error 0x10c442: Failed to start creating the volume snapshot
A client of mine, running the latest ATIH 2018, has not been able to create a backup for well over 2 weeks, possibly more (Windows 10 x64, Fall Creators Update).
It used to work, then she ran into an issue with the "old backup not being there" (it was). I cannot recall the exact wording of the message but a Validate was not fixing the issue. To fix the issue I created a new task to start over, by cloning the settings and deleting the old task. Since then, we are unable to complete a single backup. But in the mean time ATIH 2018 got an update too (just saying, not sure if it is related).
The email my client receives from the failed backup(s) shows the subject error multiple times (30 times to be exact). And she gets 5 or 6 emails every night, about 20 to 40 minutes apart, as ATIH 2018 keeps trying.
I have already run a "chkdsk /r" on the source and target disks and they both came out clean.
So I ran the Acronis VSS Doctor tool. It fixed something (can't recall the details), but there is one error that remains unfixed that does not go away when rerunning VSS Doctor (even after a reboot). Here is what's left after omitting the sections with no errors (for brevity):
VSS Writers Status
Status: Warn
Description: Some VSS writers were failed. Event Log may contain more details.
Writers:
Name: SqlServerWriter
Id: {a65faa63-5ea8-4ebc-9dbd-a0c4db26912a}
State: [8] Failed
IsOk: False
Error: Non-retryable error
===========================================================
VSS Shadow Storages Status
Status: OK
Description: All VSS shadow storages are configured correctly
Storages:
ForVolume: C:\
OnVolume: C:\
Used: 0 B
Allocated: 0 B
Maximum: 24 GB
Minimum: 320 MB
VolumeSize: 237 GB
Available: 127 GB
TargetMaximum: 23 GB
MaximumGreaterThenMinimum: True
MaximumIsEnough: True
MaximumIsNotReached: True
AvailableIsEnoughForMaximum: True
IsOk: True
Description:
===========================================================
Disk Free Space Available
Status: OK
Description: All disks have enough free space
Volumes:
Name: C:\
DeviceId: \\?\Volume{86b499fd-078d-459b-a1f0-008d4bfdc728}\
Size: 237 GB
Available: 127 GB
Minimum: 320 MB
IsOk: True
Description:
IsMounted: True
Name: \\?\Volume{7e294e1e-167b-41f8-888f-ba57c0265c5e}\
DeviceId: \\?\Volume{7e294e1e-167b-41f8-888f-ba57c0265c5e}\
Size: 999 MB
Available: 571 MB
Minimum: 320 MB
IsOk: True
Description:
IsMounted: False
As I said above, I know ATIH 2018 was updated in the past month or so. Not sure if that has anything to do with my client's problem. The nightly backups were working before. But of course Win10 also had updates. So who knows.
I also read in an old thread (ca 2011-2012) to turn off both the MS and Acronis VSS services. I haven't tried that as the thread was so old so I didn't think it would be relevant since it was ATI 2011.
Any ideas how to proceed from here?
Thanks for your anticipated help.
Pierre
Pierre, please download a copy of the MVP Log Viewer tool (from the Community Tools link below) and get your client to use this to see what other messages are being included in the failed backup log files? If you can post some of the logs, we will have a better understanding of what is happening here?
Next, in the Advanced Options > Error Handling page settings, change these settings for the following retry option:
- Repeat attempt if a backup fails - This option allows you to automatically repeat a backup attempt if the backup fails for some reason. You can specify number of attempts and time interval between attempts. Note that if the error interrupting the backup persists, then the backup will not be created.
Personally, I always turn this option off to avoid getting spammed by error messages if a problem happens with a backup!
See also the ATI 2018 User Guide: Performance of backup operation then scroll down to the section Snapshot for backup which shows the following options available to control whether VSS is used or not?
Select a backup snapshot type from the list:
- No snapshot
A snapshot will not be created. The files will be backed up one by one as an ordinary copy operation.
- VSS
Warning! This is the only recommended option for backing up your system. Your computer may not start after recovery from a backup created with a different snapshot type.
This option is default for disk-level and the Entire PC backups, and guarantees data consistency in the backup.
- Acronis snapshot
A snapshot will be created with the Acronis driver used in previous versions of Acronis True Image.
- VSS without writers
This option is default for file-level backups.
VSS writers are special VSS components for notifying applications that a snapshot is going to be created, so that the applications prepare their data for the snapshot. The writers are needed for applications that perform large number of file operations and require data consistency, for example databases. Because such applications are not installed on home computers, there is no need to use writers. In addition, this reduces the time required for file-level backups.
Hi Steve,
Thanks for your two replies. Sorry it took me so long to get back to you. Even though I had checked the box to get notified of new posts for all comments, I never got any email (I have in the past in another thread, so not sure what happened this time). So I let time go by and it slipped my mind.
Anyhow, I don't think I need a graphical interface to view the log, since it is included in the email ATIH sends when a backup fails, and I have scoured that email for any useful information. I had included the relevant part of the looooong email in my post above. I had removed the repeated errors since the same thing was showing up 30 times.
I will change the option to not retry, but that will only reduce the number of emails (which will be good), not the number of retries within a single backup attempt, if my understanding is correct.
With no other ideas for now, I am going to uninstall ATIH, reboot, and reinstall and reconfigure. But I am not so convinced it will clear the issue. My client has another computer running ATIH 2018 with no issues, saving the backups on the same target.
Since it first worked for a few weeks on the machine where it doesn't now, there is still the possibility that a Windows update messed things up, or it could be the ATIH update that came in November. But other machines are happily running with the Nov update, so it must be a combination of factors that affect this particular machine only.
The mystery continues. Stay tuned.
Pierre