Macrium Reflect Backup Failures

simrick said:

This must be done.



So, if I ask you to please turn Fast Startup off, and I don't know that this hasn't been done, and then I proceed with further instructions assuming it has been turned off, any results are invalid.




I am not aware of any install limitations, but if you say so, then I will suggest you remove it and prepare to call them if you have trouble on the 4th install. WDSP is a backup program, and we are having problems with backups. I need this off the system please.



I understand this, and I remember you running it, but after the changes I've requested in Post#115, it needs to be done, where I indicated. Thanks.

Short answer: Understood, and when you are ready for me to do things, what you have stated need to be done,, shall be done. I don't know that the Passport drive is encrypted, I would have to read the documentation; meanwhile, I can copy the Macrium Resuce Disk-created file to the Seagate drive.

I will start on these issues tomorrow; too tired, too late, too too to do tonight. I will post when I have done all this and am ready to proceed.

DavidY said:

I admit I'm not an expert, but the one which did catch my eye was that some drivers and software were installed or perhaps updated on 20 August for 'Escort Detector Tools' . I did wonder if that was around the date your problems started; if so, it might be an issue with those particular drivers?
Thanks for that, The main thing I wanted to check was that you aren't using TrueCrypt to encrypt your main System drive - I'm pretty sure that would be likely to cause problems if you had encrypted the C:/System drive.

One thing I'm pretty sure of with Truecrypt is that they've NOT updated their software or drivers in the last couple of weeks , so I'd be surprised if your ten files were the cause of the problem.

I'm on it - trying to figure out how to use it now...

Escort: Possible, but not overly likely, given the extent of their customer base. The drivers are simply to allow the Escort updating program to identify what model detector is being used. I am not sure of possible date overlap, new software vs. problems, and I am too tired to even try to check that tonight.

I don't think that TrueCrypt has updated anything for quite a while, but no, I don't use it to encrypt my entire disk, which is not encrypted, just to hide a few files, such as tax returns.

simrick said:

Which I will be happy to provide, when we're ready for it. :) Either ISO or Tool will work; I prefer ISO.

Given how much help you have already provided, I would be most surprised if you were not to be happy to provide the information I have requested. As I wrote in another reply to you a few minutes ago, I will let you know when I am reaady.

simrick said:

Thanks. I'm sorry if I was a bit short. I'm a bit worn out myself, and I appear to be showing it tonight.

Let's start fresh tomorrow with Post #115. If you have any questions, please ask as they arise; I should be sitting at the computer for most of the day doing some graphics work. Today I was in and out (mostly out), and I apologise for that. :)

Apology, kind thought it was, is hereby rejected, on the grounds that is was simply not needed, as I was not at all upset by what you wrote.

Again, at sometime tomorrow, when I am ready to tackle the removals, etc., I will do what you have requested, then let you know.

simrick said:

Hi.
I don't understand why you're contacting Dell and MS?
I thought we were going to try my instructions in post #115?
Those steps need to be performed, in that order.
A repair install should not be done until post #115 is completed and results known for each step, where appropriate.

Oh, just read this message, after replying to later ones. I contacted Delll and MS for one reason, and one reason only, to find out if I could get any information about the MS error code I see when I try to create a Restore Point, and I did that only as there is practically no such information available through a Google search. As it turned out, MS does have some further info., which I alluded to in my 'This is not good," or however I actually worded my late afternoon post as to the critical nature of the MS error code.

Perhaps it was this message for which you were apologizing; if so, I can only state that I read this as a completely legitimate question, your simply wanting to know why I did something. On my side, I have just not been ready to proceed with your instructions, having other things to do that took priority, and perhaps you simply misunderstood that.

As is said in the Spanglish of northern New Mexico, "No problema, bro."

Not Myself said:

Escort: Possible, but not overly likely, given the extent of their customer base. The drivers are simply to allow the Escort updating program to identify what model detector is being used. I am not sure of possible date overlap, new software vs. problems, and I am too tired to even try to check that tonight.

I think it might be worth checking the date of when it installed vs the date when Macrium started failing.

One experience I had was with a 'Fitbit' fitness tracker ( no, it hasn't made me much fitter) which is also a fairly common brand and comes with a USB cable and associated software. But my old laptop really didn't like it and was giving frequent Blue Screens of Death until I uninstalled. Admittedly the laptop is ancient and the underlying cause is probably another older driver which is clashing, but still...

DavidY said:

I'm on it - trying to figure out how to use it now...

Right here are some results of my experimentation with VSSTrace. In my case I tried a System Restore, but another option would be to try running Macrium.

This is my VSS Trace from running System Restore
VSS_SysRest.txt

The steps I used were something like:

1. Download the initial setup for the Windows 10 SDK
2. Run SDKSetup to Install the Software Development Kit component. (In the video I downloaded it first but you wouldn't need to.)
3. Find the VSSTrace program and open an Elevated Command Prompt in its folder
4. Run VSSTrace command to start the tracing, and save the output to a text file. Ideally the text file would be created on a drive which is NOT the C: drive where VSS is trying to run, so change my "Z:\VSS\VSS_SysRest.txt" into a folder on an attached drive.
   
   Code:

    vsstrace -f 0 +WRITER +COORD +SWPRV +EXCEPT -o Z:\VSS\VSS_SysRest.txt

5. The above command is logging modules for
   
   1. C++ Exception Handling,
   2. The VSS service, which is also called the VSS coordinator,
   3. VSS System Shadow Copy Provider service,
   4. VSS writer operations
   
   but that's very much a guess at which ones might be useful.
   
6. Try one of the failing VSS processes - in my case System Restore (although it doesn't fail for me)
7. Once the logging stops, use Ctrl-C to stop the tracer
8. Locate output log file and attach it on here.

With any luck it might make sense and give us some clues, although I'm not totally hopeful.

You can tell I've been off work for a couple of days - making videos as a form of procrastination on the stuff around the house which needs doing.

But I'll leave it up to @simrick on whether to try this next or suggest something else first?

simrick said:

Great! See you tomorrow!

Are you certain that you are willing to ruin yet another day?

Well, since you did not reply while I was writing the above question, I do have another one for you. As I use Comodo Firewall, Windows Defender will not run. As Windows Defender constantly told me to turn it on, based on the information I found on-line, I deleted the program as that is the only way to stop the nagging. All I get now is a polite reminder when I reboot, and as far as I can determine, that cannot be deleted, so I just click on its OK button, and that is the last I hear from it.

Which leads me to one of the last lines from your message as to how to prepare for attempted OS repairs, "Verify Windows Defender is ON and up-to-date." (I always start at the bottom and read up...). Figuring that some protection would be better than none, and as you ask that I delete Comodo Firewall, I tried to find out how to download and install Defender for Windows 10; this does not appear to be possible. Given that, what do you suggest that I do as I begin to prepare?