Acronis and Microsoft VSS
This might be old news, but I find that unless I disable the Microsoft volume shadow service (VSS) Acronis 2019 will stall at the beginning of any backup sequence.
Is this a well-known issue? If VSS is running, VSS Doctor reports an error but isn't specific about a remedy and I haven't been able to find a definitive statement about this on the forum or in the FAQs.
Edward, on my computer the VSS service shows as being 'Stopped' and the start up type is set to be 'Manual'. ATI will launch VSS as needed when making a backup.
Edward,
Does the backup task stall indefinitely or just for a period of time and then runs to completion?
Can you post a screenshot of the VSS Doctor screen showing the error you mention?
Steve, I'll give those settings a try. My dim recollection is that it didn't work for me, but I will try again.
Enchantech, the backup stalls almost immediately and never recovers. Eventually it either times out or I End Task.
I don't think I have those files handy, but I'll recreate the issue and post the logs and the VSS Doctor result. In the meantime I check to see that VSS is disabled and then the backups run fine.
Ed
At the beginning of the backup attempt the Shadow Service was stopped and set to Manual.
Attached are a log file and a file produced by VSS Doctor
Edward,
Your VSS Doctor log indicates that several VSS Writers are failed. Often times this can be corrected by a restart of the computer. This issue may be the result of a Windows update gone awry.
I suggest that you restart your computer in the following manner so as to achieve a clean start.
- Left click on the Windows Start button to open a context menu.
- Hold down the Shift key and click on Restart from the menu.
- Wait while your machine shuts down all processes, applications and logs off you the user.
- Machine will restart clean to the logon screen.
Once Windows and apps fully load attempt your backup again. If it does not work post back.
Enchantech,
After following your instructions, the backup failed again. At the conclusion of the backup, the Shadow Copy was running (it was stopped before the backup). The Startup Type was still Manual.
After stopping the service and disabling it the backup proceeded with no problems.
I've attached the latest VSS Doctor file.
Well, that cleared up the problem with the System Writer but it did not resolve the other two Writer problems.
- Open a Run box and type cleanmgr, select OK
- A new box will appear and ask you to select the volume/drive you wish to clean, default is C: click OK
- A new box will appear while the tool calculates how much space you will free up.
- Another new box will appear, click on Cleanup System Files
- Another new box will appear, click on the More tab
- Another new box will appear, click on the button Cleanup in the System Restore and Shadow Copies section
- A confirmation box will appear asking if you are sure you want to delete all but the most recent point, click Delete
This will clear any hung shadow copies and should free up the writers. You can perform this on your F: drive as well, I would advise doing so.
The above when run on C: will delete all Windows System Restore points except the last one captured if that matters to you for some reason.
Once this is complete try your backup again. If this fails you likely have corrupted system files or errors in your Windows registry.
Enchantech,
I went through the process you described and then ran Acronis. Same result—the backup hangs almost immediately. I left the machine for a couple of hours. When I returned to it Acronis had stopped without making a backup. VSS was running on Manual. For whatever it's worth I downloaded a free copy of EaseUS. It made a full backup without any issues. Also, Acronis will make a clone with no issues.
I appreciate your help. Since this doesn't seem to be a problem with other users I'd have to say it's most likely a problem with my machine. In sum, I can backup with Acronis if I disable VSS. The backed-up files appear to be ok. Happily I haven't had to try a recovery—if that failed I do have the clone.
I've attached the latest VSS Doctor file.
Ed
Ed, out of interest is this a dedicated Windows computer or are you running Windows on a Mac here? The link for the VSS error in the Event log in your report points at one hit where an Apple file system was involved, hence the question?
Link for above here: where the cause was identified as "The cause is the Apple HFS driver applehfs.sys." on page 3 of the linked thread of posts.
Edward,
Your log file is now clean, free of all the errors there before. I think that another restart like I had you do previously will fix your issue seeing how your log file now shows no errors.
A clean restart is needed sometimes to flush out old metadata and even left over file fragments.
Your system halting is puzzling, might be that you have a Security app that is blocking True Image from running as expected although that would not explain why your VSS Doctor log file now shows no errors.
My only other suggestion would be to open a run box and type SFC /Scannow to run Windows System File Checker in the event you have some other related corrupted file at play.
Steve,
Thanks for the comment. This isn't a PC running in a simulator, however, I did install BootCamp to run some utilities. AppleHFS.sys was not installed. In any case, I disabled all the Apple software, at startup and otherwise, to no effect.
Enchantech,
Ran Scannow. This was the result:
Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them. For online repairs, details are included in the CBS log file located at Windir\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For example C: \Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For offline repars, details are included in the log file provided by the /OFFLOGFILE flag.
I've looked through the first log; I haven't gotten to the second. The backup issue continues, but I do have the workaround of disabling VSS.
Thanks to both of you for the help. For myself, I've got to put this to bed for the moment—life intrudes.
Ed
I recommend you don't disable VSS. Instead change the snapshot option in your Acronis backups. Under Options for each backup go to the Advanced tab and select Performance. You will see an item named "Snapshot for backup". The default is VSS. Under the drop down menu select "Acronis snapshot". This will tell True Image to use the Acronis snapman service instead of VSS to do the backups. That way VSS will still be available to other programs that may want to use it.
Mustang,
That worked! Many thanks!
Ed
You're welcome.