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HOW TO TROUBLESHOOT VOLUME SHADOW COPIES ON WINDOWS

Last Updated on: January 11, 2023 by @techpress

Home » Tools and Troubleshooting » How to troubleshoot Volume shadow Copies on
Windows

TABLE OF CONTENTS

* What is Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS)
* A Volume Shadow Copy Service component encountered an unexpected error. Check
the Application event log for more information. Error code 0x80042302
* Vssadmin command
* Ensure that the VSS writers are in Stable State
* Ensure that you can see Registered Shadow Copy Providers
* List existing Volume Shadow Copies
* Lists all shadow copy storage associations on the system.
* Delete Shadow Copies using command line
* wmic command
* Vssadmin delete shadows
* diskshadow Command
* Best Practices
* More Information
* Conclusion

WHAT IS VOLUME SHADOW COPY SERVICE (VSS)

Volume shadow copy service in Windows operating system allows you to create
consistent backups of open files and applications. You can create shadow copies
of shared folders on your file server or Windows client OS on regular intervals.
If any file has been deleted by user from a file server, you can quickly go to
the shadow copy backup and restore the file for the user.

A VOLUME SHADOW COPY SERVICE COMPONENT ENCOUNTERED AN UNEXPECTED ERROR. CHECK
THE APPLICATION EVENT LOG FOR MORE INFORMATION. ERROR CODE 0X80042302

You may experience this error message while taking backup on a window device or
while performing a system restore. Please follow below troubeshooting steps to
fix this issue:

Make sure Volume shadow copy service is not in disabled state. If Its in
disabled state, please follow below steps to enable it:

1. Go to Start and search for services App. Alternatively press Windows key + R
to open a Run dialog box.
2. Type services.msc and press enter.
3. Search for Volume Shadow Copy service from the list and check its Startup
Type. If its disabled then double-click on the service and then change the
Startup type to Automatic.

3. Make sure Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider service is also not in
disabled state. If its in disabled state, you need to double-click on the
service and then change the Startup type to Automatic.

4. If the error message persists, then you can try to disable Windows defender
and any third party security system installed on that device temporarily.
Try to take the backup / perform system restore again to see if its working
fine. Once the back up process completes, switch on your security solution
and windows defender.

5. Perform Clean boot of your windows device. To enable clean boot on the
device:

* Press Windows Key + R to open Run box.
* Type msconfig.exe in the run box.
* Go to General tab and uncheck Load startup items from Selective startup.

* Go to Services tab and select Hide all Microsoft services, click on Disable
All button on the bottom right hand side corner of the window.

* Click on Apply or OK to save the changes.
* Restart your device.

Test Volume shadow copy once to check if its working now. Make sure to change
the startup time to Normal startup once you are done with the troubleshooting
this error.

There are a lot of other errors related to Volume shadow copy service. You can
troubleshoot it using the commands shown in the next section of this post.

VSSADMIN COMMAND

A quite useful built-in command which you can use as a starting point while
troubleshooting the Shadow Copies is Vssadmin. Lets run this command with
different parameters and check the results.

There are different switches / commands which can be used with vssadmin. To show
/ list the different commands, Open Powershell as Administrator or Command
prompt as an Administrator and type vssadmin

Vssadmin /? command

CommandDescriptionAvailabilityVssadmin add shadowstorageAdds a volume shadow
copy storage association.Server onlyVssadmin create shadowCreates a new volume
shadow copy.Server onlyVssadmin delete shadowsDeletes volume shadow
copies.Client and ServerVssadmin delete shadowstorageDeletes volume shadow copy
storage associations.Server onlyVssadmin list providersLists registered volume
shadow copy providers.Client and ServerVssadmin list shadowsLists existing
volume shadow copies.Client and ServerVssadmin list shadowstorageLists all
shadow copy storage associations on the system.Client and ServerVssadmin list
volumesLists volumes that are eligible for shadow copies.Client and
ServerVssadmin list writersLists all subscribed volume shadow copy writers on
the system.Client and ServerVssadmin resize shadowstorageResizes the maximum
size for a shadow copy storage association.Client and ServerSource:Microsoft

Vssadmin commands

ENSURE THAT THE VSS WRITERS ARE IN STABLE STATE

Run the Command vssadmin list writers and make sure that all the VSS writers are
in [1] stable state. you may see different vss writers depending upon
application server you are running this command e.g. If you are running this
command on Microsoft Exchange Server, you will see [Writer name: ‘Microsoft
Exchange Writer‘] in addition to the other vss writers. If Microsoft Exchange
Writer status is not stable, Restart the Microsoft Exchange Information Store
Service or restart Exchange Server and check the writer state again before
re-starting the backup job.

Vssadmin list writers

ENSURE THAT YOU CAN SEE REGISTERED SHADOW COPY PROVIDERS

To list the currently registered shadow copy providers, Run the command vssadmin
list providers

vssadmin list providers

If you do not see providers listed after running the above command it could be
OS related issue or the Volume Shadow Copy Service is not running.

LIST EXISTING VOLUME SHADOW COPIES

To list existing shadow Copies use the command vssadmin list shadows

vssadmin list shadows

LISTS ALL SHADOW COPY STORAGE ASSOCIATIONS ON THE SYSTEM.

Run below command to see all storage associations for the existing shadow
copies. The default storage allocates 10% of the volume to the shadow copies.

vssadmin list shadowstorage

You can also check the Shadow Copy Storage Association on the volume using GUI
Method by Right Clicking the Volume -> Properties -> click Shadow Copies Tab.

Shadow Copies

Run the command vssadmin list shadowstorage /? to get more parameters which you
can use with this command. For example you can use /for parameter to list all
associations for a specified volume.

vssadmin list shadowstorage /?

DELETE SHADOW COPIES USING COMMAND LINE

There are few options or commands you can use to delete the shadow copies.
Shadow Copies data is stored in a folder called System Volume information which
is a hidden system folder. If you see that the System volume information folder
is quite big in size and consuming a lot of space then you can check if you got
any stale shadow copies which might be stored in this system folder and which
you may want to delete to free up the space. If you decided to get rid of shadow
copies from the volume then follow below command line options to complete your
task.

WMIC COMMAND

Use wmic command to delete the shadow copies. When you run this command, you
will be on the wmic:\root\cli> prompt. Type shadowcopy delete to delete the the
shadow copies one by one. type Y to delete the shadow copy or N to skip to next
shadow copy.

Note: To find the shadow copy ID use the command vssadmin list shadows. After
using wmic command if you find that the shadow copies are not deleted or you get
an error message as shown in the below screenshot, you can either use Vssadmin
delete shadows command or Diskshadow command as shown in the next sections.

wmic command example

VSSADMIN DELETE SHADOWS

vssadmin delete shadows command can be used to delete all shadow copies or
specific shadow copies from the volume. Use the /? in the end of the command to
list parameters which you can use with this command. To delete all shadow copies
using vssadmin delete shadows command, you can use below command.

Vssadmin delete shadows /all

DISKSHADOW COMMAND

You can also use diskshadow command to delete all the shadow copies from the
system. Open command prompt as administrator -> Type diskshadow -> then on
the DISKSHADOW> prompt type delete shadows all to delete / remove all shadow
copies from the server.

Diskshadow command reference

diskshadow command

BEST PRACTICES

Best Practice when configuring the Shadow Copy is to use a disk which will not
be shadow copied and have enough free space to store the shadow copies as per
the configuration. You get below message when setting it up which suggest the
same.

Enable Shadow Copies

MORE INFORMATION

Volume Shadow Copy Service | Microsoft Docs

CONCLUSION

In this blog post, we have seen how you can troubleshoot issues related to
shadow copies. Vssadmin command is very handy to use on windows devices when you
are working on windows devices. You can also find examples of the commands with
screenshots.

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Categories Tools and Troubleshooting

3 THOUGHTS ON “HOW TO TROUBLESHOOT VOLUME SHADOW COPIES ON WINDOWS”

1. Livio Mozarth
April 7, 2021 at 9:40 pm

Thanks so much!!!! WMIC !!!!

Reply
* Jatin Makhija
April 8, 2021 at 8:07 am

No Problem, Livio Mozarth.

Reply
2. Vlad
December 26, 2021 at 3:35 am

Excellent article, thanks!