Getting VSS to work in a corrupt OS

Hello Nrlynormal,

Have you applied the following hotfix to the system: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940349? If not, I would recommend installing that. It will do a refresh of the VSS files on the system.

Are you getting any errors on VSS in the system or application logs? Please post any that you see.

Also, after you run the hotfix above (or if you already have), what output do you get when you run VSSADMIN LIST WRITERS from the command prompt. If you dont see any volume shadow copy writers listed you may need to re-register the VSS dlls.

Please see the following KB for the steps to re-register the VSS dll files and for some other various issues with VSS: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940032/en-us

Regards,

brent_caskey

HI Brent:
Sorry for the time delay.  I tried the hotfix. I have ran VSSADMIN LIST WRITERS only to get a blank page (no size and looking for a program to open it) every time.  I went into the registry and applied the fix anyway only to have no change in operation.  I am at a point where I am attaempting to make a mirror copy of the hard drives using ViceVersa as we speak so I am limited a to what I can and cannot look at for the ime being.  I will however monitor for any other advice you may have to pass on...

Jim

Have you registered the dlls from the MS KB? http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940032/en-us 

Brent:
I tried your mentioned solution, especially since one of my error messages was:
Event Type: Error
Event Source: VSS
Event ID: 12302
Description: Volume Shadow Copy Service error: An internal inconsistency was detected in trying to contact shadow copy service writers. Please check to see that the Event Service and Volume Shadow Copy Service are operating properly.
However it made no difference in the results.  Still trying to find a solution...:-)

With that particular error, you may also want to try this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940184

It is very similar but it also has some registry edits that work sometimes.

Did the above KB work to resolve your VSS issues?

No.  That is a solution I tried a couple of weeks ago and again it made no difference.  I am in agreement with a collegue of mine here that the solution, if there is one, is in figuring out if I can repair MMC as it is acting up in more than one catagory.  Disk management being one area and releasing itself from being domain controller another in  a myriad of other problems.  I will have a chance to get on the server while it is free in a couple of hours.  If you can think of another way to go rather than a complete rebuild, I'll be monitoring any responses here.

Thanks.   JIm

I tried your other ideas and they rendered the same result.  So, as much as I hate to do it, I've scheduled a complete rebuild for this coming weekend.  It's proprietary software on it so I have to have the vendor involved at $225.00 an hour and I really hate that.  Thanks for your help in determining what I knew I was going to have to do.

Brent thanks for your help.  I have no idea how this particular server went so far south when my other ones are still chugging along just fine.  I don't think there was a real solution other than to rebuild the whole thing over again.