BackupChain® Volume Shadow Copy Service Troubleshooting Guide Part 3 of 3
This is part 3 of our Volume Shadow Copy Service Error repair and troubleshooting guide. Also check out: Strategies #1 to #3 and Strategies #4 to #6
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VSS Repair Strategy #7 of 11
Your computer may have a corrupt COM+ subscription information. Open the registry editor (regedit) and navigate to:
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\EventSystem\{26c409cc-ae86-11d1-b616-00805fc79216}
Then delete the Subscriptions key and reboot the machine.
A subsequent call in the command prompt should show no more errors: vssadmin list writers
This VSS repair strategy appears to work well when the System Writer is reporting an error. The Event Viewer may be reporting this or a similar error:
Writer Class Id:
{e8132975-6f93-4464-a53e-1050253ae220}
Writer Name: System Writer
Writer Instance ID: {34162f4c-59ff-468e-848d-cb4b3d8dd7dc}
VSS Repair Strategy #8
Remove or uninstall all backup tools on your computer. BackupChain doesn't need to be removed because it doesn't add a VSS writer to your system. Other products, however, do add a VSS writer which may be causing the problem. You may receive this error:
Volume Shadow Copy Service error: A critical component required by the Volume Shadow Copy service is not registered. This might happened if an error occurred during Windows setup or during installation of a Shadow Copy provider. The error returned from CoCreateInstance on class with CLSID {faf53cc4-bd73-4e36-83f1-2b23f46e513e} and Name VSSEvent is [0x80040154]
Several users reported that after uninstalling Acronis this error message disappeared.
VSS Repair Strategy #9
Try uninstalling the virtualization tool you're using (Microsoft Virtual Server, Hyper-V, VMware, etc.) one-by-one, then run BackupChain's VSS test to see if the problem persists. Try rebooting after uninstalling it before running the test. On some machines, this strategy worked when everything else failed.
Once you get VSS working again properly, install the virtualization platform again from scratch and retest VSS.
VSS Repair Strategy #10
Install the latest Service Packs and Updates through Windows Update.
Check Microsoft's Support for hot fixes and other updates to repair VSS.
VSS Repair Strategy #11 (VSS Error Code 800423f3)
If the VSS error code 0x800423f3 is reported, the reason is a corrupt state of WMI (wmiutils.dll). This may happen if a registry cleaner was used or a third-party application was uninstalled incorrectly. What you need to do is re-register wmiutils.dll and then restart the WMI service.
In the command prompt, execute the following three lines (note that stopping the WMI service does NOT stop VMs, it only stops the management service):
net stop winmgmt
regsvr32 wmiutils.dll
net start winmgmt
After that you should start up the Hyper-V Management Service again if needed.
Another cause for this error: You may need to update your Hyper-V virtual machine integration services inside of each VM when you come across this error. See http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd582376(v=WS.10).aspx. Check the vmguest.iso date / time you have in your system folder. You may have different versions of the Hyper-V Integration Services CD on your system. There have been bug reports indicating that Hyper-V uses the wrong ISO file when the VM Action menu is used to install the Integration Services. Try attaching the ISO manually and use the latest vmguest.iso in your system folder.
On Windows Server 2008 (not R2), also check this hotfix: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971394
We hope this article was useful in resolving the Volume Shadow Copy Service errors you encountered. Please feel free to send your comments and questions to support@backupchain.com. We appreciate your input!
Download our free VssDiag tool, which helps you find error information.
