Serious issues after uninstalling two Acronis programs

Frank Stumped · 24 Jul 2019

Hi,
I have some persistent issues and am seeking guidance on what's the best course of action given the troubleshooting I've done. First I'll explain the issues with screenshots, then show the results of my troubleshooting. BTW I'm running a Dell XPS 8900 with Windows 10 Pro Version 1803 (OS Build 17134.829) installed on a Samsung 250GB SSD.

On 7/8 I uninstalled two Acronis programs and ran their cleanup utilities. A day or two later when I ran Windows Update it failed to install the first update (see screenshot). When I checked event viewer I saw some VSS/Volsnap errors and also noticed that a series of 5 of these errors first started appearing immediately after the Acronis uninstalls. I checked the VSS Services Configuration using the Acronis VSS Doctor utility. It reported "All VSS-related services are configured correctly" (see screenshot, details are in the log report file).

Serious issues after uninstalling two Acronis programs-01-windowsupdate.jpg

Serious issues after uninstalling two Acronis programs-02-acronis-vss-doctor-results.jpg

03-AcronisVSSDoctorReport_2019-07-16-12-55-52.txt

Long story short, the same series of 5 errors have been occurring after every boot since the uninstalls (see event viewer screenshots). I've highlighted the errors. Notice their pattern. The first one is logged about 30 minutes after booting and about 20 minutes after the WindowsUpdateClient event is logged. The next 4 errors occur 20 minutes apart. Notice how they terminate in the Application Event log. The last VSS error logged is followed by a System Restore error, then ends with a VSS Info entry that says the VSS Service shut down due to an idle timeout. At that point, almost 1-1/2 hours after booting, the errors stop. That series is predictable and persists with every boot. Once the errors stop, attempting to create a Restore Point or running Windows Update triggers a VSS/Volsnap error and the attempt fails.

Serious issues after uninstalling two Acronis programs-04-systemandapplicationevents.jpg

While looking into the System Restore error I found some strange behavior. As the errors are actively occurring (during the 1-1/2 hr period) the System Protection controls are completely grayed out (see screenshots). Once the errors stop, the grayed out controls return to normal, the drives are displayed but all Restore Points are gone and I cannot create a new restore point. The progress bar moves, but after letting it run for 2 hours I had to end the task in Task Mgr.

Serious issues after uninstalling two Acronis programs-05-systemprotection.jpg

At the same time the first VSS/Volsnap error is logged, Device Mgr pops up a hidden "Generic volume shadow copy" device with a warning icon (see screenshot) and Windows Defender Health Report shows a yellow warning icon next to Device driver (see screenshot).

Serious issues after uninstalling two Acronis programs-06-devicemgrpropertiescombined.jpg

Serious issues after uninstalling two Acronis programs-07-defenderhealthreportandtroubleshooter.jpg

After trying various Windows troubleshooters without success I turned to Command Prompt. Although Security & Maintenance reported all drives are working properly I ran CHKDSK from Cmd Prompt, it found no problems. So I ran SFC which initially reported integrity violations and its CBS.log reported 19 corrupt files. Then I ran DISM & SFC with the following good results.....

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth - The component store is repairable. The operation completed successfully.
DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth - The restore operation completed successfully.
sfc /scannow - Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them.
sfc /verifyonly - Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.

The corrupt files are gone from the CBS.log and sfc now reports NO integrity violations. However, 3 warnings persist in the dism.log, the first of which refers to the servicing stack folder (see screenshot). Results are from running /ScanHealth, the log file is also attached. I can't tell if the warnings are serious, harmless, or in any way connected to the other issues. What do you think?

Serious issues after uninstalling two Acronis programs-08-dismwarnings.jpg

Attachment 241224

Despite all of the above, the issues persist with VSS/Volsnap errors - System Restore - Windows Update - Windows Defender & Device Mgr. Please note that Windows Defender has no problem installing on-demand Definition Updates, the problem is when they come via Windows Update. The failed Definition Update shown in the Windows Update screenshot has in fact been successfully installed since the screenshot was taken, as were all Definition updates since the issues started. The only Defender problem is the Device Driver warning.

With all that's going on I'm seriously considering a "Repair Install of Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade" as a cure-all. My only questions are.....

Is it likely one or more of these issues aren't repairable with a repair install and would still persist after? And if so, what to do about it now?

Thanks in advance,
Frank

dalchina · 25 Jul 2019

VSS: You could try this:
How to troubleshoot Microsoft Volume Shadow copy Service errors (VSS)

assuming there's something there you've not already done.

Note the convenient download tools.

However, as you suggest, an in-place upgrade repair would be more complete.

Steve C · 25 Jul 2019

I try to warn people off poorly engineered and supported Acronis software every time I see a post about their software. Their software tends to leave behind remnants which can be difficult to remove. You might need to do a clean install if you can't diagnose and fix the problem

dalchina · 25 Jul 2019

Another possibility could be to reinstall Acronis, preferably monitored by Revo Uninstaller (licensed). And if not, then uninstall using Revo Uninstaller (free).

Frank Stumped · 25 Jul 2019

dalchina,
Thanks for the tips. I already visited the link you supplied. I previously used the "vssadmin list writers" command and several others I found elsewhere but found the Acronis VSS Doctor was more thorough and did a better job at explaining results. Everything checked out ok, results are in the VSS Doctor log file.

I thought re-registering the dlls sounded like a good idea but the article is 5 years old and four of the dlls weren't in my system32 folder. Don't know if they're missing or if the list is out of date. I'd rather check if the dlls are registered rather than actually running the commands to re-register them, but couldn't find a way to do that. Do you know if it does any harm to re-register an already registered dll, or register the name of a dll that doesn't exist? If it's harmless I'll give it a shot.

There were two Acronis programs uninstalled, True Image and Disk Doctor, as well as each having its own cleanup utility. I wanted to keep DD but had to uninstall both. As Steve mentioned, they are poorly engineered, if you uninstall one the other is likely to have problems. Anyhow, the DD reinstall failed. So no more Acronis installs for me.

dalchina · 25 Jul 2019

There may be a more up to date article or tool by MR - Google won't necessarily find the latest one.

Alternatively get the latest version of MR and try:

Serious issues after uninstalling two Acronis programs-untitled.png

Frank Stumped · 25 Jul 2019

Thanks again. I've been using the free edition of macrium for some time. Had to attempt a backup for Macrium to log errors. Tried shortly after booting, see below. I suspect the in progress error is due to the series of 5 errors that I always see after booting. Have to leave for the day now. Will try again later but after waiting for the errors in event viewer to stop.

ERROR: COM call "m_pVssObject->StartSnapshotSet(&m_latestSnapshotSetID)" failed.
- Returned HRESULT = 0x80042316
- Error text: VSS_E_SNAPSHOT_SET_IN_PROGRESS
Completing the backup (BackupComplete) ...

ERROR: COM call "m_pVssObject->BackupComplete(&pAsync)" failed.
- Returned HRESULT = 0x80042301
- Error text: VSS_E_BAD_STATE
- Setting the VSS context to: 0x00000010

ERROR: COM call "m_pVssObject->StartSnapshotSet(&m_latestSnapshotSetID)" failed.
- Returned HRESULT = 0x80042316
- Error text: VSS_E_SNAPSHOT_SET_IN_PROGRESS

Kyhi · 25 Jul 2019

These are the VSS Files

Code:

\Windows\System32\vss_ps.dll
\Windows\System32\vssadmin.exe
\Windows\System32\vssapi.dll
\Windows\System32\vsstrace.dll
\Windows\System32\vssvc.exe
\Windows\SysWOW64\vss_ps.dll
\Windows\SysWOW64\vssapi.dll
\Windows\SysWOW64\vsstrace.dll

vssvc.exe - Is the Service

margrave55 · 26 Jul 2019

I like this idea ...

dalchina said:

Another possibility could be to reinstall Acronis, preferably monitored by Revo Uninstaller (licensed). And if not, then uninstall using Revo Uninstaller (free).

But I would leave Acronis installed ... and just not use it. If the system then functions properly, s'good.

If the software runs background services and you cannot tolerate that, then shut them off.

Frank Stumped · 26 Jul 2019

Thanks for the list Kyhi.

dalchina, below is the result of running Macrium after the series of 5 errors had finished logging.

Initializing
Write Method: Using File System Cache
Destination Drive: Seagate Backup Plus Drive (O:) - Free Space 972.05 GB
Creating Volume Snapshot - Please Wait
Failed: VSS Timeout - Retrying without VSS Writers
Failed to rename VSS log file, reason: Encountered a sharing violation while accessing C:\Users\Frank\AppData\Local\Temp\vss.log.
Backup aborted! - Failed To Create Volume Snapshot. Failed - 0x80042316 - IDispatch error #8470

I also used the Fix VSS Problems option to no avail. While the mystery deepens with a sharing violation, at this point I'm 99.99% sure I'm chasing a ghost.

While googling this and other errors, I ran across a 2017 thread here about VSS errors in Macrium, in which you took part. It didn't really have an Acronis connection, but after 6 pages was eventually solved by a repair install. I've also read several other resources & forums on the topic, and every single case where Acronis was involved ended with a repair install. I hate to give up a challenge after investing so much time, but the writing's on the wall.

I have the ISO for v1903 in a folder on my 2nd hdd and plan to follow the great thread here to
Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade but would like to tie up some loose ends in preparation and would appreciate your advice.

I ran 3 searches for the word "acronis" in my registry. 1 search for keys, 1 for values and 1 for data. Each are shown separately below. I think it's safe to delete these from my registry. Could you please look and confirm?

KEYS matching "acronis". Can these 4 keys be deleted?
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\VirtualStore\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Acronis]
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\VirtualStore\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Acronis]
[HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-216321514-309973785-3292533578-1001\Software\Classes\VirtualStore\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Acronis]
[HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-216321514-309973785-3292533578-1001_Classes\VirtualStore\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Acronis]

keys containing VALUES matching "acronis". Can the values in these keys be deleted?
10 values [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Compatibility Assistant\Store]
1 value [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StartupApproved\Run]
2 values [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StartupApproved\Run32]
10 values [HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-216321514-309973785-3292533578-1001\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Compatibility Assistant\Store]
1 value [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\bam\UserSettings\S-1-5-21-216321514-309973785-3292533578-1001]
1 value [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\bam\UserSettings\S-1-5-21-216321514-309973785-3292533578-1001]

keys containing DATA matching "acronis". Can these 13 services be deleted from the key?
FWIW I checked any paths to files in the data and confirmed the files don't exist.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup\FirstBoot\Services\
"ServiceName"="AcrSch2Svc" "DisplayName"="Acronis Scheduler2 Service"
"ServiceName"="afcdpsrv" "DisplayName"="Acronis Nonstop Backup Service"
"ServiceName"="file_tracker" "DisplayName"="Acronis File Tracker Driver"
"ServiceName"="mmsminisrv" "DisplayName"="Acronis Managed Machine Service Mini"
"ServiceName"="mobile_backup_server""DisplayName"="Acronis Mobile Backup Server"
"ServiceName"="mobile_backup_status_server""DisplayName"="Acronis Mobile Backup Status Server"
"ServiceName"="snapman" "DisplayName"="Acronis Snapshots Manager"
"ServiceName"="syncagentsrv" "DisplayName"="Acronis Sync Agent Service"
"ServiceName"="tib" "DisplayName"="Acronis TIB Manager"
"ServiceName"="tib_mounter" "DisplayName"="Acronis TIB Mounter"
"ServiceName"="tnd" "DisplayName"="Acronis Try&Decide filter"
"ServiceName"="virtual_file" "DisplayName"="Acronis Virtual File Driver"
"ServiceName"="fltsrv" "DisplayName"="Acronis Storage Filter Management"

I was able to use Macrium's bootable USB Recovery drive to successfully create a backup. Are there any other preparations you can suggest that could help the repair install go smoothly?

Thanks again for all your help.