System Restore Error 0x81000203 - can't create shadow copies

Please help me to diagnose and fix my VSS errors. Symptoms include:

• When visiting the System Protection tab in System Properties, I get the error message: "There was an unexpected error in the property page. System Restore encountered an error. Please try to run System Restore again. (0x81000203) Please close the property page and try again."
• In the event log I get an error with event ID 12293: "Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Error calling a routine on a Shadow Copy Provider {b5946137-7b9f-4925-af80-51abd60b20d5}. Routine details IVssSnapshotProvider::IsVolumeSupported() failed with 0x8000ffff [hr = 0x8000ffff, Catastrophic failure]. Operation: Check If Volume Is Supported by ProviderContext: Execution Context: Coordinator Provider ID: {b5946137-7b9f-4925-af80-51abd60b20d5} Volume Name: \\?\Volume{48a79008-0000-0000-0000-100000000000}\

The Volume ID refers to my system volume.

So far, I have tried the following:

• vssadmin list writers — no errors shown
• sfc /scannow — no errors found
• chkdsk c: /f — no errors found
• I've even done a repair install of Windows, which didn't fix it.
• I enabled VSS tracing (trace attached), which identified at least the following errors:
  
  • THROW[CVssMachineInformation::GetMinDiffAreaOnVolume] Could not send the IOCTL 0x00534058 on device \\?\Volume{48a79008-0000-0000-0000-100000000000} - 0x000001cc. [0x00000001]
  • Cannot retrieve minimum diff area for volume \\?\Volume{48a79008-0000-0000-0000-100000000000}\ [0x8000ffff]. Using the default value 335544320

However, despite plenty of googling, I'm none the wiser at trying to fix those errors, and I'd be grateful for any help.

Thanks in advance.

TairikuOkami said:

Has this just started happening or did system restore never worked?

It's worked until recently.

TairikuOkami said:

reg delete "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\SystemRestore" /v "DisableSR" /f
reg delete "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\SystemRestore" /v "DisableConfig" /f

Unable to find the specified registry key or value.

TairikuOkami said:

reg add "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SPP\Clients" /v " {09F7EDC5-294E-4180-AF6A-FB0E6A0E9513}" /t REG_MULTI_SZ /d "1" /f

TairikuOkami said:

schtasks /Change /TN "Microsoft\Windows\SystemRestore\SR" /Enable

Scheduled task has already been enabled. The parameters of the scheduled task… have been changed.

TairikuOkami said:

vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage /For=C: /On=C: /Maxsize=25GB

Error: The shadow copy provider had an error. Please see the system and application event logs for more information.

TairikuOkami said:

sc config wbengine start= demand
sc config swprv start= demand
sc config vds start= demand
sc config VSS start= demand

SUCCESS

TairikuOkami said:

For the record there are better alternatives like RollBack Rx Home or AOMEI Backupper Standard.

I know, but the VSS problem isn't just affecting System Restore. Any software service trying to use VSS faces the same problem.
The new errors in the Application log are EventID 12289:
Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Unexpected error DeviceIoControl(\\?\Volume{48a79008-0000-0000-0000-100000000000} - 0000000000000188,0x00530024,0000000000000000,0,0000020896B0A280,4096,[0]). hr = 0x80070001, Incorrect function.
I noticed an older error in the System log, event ID 4:
File System Filter 'wcifs' (Version 10.0, ‎2016‎-‎09‎-‎15T16:42:03.000000000Z) failed to attach to volume '\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy2'. The filter returned a non-standard final status of 0xC000000D. This filter and/or its supporting applications should handle this condition. If this condition persists, contact the vendor.

Any other thoughts?