Volume Shadow Copy : how do you get this damn thing to work!

[Armando]

I'm tired of closing all my apps everytime I want to make a backup with SyncBack SE -- older version, maybe, but still...

I think it used to work in the past. Tried to have it work gain, not able to.

The service is enabled, everything should be okay. WHY are some files still locked ? Is it because I'm using XP Home? 


I searched the web and saw that some people have a "shadow copy" tab in the drive properties window. I don't. Should I?

Anyhow... Any help with the VSS service would be appreciated...

[mwb1100]

VSS can be finicky.  2BrightSparks has a long list of troubleshooting steps for VSS that you should try, if you haven't already:

http://2brightsparks.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=932

The thing that worked for me when I had problems is supposed to be in that list, but I didn't notice it.  I had the following problem/fix:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;828481

[Armando]

Thanks mwb1100. 

I already went through the list you pointed out to me, but it might be really worth trying again. Who knows.

Like they say, if VSS doesn't work well "we recommend you contact Microsoft Technical Support and not 2BrightSparks"... 

Thanks!

[cranioscopical]

Like they say, if VSS doesn't work well "we recommend you contact Microsoft Technical Support and not 2BrightSparks"... 

Sure, who wants bright sparks when dim bulbs are available?

[Armando]

[Armando]

Strangely, when I reboot it works : I'm able to backup opened files, and then, after resuming from standby, won't work again (stopping and restarting VSS won't work either - only reboot). I'll have to enquire.

[Armando]

I think I found something which could be linked to my problem. Doesn't explain the standby thing though. 

When you try to create shadow copies on large volumes that have a small cluster size (for example, less than 4 kilobytes [KB]), or if you take snapshots of several very large volumes at the same time, the VSS software provider may use a larger paged pool memory allocation during the shadow copy creation than is required. If there is not sufficient paged pool memory available for the allocation, the shadow copy cannot complete and may cause the loss of all previous shadow copy tasks.

this is the error I get :

Event Type: Error
Event Source: VolSnap
Event Category: None
Event ID: 20
Description:
The shadow copies of volume X: were aborted because of a failed free space computation.

http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb%3Ben-us%3B833167&x=10&y=7

The problem is that the fix is for windows 2003 Server. I have XP home.

Anybody has ever experienced changing the cluster size of a partition?
Currently, I'm at 4kb, which doesn't seem too low...

[Armando]

I'm progressing : I found that thread : http://www.petri.co.il/forums/showthread.php?p=108265

am using Windows XP SP3.

I have just upgraded my system disk from 200GB to 1TB and cloned all the software to proportionately larger partitions.

Retrospect 7.5 was working fine until then. Now this appears.

A restart fixes the problem.

It looks like it must have something to do with the large number of clusters.

My error log event is identical:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: VolSnap
Event Category: None
Event ID: 20
Date: 6/10/2008
Time: 11:58:36 AM
User: N/A
Computer: KRELL
Description:
The shadow copy of volume G: was aborted because of a failed free space computation.

But there's no solution.

[Armando]

I guess I'm looking on some advices on cluster size. That's the only potential solution I foresee for now. Anyone knows from experience what will happen if I increase the cluster size of my partitions?

[mwb1100]

I guess I'm looking on some advices on cluster size. That's the only potential solution I foresee for now. Anyone knows from experience what will happen if I increase the cluster size of my partitions?

Not from experience, but the thing that comes first to mind is make sure you're adequately backed-up.  While I think the conversion should be safe, since it's a low-level change if there's any kind of glitch it'll be a disaster.

The only drawback I believe you might see is there will be increased 'slack' space usage, especially if you have a ton of small files.  However, given today's disk sizes, I doubt that would be of any significance.

[Armando]

thanks mwb1100.

for now -- because I' running out of time -- I found a workaround : never go into standby mode and only use Windows hibernation feature. Kind of annoying since I have a laptop, but less annoying then having to reboot every time I want to fully backup certain system files, my Outlook PST files, etc.!

I found out that hibernating leaves VSS working correctly... Standby "kills" it. Weird. Could be a memory problem (???), but don't know enough to diagnose properly.

[f0dder]

If the problem is only with standby-resume, I doubt changing cluster size would do you any good. Larger than 4k clusters mean you can't use NTFS compression, but other than that there's not much downside - perhaps even upside since file fragments get larger, and you thus get slightly less fragmentation.

Standby can, unfortunately, give a zillion problems. Usually driver-related hangs though, dunno why it would mess up VSS :-s

[Armando]

Thanks f0dder.
OK...finally, after 4 successful backups... Hibernation does the same thing as standby.
Next step is now : cluster size, I guess... I have no idea why would that do something. But let's see.