Macrium VSS Windows 10 and frustrated beyond belief

Is there any absolute fix for the Macrium Reflect VSS issue that they must know plaques the free and assuming the paid version. I have been looking for a method for imaging the windows partition on my system for a while. I don't buy software till I know it works and everything I have attempted will not fully function with the imaging process on the trials. Macrium I like but everywhere I have looked to fix the VSS issue is like everyone has a different problem and there seems to be a million fixes. You can spend weeks going through all of the fixes and never get to the root.

Most forums or people you speak too either have no clue or think they know more than they do. I do not claim to be the smartest in the building but eager to learn and can admit when I don't know which is why I stopped by. If no one knows is there somewhere you can point me to.

When did the days go away where you could try software fully before you buy it. If this is the norm I am starting to understand why people pirate software more and more.

Starting Image - Sunday, June 21, 2020 13:02:41
Initializing
Write Method: Using File System Cache
Destination Drive: Storage (M:) - Free Space 10.57 TB
Free space threshold: Delete oldest backup sets when free space is less than 5.00 GB

Creating Volume Snapshot - Please Wait
Failed: Failed - 0x8004230f - IDispatch error #8463 - Retrying without VSS Writers
ERROR: COM call "m_pVssObject->AddToSnapshotSet((LPWSTR)volume.c_str(), GUID_NULL, &SnapshotID)" failed.
- Returned HRESULT = 0x8004230f
- Error text: VSS_E_UNEXPECTED_PROVIDER_ERROR
ERROR: COM call "m_pVssObject->BackupComplete(&pAsync)" failed.
- Returned HRESULT = 0x80042301
- Error text: VSS_E_BAD_STATE
ERROR: COM call "m_pVssObject->AddToSnapshotSet((LPWSTR)volume.c_str(), GUID_NULL, &SnapshotID)" failed.
- Returned HRESULT = 0x8004230f
- Error text: VSS_E_UNEXPECTED_PROVIDER_ERROR
Gathering Windows Events - Please Wait

OS Name Microsoft Windows 10 Pro x64
Version 10.0.18363 Build 18363

I have and nothing happened any different. I also bit the bullet and did a full reinstall and Macrium before Windows up, during Windows up after Windows update before I put any security software on and at various other times always removing it completely before each install.

I am sure it must work for some people but I really do wonder how many. Every local I talk to said they could never get it to work. Talked with a number of tech I know online with the same answer, "good luck". The only reason I started back was because at one time I used it and it was rather good.

I neglected to remember my older post yesterday so I apologize for that. I apologize for the attitude. My thinking however is since they are fully aware of this being an issue then why not address it in depth for those people whom prefer trying before buying because most people I know were buyers if they could have gotten pass this one issue. The company has not put out one tutorial or even addressed it on their site with anything near explaining the problem. I get no VSS error from any other backup software. I did run some diagnostics and found that it pulls 100% from Microsofts copy-on-write which has developed issues over the years as has "split mirror" method however "split mirror" does seem to work and any issues are easier to track down. I firmly believe the problem is driver support since I know Macrium had to build their own drivers to support VSS but they provide no information about their driver build or what problems or other software could cause problems with their drivers. Everyone states it always happens at the time of taking a snapshot so why not have the system reboot and take the snapshot at restart. But no info on this either. I would certainly think that if there were more info then someone could find a work around and be able to defeat the issue which would certain reward them with more sales.

Again I apologize for coming across as I know I did but you must also understand how frustrating this can be for what I have to assume is millions out here that cannot get it to perform. Although not many I am sure would put so much time and effort into attempting to locate a work around.

The fixes you have pointed to I have attempted. I tailored a search on google to narrow VSS errors down to people who have never gotten beyond it and found "About 91,110 results" I key-worded it specifically. Using the boot disk that I made it does go further but it freezes at the exact point every time. With every thing I have tried while Windows is running I would also try to reboot with the disk. A few times yes it completed however when checking the integrity of the backup I would get errors. One error specifically said Snapshot missing or something to do with the snapshot.

What I really need to be able to move forward a step is the ability to clone my current C drive over to another hard drive. Since I did do clean installs on 3 other hard drives getting this error every time I decided to verify all of those drives and they all check out fine. I verified my ram is fine as are all of the hard drive cables. I love spending the time trying to solve these type of issues but this seems to be beyond my ability to tack it down.

I thank you all for all of the input. I will check back to see if anyone posts anything else.

Extra system info below:

OS Name Microsoft Windows 10 Pro
Version 10.0.18363 Build 18363
Other OS Description Not Available
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name SERVERM1838
System Manufacturer To be filled by O.E.M.
System Model To be filled by O.E.M.
System Type x64-based PC
System SKU SKU
Processor AMD FX(tm)-4350 Quad-Core Processor, 4200 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date American Megatrends Inc. 0901, 11/7/2016
SMBIOS Version 2.7
Embedded Controller Version 255.255
BIOS Mode Legacy
BaseBoard Manufacturer ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
BaseBoard Product 970 PRO GAMING/AURA
BaseBoard Version Rev 1.xx
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 66.0 GB
Total Physical Memory 66.9 GB
Available Physical Memory 11.0 GB
Total Virtual Memory 41.3 GB
Available Virtual Memory 13.3 GB

Update and Closing this one out:
Again, I want to thank you all. You have been great. Sometimes I come on strong when I am frustrated but I try to recolonize it when I do and tone back. In the future I will attempt to do better.

Yesterday evening I did get it to do an image over to the new drive. Nothing changed. No software being removed no change anywhere in the environment at all. I just came in and was really going to uninstall it but tried again. It did a complete clone with no errors and I am using the cloned drive now. Here is the kicker though. With another disk, new out of the box I tried again. Got the same error. since I had my successful clone I was not as frustrated so I played with it and tried 3 more times with the same error. I have no idea and am completely stumped. I will have to uninstall it and find something else. Just can't bring myself to trust it.

As for Caledon Ken, The drive was brand new out of the box. I took it out, formatted it, ran two programs to check smart and sectors. The began the process. But I did over time use 3 hard drives total. On another one that was also new out of the box I just installed it and installed Windows and the first thing I did was install Macrium and still ri9ght off the bat it errored. When I checked my Windows error file I got what is between the first and last quotes, " com call"M_vss_Object->Add to snapshot failed 0x800423f " I ran the " 0x800423f " address to see if I could fine out where it was pointing but it doesn't show up anywhere. I ran the Macrium vss repair and downloaded a couple of programs to check my Vss and nothing found an issue. Shadow copy is running and works on Windows. So that is when I first posed here.

Again, THANK YOU ALL. I will check back in case someone posts anything else. I am in the forum a lot looking but rarely post. I enjoy this forum. We didn't resolve this issue but I may keep trying which is why I will be checking this thread.

Is your BIOS fully up to date on this machine you cleaned installed to? = Yes the bios is fully up to date.

and is your BIOS running default config? = I thought about this. The bios on this machine has 4 presets. I changed each one except the "overclock ready" with same results.

Do you have any overclocks running on this machine? = Not really. When I built this way back when. The memory was bundled with the motherboard. However the memory at default settings caused this machine to shut down randomly. The only way to fix it so it was more reliable was to underclock the ram by one step. Took me months to find the memory was causing this issue. However I did put it back to it's default setting to see if maybe I could get it to run and I had the same issue.


I have installed Macrium on so many machines I've lost count and never had this issue. On one my VSS broke, I ran Macrium's fix and that was it. = Yes, I ran the fix a couple of times, same issue. I was sure the fix would take care of it.


Do you have another computer kicking around to try on? = I have many computers. I am able to install on one other machine with no issue. And here is a big kicker. On this machine where I am having the problem. I have several virtual machines running. It installed on the one I tried. It is an exact copy. That made me think it is something installed on this machine that is causing the problem which was the main reason I did the clean reinstall.

Is that code correct 0x800423f, seems to be missing a digit? = I copied and pasted it in. So it should be. I looked for that address and it wasn't anywhere to be found. Maybe something went wrong when I copied it. I know at times my wireless mouse may skip for a millisecond. It's fast enough that it will not affect what I am copying other than maybe missing a digit. So I am going back to check that error when I get a chance. I did not count the digits. Just copied and pasted and moved on.


When you clean install do you delete all partitions on drive and then allow windows to setup or do you create partitions and control install. = When I did the clean install my main thought was that a piece of software was the issue. Considered it could be a virus or rootkit although that would be a rare instance for me. I considered the possibility of a MBR or GPT issue some how, maybe even a bad sector, partition table, considered GUID, EFI, bitlocker, fragmentation, memory corruption, partition table issues and went through the bios to see if any of those settings maybe could affect it and experimented a bit with no luck. Considered the rare possibility that while it was doing it's thing maybe it was trying to share a driver with something else maybe. But error report didn't show anything that made me think it was any kind of driver error. I am considering maybe putting it back on the virtual installation and some way migrate it from there to this.

I just can't come up with much else that could be causing it. It has kinda got personal at this point. If I got it on here I still may not trust that it will work when or if I need it. But I am a stubborn s.o.b and really don't want to admit defeat. So I can see myself hanging on till I get it on even if I go back and uninstall it. I just want to win at this point.