How to Fix VSS Error 12344: An error was encountered while Registry Writer

If you have encountered a strange error Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) error with ID 12344, see details below:

Volume Shadow Copy Error: An error 0x00000000c000014d was encountered while Registry Writer was preparing the registry for a shadow 
copy. Check the Application and System event logs for any related errors. 


Operation:
OnFreeze event
Freeze Event

Context:
Execution Context: Registry Writer
Execution Context: Writer
Writer Class Id: {afbab4a2-367d-4d15-a586-71dbb18f8485}
Writer Name: Registry Writer
Writer Instance ID: {27b10fe5-2771-47ea-8393-0b922952b2c4}

It’s likely a corrupt registry causing it. As you might have guessed, the registry writer is specifically named in the error message and hence the issue has to do with the registry structure.

When a backup is started, VSS requests from the Registry Writer an ‘all clear’ signal to proceed with live backup; however, the writer fails and consequently backups cannot continue and fail as well.

Two related errors may also show up in the Windows Event Viewer:

The first error is an NTFS 137:

The default transaction resource manager on volume System Reserved encountered a non-retryable error and could not start. The data contains the error code

Followed by VSS error 8229:

A VSS writer has rejected an event with error 0x800423f4, The writer experienced a non-transient error. If the backup process is retried, 
the error is likely to reoccur. 
. Changes that the writer made to the writer components while handling the event will not be available to the requester. 
Check the event log for related events from the application hosting the VSS writer. 


Operation:
Freeze Event

Context:
Execution Context: Writer
Writer Class Id: {afbab4a2-367d-4d15-a586-71dbb18f8485}
Writer Name: Registry Writer
Writer Instance ID: {27b10fe5-2771-47ea-8393-0b922952b2c4}
Command Line: C:\Windows\system32\vssvc.exe

The Cause of Registry Writer Error 0x00000000c000014d

The cause of this error turned out to be CCleaner.

In fact, at least two dozen customers have reported backup issues after using CCleaner on servers and/or PCs. Apparently it might delete or alter critical keys in the registry.

The issue was confirmed by restoring the registry to the time before CCleaner was applied, which was also the onset of the backup errors observed above.

If you don’t happen to have a registry backup of your server, you’ll need to scan the registry for errors, corrupt sections, and/or missing keys and entries. It is not clear at this point which entries in the registry are responsible for error 0x00000000c000014d. If you happen to have additional details, please email them to support@backupchain.com so we can add it to this article.

Sources

We want to thank Steven Bochte from the IT department of the University Wisconsin-Madison who supplied the details above for us to share with you.

Additional helpful info is available on this page:

http://www.eventid.net/display-eventid-137-source-ntfs-eventno-9241-phase-1.htm

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