Backup problems with Casper & Macrium...

I have recently added a second SSD to my Dell Optiplex 5050 which I want to use to backup my C drive.

Previously I’ve used Casper on my old XP machine to clone the C drive and it has worked well but I have never run it on this Windows 10 machine until I installed the second SSD. Casper initially appears to run but fails within seconds with the error:-

“The shadow copy provider had an unexpected error while trying to process the specified operation. (0x8004230F)”

As Macrium appears to be well thought of on this Forum I downloaded Macrium Free but on running it I get the same error message… As I get the same error with both Casper and Macrium I presume the error is Windows 10 related…

Having done a bit of Googling I have checked that Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider and Volume Shadow Copy are both running. They were set to Manual, I did change them both to Automatic but that made no difference. I have checked for viruses/malware (Defender,MalwareBytes,ESET and ADW) and all is clear although I did have a couple of PUP’s but they have been removed… I have also run SFC and DISM and all appears quite normal. I’ve also found that System Restore is not working, returning an 0x81000203 error.

Any help would be appreciated.

Dalchina – thanks for your mail and advice, apologies for the delayed reply…

I have followed the Method 1 instructions in the MS link and tried a clean boot as per instructions on TenForums, the problem is still apparent and I have returned to normal start – well tried to as it defaults to selective start, that’s where it was when I started… I seem to remember that has been the case for a long time, it may be because I have changed something a while back – however I’ve no recollection of changing anything recently and my Restore/Casper problems have only appeared recently. From reading on the ‘net lots of people’s machines would appear to run in selective start so I’m not alone…

I have also followed the Method 2 instructions relating to the VSS service and changed it to automatic, delayed start. There is no mention of SPP in Services, I found out later this apparently refers to the Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider and I have also changed this to automatic, delayed start, like the VSS, and ensured it is running. This has made no difference.

Finally I downloaded the MS Safety Scanner and ran it but it found nothing. I had run a couple of scanners previously and was pretty confident that I didn’t have any nasties lurking in a dark corner somewhere…

I also tried Macrium’s VSSFix but again no difference.

Appreciate you taking time to help.

>>> Hi, it appears the System Restore error (presumably in your case when trying to create a restore point?) and the imaging failure are related. <<<

I get that error when I go to System Properties - System Protection, some of the boxes are greyed out and no drives are listed. I've since tried another back up software ( a total of 3 now) and they all fail... As you say I'm sure they are related to the Restore function.

I downloaded and ran the free repair tool from Tweaking.com which unfortunately didn't do anything...This morning I downloaded and ran Vss Diag freeware from Back Up Chain. I saw this recommended on Malwarebytes so I assumed it was safe... This is what I get:-

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 Provider

Context:Execution Context: Coordinator
Provider ID: {b5946137-7b9f-4925-af80-51abd60b20d5}
Volume Name: \\?\Volume{9e426d64-6a31-4e23-bcd4-a2963d4df869}\

Is that any help?

Failing that I will have to try an in-place upgrade repair install as you suggest. I've had this W10 OptiPlex for 18 months and I never really felt at ease with the OS. Having just fitted a second SSD I really do need to be able to make back ups. Just one thing, my C: drive has 3 partitions - I presume that this upgrade will merely do a 'Windows over Windows' and will not affect recovery partitons and such like?

Thanks for your patience.

>>> Any upgrade procedure may create a new Windows Recovery partition. Your PC should be fully bootable <<<

So none of the present 3 partitions on my hard drive will deleted ? My apologies but this really is over my head...

At present my C drive is partitioned :-

100MB EFI System Partition
236 GB NTFS Boot, Page File, Crash Dump, Primary Partition
1.76 GB NTFS Windows RE Tools Healthy (OEM Partition

At present I'm backing up docs, photographs, downloads etc to an external USB ~ once a week so I'm not 'totally' hosed - just would like to get things back to normal. If (when?) I get this sorted I'll still do that as a belts-and-braces thingy...

Thanks Dalchina, I suppose it will have to be an-place upgrade repair. Thanks for all your help and patience.