recommend, especially if you are nervous about any warnings / consequences of allowing VSS Doctor to fix identified issues, is to boot your PC('s) using the Acronis Rescue Media and make an offline full disk backup image of your OS drive.  This will be outside of Windows 7 (or 10) and not subject to any VSS issues present in the OS, so should run fully to completion regardless of the volsnap issue too!

For the Win 7 volsnap issue - I have just booted up a test PC with Win 7 that has never had any version of ATI installed, so after it has done various updates having been turned off for a month or two, I will do a clean install of ATI 2020 on that PC.  Win 7 is only 32-bit as the PC is a rather old Pentium P4 home-brew but that shouldn't affect anything!  I have a second identical PC running ATI 2018 on Win 7.

Guys,

Be careful talking about the volsnap Upper Filter. Volsnap is a Microsoft service and as such the Upper Filters in the registry are controlled by Microsoft. Acronis doesn't make any changes to the volsnap Upper Filter when it installs or uninstalls. The volsnap Upper Filter is mentioned in the Cleanup Tool instructions strictly as a caution. They want to make sure the user doesn't accidentally delete the Microsoft volsnap Upper Filter while deleting the Acronis fltsrv Upper Filter.

Windows 7 and possibly early Windows 10 systems don't have any volsnap Upper Filter entries in the registry. Current Windows 10 systems do have a volsnap Upper Filter entry in the registry. Here's where it gets interesting. Micosoft doesn't put the volsnap Upper Filter in the WinPE registry. Acronis discovered that it was necessary to put the volsnap Upper Filter in  the WinPE registry in order to make True Image work with BitLockered drives that have been unlocked using manage-bde.exe. However, there is a problem. If the volsnap Upper Filter is added to a Windows 7 or early Windows 10 WinPE it becomes unbootable. It's also interesting to note that Windows 7 and early Windows 10 WinPE media does allow True Image to deal with unlocked BitLockered system.  

Steve,

It is interesting that the third location for fltsrv Upper Filter isn't mentioned in the Cleanup Tool instructions. I haven't tested if the Cleanup Tool removes that Upper Filter entry or leave it behind. It may be that entry is removed and the instruction were just never updated. It was only in about TI 2016 when Acronis started using VSS that the third location of the fltsrv Upper Filter was added to the registry. Prior versions of TI only used the Acronis snapshot manager snapman.sys to create snapshots.  

Paul, checking the various registry entries on my Win 7 system, before and after installing ATI 2020 confirms your point about volsnap - it wasn't there in either case!

The only change is with the third entry which now has an UpperFilter for fltsrv after 2020 when it didn't have anything previously (or didn't exist)!

# Displaying Upper & Lower Filters registry values used by Acronis True Image
#
# Registry path HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E967-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
# has the following values

UpperFilters : {PartMgr, fltsrv}
LowerFilters : {vidsflt67}

# Registry path HKLM:\\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{71A27CDD-812A-11D0-BEC7-08002BE2092F}
# has the following values

UpperFilters : {fltsrv}
LowerFilters : {fvevol, rdyboost}

# Registry path HKLM:\\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{533c5b84-ec70-11d2-9505-00c04f79deaf}
# has the following values

UpperFilters : {fltsrv}

The first two entries remain the same, the last entry was added by 2020.

What is perhaps more worrying though is KB 63024: Acronis True Image: unable to select a disk for new backup, already configured backups fail, if volsnap is missing from UpperFilters in the system registry - has no warning or qualification to state that this only applies to recent Windows 10 systems!  If users do apply the 'Solution' and 'add the missing volsnap entry to the second registry path for UpperFilters, then per your post, the system may become unbootable as a result!

Mustang wrote:

Windows 7 and possibly early Windows 10 systems don't have any volsnap Upper Filter entries in the registry. Current Windows 10 systems do have a volsnap Upper Filter entry in the registry. Here's where it gets interesting. Micosoft doesn't put the volsnap Upper Filter in the WinPE registry. Acronis discovered that it was necessary to put the volsnap Upper Filter in  the WinPE registry in order to make True Image work with BitLockered drives that have been unlocked using manage-bde.exe. However, there is a problem. If the volsnap Upper Filter is added to a Windows 7 or early Windows 10 WinPE it becomes unbootable. It's also interesting to note that Windows 7 and early Windows 10 WinPE media does allow True Image to deal with unlocked BitLockered system.  

I checked with 'net start volsnap' that the volsnap service is running on all my Win7 PCs, but does not appear in any of the (now) 3 registry Upper Filter entries, so where else might it be and what do Microsoft use it for?

Also what would be the action that causes it to be needed in the 3 registry entries and how would it have been put there other than an Acronis Install? and what does Acronis do with it?

As .tibx OS drive backups work in Win 7 but consistently do not with larger drives, what would volsnap being doing to cause this or is there a completely different cause - possibly one of the 2020 bugs hinted to in other posts but concealed under 2021 Beta NDA?

Steve Smith wrote:

The first two entries remain the same, the last entry was added by 2020.

What is perhaps more worrying though is KB 63024: Acronis True Image: unable to select a disk for new backup, already configured backups fail, if volsnap is missing from UpperFilters in the system registry - has no warning or qualification to state that this only applies to recent Windows 10 systems!  If users do apply the 'Solution' and 'add the missing volsnap entry to the second registry path for UpperFilters, then per your post, the system may become unbootable as a result!

That was exactly what happened when Acronis Support remote session engineer tried follow KB63024 !

Worryingly too is that KB43668 is also wrong, even though it was written some time ago.

Of course this just leaves my problem unresolved of not being able to make successful Disk & Partitions .tibx Data disk backups - and is it currently unlikely that 2021 will have the same problems?

I had no problem with making a disk backup using ATI 2020 on my Win 7 system used for testing this topic, so perhaps we need to go back to the beginning again here!

What exactly is happening when you attempt to make a disk backup on your Win 7 PC?

Ideally, I would suggest creating an Acronis System Report zip file and then providing a link to where I can download it from a cloud share such as Dropbox, etc.  That would save a lot more questions and let me look at what is happening from the various logs etc.

I tested adding the volsnap Upper Filter to key 71axxxxxxxxxxxxxx. Windows 7 did indeed become unbootable.

The KB articles are certainly scary for Windows 7 users.

W Thomas Phillips,

I don't know exactly how to answer all your questions. If I were you, I would do some more experimenting before trying to make any conclusions. The first thing I would try would be to create a new backup task to backup your problem data disk. During the task creation, open the Options and go to the Advanced tab. Scroll to the bottom and click on the Performance option. Click the drop down arrow next to "Snapshot for backup" and change it from VSS to Acronis snapshot. This should take VSS and volsnap out of the snapshot process. The snapshot will be produced by Acronis' snapshot manager snapman.sys. Let us know if that works or not.

I tested the Cleanup Tool on a Windows 10 system with TI 2021 installed. The fltsrv Upper Filter was NOT removed from registry key 533cxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. I also tried just using the Control Panel to uninstall TI 2021. The fltsrv Upper Filter WAS removed from registry key 533cxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.

Paul, I would suggest that your findings confirm that the Cleanup Tool should only be used AFTER doing a normal uninstall of ATI via the Control Panel first, not used as an uninstaller!

Steve,

I agree 100%.

Mustang wrote:

Steve,

I agree 100%.

+ 1 

Steve Smith wrote:

Ideally, I would suggest creating an Acronis System Report zip file and then providing a link to where I can download it from a cloud share such as Dropbox, etc.  That would save a lot more questions and let me look at what is happening from the various logs etc.

Steve, I sent you a message with a WeTransfer link to the system reports for my 2 PCs, which clearly had not installed correctly

They have subsequently been reinstalled yesterday evening in a long Acronis remote support session to see if it helps

Before the reinstall VSS Doctor was run and fixes applied, resulting in no errors now.

Steve Smith wrote:

Paul, I would suggest that your findings confirm that the Cleanup Tool should only be used AFTER doing a normal uninstall of ATI via the Control Panel first, not used as an uninstaller!

I am going to reinstall one of the PCs which were updated  by Acronis support who did not want to follow this advice that you gave me in July. 

One question, in the cleanup tool KB step 4, it says "When asked to terminate Windows Explorer type in y and hit Enter" but I noticed that the Acronis agent typed 'n' and a number of steps followed including deleting registry keys.

Given your advice not to deleted registry keys, which is the correct option?

I also see that the cleanup tool was updated at 10:15 yesterday so do you know what fixes / changes ar eincluded and should I use this or an older version?

Mustang wrote:

I don't know exactly how to answer all your questions. If I were you, I would do some more experimenting before trying to make any conclusions. The first thing I would try would be to create a new backup task to backup your problem data disk. During the task creation, open the Options and go to the Advanced tab. Scroll to the bottom and click on the Performance option. Click the drop down arrow next to "Snapshot for backup" and change it from VSS to Acronis snapshot. This should take VSS and volsnap out of the snapshot process. The snapshot will be produced by Acronis' snapshot manager snapman.sys. Let us know if that works or not.

After their reinstall which resulted in getting consistent Volsnap errors, Acronis support remote session did try Acronis Snapshot instead  of VSS and it did not work. I'm not sure exactly where / how they did this setting so how can I check which setting is applied to each backup and how to undo  to return to VSS?

Let's clarify some things here. You are very confused about Steve's advice not to delete registry keys. Steve's advice is to run the Cleanup Tool using option 2 to automatically uninstall. This will delete all the necessary registry keys. There should be no need to manually delete registry keys later.

I asked you to create a new task to test the Acronis snapshot because I don't trust that modifying an existing task works correctly. I take it that Acronis support modified the snapshot option of existing tasks. You can check this by selecting a backup and clicking the Options button. You will find the snapshot option under the Advanced tab. Then click the Performance option at the bottom.

You need to think more logically about the failed backup issue. Ask yourself these questions. Is there a problem with my Windows 7 system? Is there a problem with the Acronis installation? Does my system have software installed for extended capacity disk support (possibly from an earlier Acronis install)? How was the extended capacity question answered when the Cleanup Tool was run? Is there a problem with the disks being backed up?

Now think about ways to answer the above questions with experiments.

You talk about the disks being large, how large are they?

Have you tried backing up these disk with WinPE recovery media?

Have you tried connecting these disks to another computer and backing them up?

Have you run chkdsk /f on the disks?

Be creative and think about how different experiments can eliminate possible causes of the problem.

Tom, thanks for the System Report zip files though not sure how valid these will be if ATI 2020 has been uninstalled / reinstalled since they were created?

Default PC.

Task: Default OS   disk backup.

Destination: //Ml310e/k/Defaultt Backup/Default OS.tibx

Run: 09/09 19:44 to 19:45 Finished successfully.

Run: 09/09 13:11 to 13:21 Finished with multiple errors posted related to validation of the remote backup file. 

Run: 09/09 07:07 to 07:51 Finished with multiple errors posted related to validation of the remote backup file. 

Task: DEFAULTT K TIBX

Destination: //Ml310e/k/Defaultt Backup/DEFAULTT K TIBX.tibx

Run: 09/09 13:48 to 15:06 Finished with multiple errors posted related to validation of the remote backup file. 

Run: 07/09 16:32 to 17:27 Finished with multiple errors posted related to validation of the remote backup file. 

Laptop PC

Task: LaptopPC US USB

Destination: \\?\K:\/LaptopPC US USB.tibx (mapped network drive location)

Destination: //Ml310e/k/LaptopPC Backup/LaptopPC K tibx.tibx

Run: 09/09 09:43 to 09:48 Finished successfully

Run: 08/09 20:13 to 20:29 Finished with multiple errors posted related to validation of the remote backup file. 

Run: 08/09 17:48 to 18:06 Finished with multiple errors posted related to validation of the remote backup file. 

Task: ATA Samsung SSD 850 1B6Q

Destination: //ML310E/LaptopPC Backup/ATA Samsung SSD 850 1B6Q.tibx

Run: 09/09 07:55 to 07:56 Finished with multiple errors posted related to validation of the remote backup file. 

The common factor for the above backup failures is that they are all related to files stored in your network location.

I would strongly recommend that you test making backups to a different destination such as an external USB drive to see if there are still the same failures or not?

Mustang wrote:

Let's clarify some things here. You are very confused about Steve's advice not to delete registry keys. Steve's advice is to run the Cleanup Tool using option 2 to automatically uninstall. This will delete all the necessary registry keys. There should be no need to manually delete registry keys later..

 Apologies, but I accidentally hit the Mark as solution.

You ask a lot of questions, so please excuse me if I respond to them one by one.

My major focus is to first to get a successful uninstall / re-install of 2020. I  successfully installed 2019 Permanent on 3 Win 7 PCs, then later upgraded them to 2020 Subscription by following the upgrade / new version links in the Account GUI (not online) and all were faulty in some way....

PC1 Install ran OK but text is missing in the ATI 2020 GUI next to the icons on left hand side of the window

PC2 All the 2020 upgrade links ran OK but the PC GUI still is ATI 2019 build 17750. I decided to replace this PC so am not concerned with fixing this.

PC3 2020 install did not complete, stuck about 98%, indication that 2020 was available. It did not run properly, so I reverted to 2019 Permanent, deactivating it from my online account. Steve helped me with a sequence to get 2020 to install process to complete. This included the use of option 2 Cleanup and advice on the all the y/n options to follow. I will copy this in a further post

I urged Acronis support to follow this advice (and the KB48668) but they did a different process, not running the Windows uninstall, just Cleanup option 2, then answering 'n' instead of 'y' when asked to terminate Windows Explorer and it was this last step that I saw for the first time that registry entries were being cleared.

As KB63024 also advised deleting fltsrv, this is why I asked about what is correct and I think you have clearly identified that following the KBs is not advisable.

Steve Smith wrote:

Tom, thanks for the System Report zip files though not sure how valid these will be if ATI 2020 has been uninstalled / reinstalled since they were created?

Hi Steve,

I do agree, especially as the subsequent Acronis support reinstalls have resulted in even poorer results and proliferated a confusingly large number of extra backup tasks, so I will have to reinstall again, using your and Mustang's advice.

Just for clarity, this is the uninstall / reinstall sequence you suggested to me in July that I followed exactly except for also deactivating the device before the reinstall step...

1. Uninstall ATI 2020 using the Control Panel > Programs & Features option.
2. Download the Acronis Cleanup Tool and run this as Administrator but without making any changes to the Windows Registry.
3. Restart Windows to complete the cleanup / uninstall actions.
4. Download the ATI 2020 full installer from your Acronis account then disconnect the PC from your network by disabling the network adapter, plus disconnect any external backup drives.
5. Run the ATI 2020 installer ensuring you are using an Administrator level account.
6. When the install finishes and before launching the ATI 2020 GUI, re-enable your network adapter again.
7. Launch ATI 2020 and when offered the option, sign in to your Acronis account rather than using your license serial number.
8. Create a new Disks & Partitions backup task to a local or external USB drive which should then create a .tibx type backup file.

There is also an extended disks question when cleanup runs and you advised me to answer 'n'

 Is this still the sequence to follow or are there any updates / changes you suggest?

Mustang wrote:

I asked you to create a new task to test the Acronis snapshot because I don't trust that modifying an existing task works correctly. I take it that Acronis support modified the snapshot option of existing tasks. You can check this by selecting a backup and clicking the Options button. You will find the snapshot option under the Advanced tab. Then click the Performance option at the bottom.

I did a new task in Acronis Support's latest reinstall and set up Acronis Snapshot and it also failed.

I will try again once successful reinstall (see Steve' sequence above) is achieved.

My major focus is to first to get a successful uninstall / re-install of 2020. I  successfully installed 2019 Permanent on 3 Win 7 PCs, then later upgraded them to 2020 Subscription by following the upgrade / new version links in the Account GUI (not online) and all were faulty in some way....

PC1 Install ran OK but text is missing in the ATI 2020 GUI next to the icons on left hand side of the window

Tom, there is no need to first install ATI 2019 in order to upgrade to 2020, especially not to a subscription edition of 2020.

The text in the GUI next to the icons comes and goes according to the width of the panel, so if you make it full screen it will show or if you drag the corners or side edges will do the same.

Just for clarity, this is the uninstall / reinstall sequence you suggested to me in July that I followed exactly except for also deactivating the device before the reinstall step...

Yes, that sequence is still recommended.  Extended capacity disks are unlikely to be present and support for them was removed back in ATI 2014 - this feature only really applied to very early versions of Windows which didn't support larger drives than 2TB.

Mustang wrote:

 Is there a problem with my Windows 7 system?

>> No. All these PCs have successfully run with WHS 2011 for years and continue to do so, whilst all drives and PCs have backed up fine with 2019

Is there a problem with the Acronis installation? 

>> Yes, that is what I'm trying to fix

>> Then need to have a Volsnap fix to use 2020, but we don't seem to have one for Win7 and early Win10

>> Also need to know the known (but not  shared with customers) bugs in 2020 that relate to the problem

Does my system have software installed for extended capacity disk support (possibly from an earlier Acronis install)? How was the extended capacity question answered when the Cleanup Tool was run?

>> No as confirmed by Steve

Is there a problem with the disks being backed up?

>> No, all PCs run Stablebit DriveScanner which continually check all disks and sends Email alerts any issues

You talk about the disks being large, how large are they?

>> 2TB Data disks, typically with 1.2TB used

Have you tried backing up these disk with WinPE recovery media?

>> Yes, I used Steve's MVP rescue builder to store to local USB eternal HD

Have you tried connecting these disks to another computer and backing them up?

>> As above, there are no disk problems 

Have you run chkdsk /f on the disks?

>> Yes, One of the things DriverScanner does regularly

Other things already done...

>> Run VSS Doctor on PCs plus Server and successfully applied any fixes

>> Checked / updated all HD access / security permissions. Unlike everwhere else, Acronis 2020 .tibx does not like Everybody (with full permissions) and had to have Users added with Full Permission, .tib backups did not need this.

You asked about unrevealed program bugs that could have something to do with this problem. It does remind me of a program bug back when TI 2020 was first launched. Large backups were consistently failing when approaching the 1 TB level. This problem was fixed when build 21,400 of TI 2020 was released. Here is a link to that thread https://forum.acronis.com/forum/acronis-true-image-2020-forum/large-backups-fail-around-900gb I assume you have the latest build of TI 2020 installed.

I confirmed the large backup problem was fixed for TI 2020 in a Windows 10. I never tested it with a Widows 7 system. I'm going to install the latest build of TI 2020 in a Windows 7 system and try a large backup. I'll let you know how it goes.

I would ask you to try backing up a smaller amount of data (say 500 GB). If it works, that would be very telling.

You also mention looking for a volsnap fix for Widows 7. You have confirmed volsnap is running and that VSS errors have been fixed. You don't need any further action here.

Paul, I can confirm from the info in the 2 system reports Tom gave me access to that both his PC and Laptop are both running ATI 2020 #25700 so should be well clear of that old bug with very large backup file sizes!

Mustang wrote:

I would ask you to try backing up a smaller amount of data (say 500 GB). If it works, that would be very telling.

You also mention looking for a volsnap fix for Widows 7. You have confirmed volsnap is running and that VSS errors have been fixed. You don't need any further action here.

I said that the volsnap service is running (using cmd net start volsnap) but I did not say it was present in any of the 3 registry entries. With the recent changes by Acronis, all tibx backups are giving 'volsnap is not present error' on one PC, whilst on the other, OS back up (50-100GB) is working to both local USB HD and my HP ML310E server, but the 1.3TB Data drive .tibx is not with either VSS and snapshot.

There seems to be no viable volsnap fix available at present.

I will try a 500GB backup in the morning, once I've reinstalled with Steve's sequence plus the new Cleanup utility released yesterday, but I've only every see it get that far before failing. 10-50GB is more usual. Files and Folders .tib is working seamlessly as always

Well, I ran a 1.5 TB backup from a Windows 7 system with TI 2020. It competed successfully. I think we can rule out any TI 2020 program bugs. 

Mustang wrote:

Well, I ran a 1.5 TB backup from a Windows 7 system with TI 2020. It competed successfully. I think we can rule out any TI 2020 program bugs. 

Was that a .tibx Disks & Partitions or .tib Files and Folders? 

Tom, Files & Folders are always .tib backups as that hasn't changed from earlier versions. Disks & Partitions will continue to use .tib for tasks brought forward from 2019 or earlier, but will use .tibx for new tasks created in 2020 & beyond.

I have no backups that exceed more than 200 - 300GB size, and the majority are under 50GB.  I never include multiple disks in a single backup task - each disk has a separate backup task, and I make separate tasks for individual partitions when dedicated to specific data.

My 1.5 GB backup was a tibx full disk backup of a data drive.

Here is my Laptop system report ... https://we.tl/t-DeRmvvwm2u

https://we.tl/t-DeRmvvwm2u

laptop system report

My Windows 7 systems don't have volsnap as an Upper Filter in the registry. As I told you before, there is no volsnap Upper Filter used on Windows 7 systems. Somewhere around the third version of Windows 10 Microsoft made a change to the volsnap service and added the volsnap Upper Filter to the registry.

Have you checked Windows Logs to see if you can see any volsnap errors? Below is a set of instructions to check for VSS errors I took from an Acronis KB:

Run eventvwr.msc

1. In Event Viewer, Navigate to Windows Logs - System
2. Click Filter Current Log... on the right panel
3. Mark Critical, Error and Warning checkboxes in the upper part of the window. Expand Event sources list and select the following event sources: Disk, disk, NTFS, VSS, VolSnap (if search with these event sources returns no results, check all event sources)

4. Click OK and review warnings and errors recorded in the System event log, and look for any information related to the issue observed in Acronis software. Pay attention to events registered at the time the issue occurred, or just before that.

5. Repeat the search in Windows Logs - Application

Do any volsnap errors appear in the Application Log that point to True Image? 

Mustang wrote:

My Windows 7 systems don't have volsnap as an Upper Filter in the registry. As I told you before, there is no volsnap Upper Filter used on Windows 7 systems. Somewhere around the third version of Windows 10 Microsoft made a change to the volsnap service and added the volsnap Upper Filter to the registry.

Have you checked Windows Logs to see if you can see any volsnap errors? Below is a set of instructions to check for VSS errors I took from an Acronis KB:

Run eventvwr.msc

1. In Event Viewer, Navigate to Windows Logs - System
2. Click Filter Current Log... on the right panel
3. Mark Critical, Error and Warning checkboxes in the upper part of the window. Expand Event sources list and select the following event sources: Disk, disk, NTFS, VSS, VolSnap (if search with these event sources returns no results, check all event sources)

4. Click OK and review warnings and errors recorded in the System event log, and look for any information related to the issue observed in Acronis software. Pay attention to events registered at the time the issue occurred, or just before that.

5. Repeat the search in Windows Logs - Application

Do any volsnap errors appear in the Application Log that point to True Image? 

Apologies for any misunderstanding as I thought your comment on volsnap was in the context of the KB that said it should be there in Win 7

This reply is about my Default-PC which mentions volsnap in most backup failures

All errors in the Application Log point to VSS

2 Errors in the System log  point to volsnap, both occurring at the time of Acronis remote support

Errors range from when I first installed 2019 up to today.

I copied all the error numbers reported into the .txt attached.

I also attach screenshots of both Application and System log screens

I will do the same for my Laptop-PC which is nearly working except for  Data drive .tibx

Tom, I am still seeing the same errors in the latest laptop system report file logs.

Task: LaptopPC E Investigate

Destination: smb://Microserver/h/Investigation/LaptopPC E Investigate.tibx

12/09/2020 04:01:24:995 PM type=log; level=wrn; message=pcs_errno_to_err: Failed to convert errno 1450 to pcs error. Return PCS_ERR_UNKNOWN value.;
12/09/2020 04:01:24:995 PM type=log; level=inf; message=pcs_co_file_writev(\\?\UNC\Microserver\h\Investigation\LaptopPC E Investigate.tibx) failed: 1450 (pcs_err=4095);
12/09/2020 04:01:24:995 PM type=log; level=inf; message=io#1: reopen: write 2703c27000:400000 failed with err -5005;

The above sequence of errors repeat throughout the log when trying to write updates to the destination .tibx file and concludes with:

12/09/2020 04:11:08:361 PM type=log; level=err; message=ar#1: archive close (commit_seq=13, reuse_seq=13, file_size=170735599616, uuid=1229936fd68ac71d7186fbe8de848b56) rc=-5005 (Input/output error);
12/09/2020 04:11:08:365 PM type=log; level=err; message=image backup: failed to close archive:
12/09/2020 04:11:09:722 PM type=commonerror; value= A backup error.
Input/output error
function archive_stream_write path \\?\UNC\Microserver\h\Investigation\/LaptopPC E Investigate.tibx
Insufficient system resources exist to complete the requested service.
function file_write path \\?\UNC\Microserver\h\Investigation\LaptopPC E Investigate.tibx
12/09/2020 04:11:09:722 PM type=log; level=inf; message=lsm#1: dedup_map nr_lookup=1297130 nr_found=640202 false+=637460 (49.14%/99.57%);
12/09/2020 04:11:09:723 PM type=retcode; value=4095; id=1;

Steve Smith wrote:

Tom, I am still seeing the same errors in the latest laptop system report file logs.

Task: LaptopPC E Investigate

Yes, the errors are the same for this Investigate task, which is just trying to backup to a different server on my network, which I now realise has not yet had a VSS Doctor run

You can see some more detail in my response above to Mustang's request to run system and application logs on Default-PC. Notable is a near complete absence of  volsnap errors.

There are two interesting error descriptions:

Description:
Volume Shadow Copy Service warning: VSS was denied access to the root of volume \\?\Volume{0ab40f55-8b96-11ea-9824-94de806eab75}\. Denying administrators from accessing volume roots can cause many unexpected failures, and will prevent VSS from functioning properly.  Check security on the volume, and try the operation again.
 

Description:
The shadow copies of volume C: were aborted because the shadow copy storage could not grow due to a user imposed limit.

The first suggests there are permission problems with one of your volumes.

The second suggests there is not enough space to hold the shadow copies. That would explain why large backups are failing. The copies are probably held in the System Protection area. Open Control Panel/System. Click on System protection on the left. Now click on the Configure button. See how much disk space is allocated. You may need to increase it.

I can tell you I have System Protection turned off for my Windows 7 system and the allocated space is set to 0. I'm not sure where the shadow copies get stored, but large backups complete with no problems. I don't know if you care about System restore points, but I never did. You can try deleting them, increasing the space or turning System Protection off.

Mustang wrote:

There are two interesting error descriptions:

Description:
Volume Shadow Copy Service warning: VSS was denied access to the root of volume \\?\Volume{0ab40f55-8b96-11ea-9824-94de806eab75}\. Denying administrators from accessing volume roots can cause many unexpected failures, and will prevent VSS from functioning properly.  Check security on the volume, and try the operation again.

The first suggests there are permission problems with one of your volumes.

>> Is there any way to tell which volume as I do not recognise it by the description?

>> Acronis Support originally identified that Security and Sharing needed to be changed, despite 'Everybody' already having full permission, which has been adequate for all other system and apps functions in the past. So 'Users' were added in both categories for all drives,(C: and all the data drives). I have double checked that the whole upgraded full permissions are set on both my main server and the separate Investigation server.

Are there any other setting you can suggest changing?

Description:
The shadow copies of volume C: were aborted because the shadow copy storage could not grow due to a user imposed limit.

The second suggests there is not enough space to hold the shadow copies. That would explain why large backups are failing. The copies are probably held in the System Protection area. Open Control Panel/System. Click on System protection on the left. Now click on the Configure button. See how much disk space is allocated. You may need to increase it.

>> Only C: has protection on and I increased the size on both laptop and server from Microsoft default 10% to 30%, hope that is enough?

I don't know if you care about System restore points, but I never did. You can try deleting them, increasing the space or turning System Protection off.

>> System Restore has saved me a few times, including when Acronis support tried to add volsnap and the system would not fully boot.

 

See https://virtuallyaware.wordpress.com/2008/07/23/volume-guids-ways-to-viewaccess-the-files-within/ 

Try copying the volume path to a run command and see where it leads.

I don't know how much space will be needed for the shadow copy. Try another backup and see how it goes.

EDIT:

I found a better way to identify the drive letter of the volume:

Open a command prompt as Administrator and enter:

vssadmin List Volumes

You should see a list of all the volume names with drive letters. 

Mustang wrote:

Open a command prompt as Administrator and enter:

vssadmin List Volumes

You should see a list of all the volume names with drive letters. 

That worked, thanks. I have not found that specific drive on any of my PCs or servers, so can you help?

Possibly an external removable drive? Switching removable drives from Windows 7 to Windows 10 and back has been known to create permissions problems.

If it's not an external drive don't worry about it.

Have you run a large backup since making the System Protection size change? I'm dying to know if it worked.

Mustang wrote:

Possibly an external removable drive? Switching removable drives from Windows 7 to Windows 10 and back has been known to create permissions problems.

If it's not an external drive don't worry about it.

>> You are right !! I plugged in both my removable drives and there it was (I: drive). The permissions did not include Users, just Everyone, so I updated the Security and Sharing settings of this and the other 3 partitions on the disk.

However, I've never seen any backup failures to this HDD, so is there something else I should do?

Have you run a large backup since making the System Protection size change? I'm dying to know if it worked.

>> It does seem to have stopped most volsnap failures on this (Default-PC), which were never present on event viewer but it does mean that OS .tibx backups work to USB drives and did for one backup to the server, but that has not worked since.

However, Event Viewer System now shows 2 volsnap failures today although the OS backup completed successfully 30sec later (see attached) worked fine too.

Large .tibx now have the usual 'failure to connect' or network 'inaccessible'  failure message, but these errors do not seem to be present in the Event Viewer, in fact I see no errors at all since the C: System protection size was increased from 10% to 30% on 12 Sept.

Your thoughts would be much appreciated.

PS: I have not yet done the same on my Laptop. Details later

Sounds like things area lot better.

I can't help you with the failure to connect error to your NAS. That's not my area. I don't own a NAS device and never will. My philosophy is why own something that's going to make life difficult. I'm sure someone else will be able to help with this issue.

As for shadow copy storage problems, I would recommend you run the following command from an admin. command window:

vssadmin List ShadowStorage

You will get output showing amounts of used, allocated and maximum space like this:

Shadow Copy Storage association
   For volume: (C:)\\?\Volume{2cf37046-77e1-4804-841b-9a5b99c16d15}\
   Shadow Copy Storage volume: (C:)\\?\Volume{2cf37046-77e1-4804-841b-9a5b99c16d15}\

   Used Shadow Copy Storage space: 941 MB (0%)
   Allocated Shadow Copy Storage space: 1.25 GB (0%)
   Maximum Shadow Copy Storage space: 9.52 GB (1%)

See if any of the drives show used space close to maximum space and we'll see what can be done.

Paul, in this case the NAS is a PC running Windows Home Server 2011 which is not an area that I have any experience with either.  I have never seen these types of issues with my Synology NAS for my own backups across my home network.

Mustang wrote:

Shadow Copy Storage association
   For volume: (C:)\\?\Volume{2cf37046-77e1-4804-841b-9a5b99c16d15}\
   Shadow Copy Storage volume: (C:)\\?\Volume{2cf37046-77e1-4804-841b-9a5b99c16d15}\

   Used Shadow Copy Storage space: 941 MB (0%)
   Allocated Shadow Copy Storage space: 1.25 GB (0%)
   Maximum Shadow Copy Storage space: 9.52 GB (1%)

See if any of the drives show used space close to maximum space and we'll see what can be done.

 I saw this command and already ran it, showing that all disks have Max storage way above what is needed.