VSS and Acronis Snapshot problem
Sometimes my backups work and sometimes they don't because of a "snapshot" problem. The Acronis tech changed the VSS to Acronis Snapshot, but they tell me that didn't work because the program continues to use VSS anyway. I'm cutting and pasting what the Acronis tech had to say in bold.
I got an update from internal team regarding the backup issue.
We got this Microsoft VSS error on logs:
[Description: Some VSS-related errors or warnings occurred during the previous day
Type: Error
Source: VSS
Message: Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Unexpected error querying for the IVssWriterCallback interface. hr = 0x80070005, Access is denied. . This is often caused by incorrect security settings in either the writer or requestor process.]
-> This is the error from the VSS doctor tool, which means that it was unable to fix the VSS related errors.
-> So even when we select "Acronis Snapshot" as the Snapshot method, it still uses VSS Writer service to write the data. So as there is issue with VSS sometime the backup is successful and sometime it fail.
We would like to suggest please contact Microsoft Support to fix this VSS(Volume Shadow Copy Service) issue , else the backups will fail intermittently.
I would rather not have to go through Microsoft and be on hold for a week in the not be able to understand what the Microsoft person is telling me to do. My hope is that someone reading this will have a suggestion for me.
Thanks – Lloyd
Lloyd,
If Steve's second suggestion fails you might fix the issue by re-registering the VSS writers. For a how to look HERE
Thanks to both of you. I'll keep you posted. The tech claims they've already used that tool:
We got this Microsoft VSS error on logs:
[Description: Some VSS-related errors or warnings occurred during the previous day
Type: Error
Source: VSS
Message: Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Unexpected error querying for the IVssWriterCallback interface. hr = 0x80070005, Access is denied. . This is often caused by incorrect security settings in either the writer or requestor process.]
-> This is the error from the VSS doctor tool, which means that it was unable to fix the VSS related errors.
-> So even when we select "Acronis Snapshot" as the Snapshot method, it still uses VSS Writer service to write the data. So as there is issue with VSS sometime the backup is successful and sometime it fail.
We would like to suggest please contact Microsoft Support to fix this VSS(Volume Shadow Copy Service) issue , else the backups will fail intermittently.
I will keep the case open and wait for the next update once the VSS issue is fixed we can proceed further with the case.
As you can see, her main suggestion was that I update Windows. I'm a little reluctant to do so. I'm not exactly computer whiz and worry that I might screw something up big time if I do the update. Seems to me that they should be taking that step instead of me. Besides when I googled the latest Windows build (21H2 19044) it seems that many people found problems and don't feel it's worth updating. I'm currently running 21H1 build 19043.
Lloyd
Lloyd, have you actually downloaded & run the Acronis VSS Doctor tool yourself?
If not, then I would suggest doing so and see if it does report any errors or not?
The report from the tool is divided into several different sections of which the final section deals with VSS errors that have been noted on the computer over the previous day.
If the only errors are in that final section, then look at the time stamps for the errors and check if these coincide with when your Acronis backup tasks were active or not? It is possible that the errors may be coming from a different process or application on the computer.
Regarding upgrading Windows 10 from 21H1 to 21H2, then this should be relatively safe to do provided that you have a good backup image to recover from if any issues do arise. I have upgraded all of my Windows 10 computers to 21H2 and did so not long after it was released around the October / November 2021 period. All went fine for me on multiple systems.
The upgrade can be performed in several different ways, i.e. via Windows Update where it should be offered as an option, else you can use Microsoft Windows Update Assistant tool which will again guide you through the process. The other option is to download the installer for the latest Windows 10 version from the Windows 10 Download site using the Media Creation tool, then use this to create either a DVD, USB stick or ISO image of the software, then simply run the Setup.exe program from Explorer while running Windows 10.
No, I haven't tried it myself, but I will. Thanks for all of the suggestions. You mentioned above, "...provided that you have a good backup image to recover from if any issues do arise. " I have a full Acronis bsckup.
Thanks again.
Lloyd
Steve Smith– thank you again for your helpful suggestions. Strangely, right before I had a chance to download the VSS tool, all of a sudden my Acronis started working perfectly. Unfortunately, that only lasted until last night/this morning. Now I'm getting those red dot error messages like before – either a snapshot problem or an alleged system overload problem.
So I just downloaded the tool and ran it. It didn't indicate that there was any problem with the VSS. One problem it said I had was that my WINRETOOLS drive didn't have enough empty space. I don't think I've ever seen this drive show up before when I would go to This PC. Anyway, when I clicked on that drive, it showed one folder called Recovery. When I clicked that, it said that folder was empty. So I don't know what to do about that drive – if I need it, if I should get rid of it, whatever.
Now I'm ready to do the next thing that Acronis suggested to me – to update to the latest build of Windows 10. Do I need to resolve that WINRETOOLS drive before I update? BTW as you'll see, it says I have 229 mb free on that drive.
Steve, I thank you in advance once again.
Lloyd
Lloyd, you should leave the WinRETools partition alone as that is where any Windows recovery options such as Automatic Repair etc. You could omit it from your Source selection for your backup task if doing a Disks & Partitions backup. You need to toggle the option to Hide / Show hidden partitions to see the partition.
Thank you. I'll leave it alone. Now I'll do the Windows update and see if that will solve my Acronis problem. I've attached what my Acronis activity looks like for the last couple of days. And that's how it has looked since getting Acronis a couple of months ago, although I did have seven straight days without an error recently.
Thanks again--Lloyd
