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Win 7 native backup issue

On a PC (connected to a domain), runnint Win7 professional, I've configured the native backup. Destination is a separate HD in the PC. This HD is intended only to backups. It has been running fine for some time, but has now started to fail. It says something like (translated from norwegian): Windows backup skipped backing up the system image bacause one of the critical volumes doesn't have enough free space....."

However, the space info (of the destination disk) shows: Total disk space: 909GB. Free space: 588GB, Backup of data file: 255GB, System Image 62GB. As far as I'm able to see, there is plenty of free space on the destination disk. Could someone tell me why the system won't do the backup?

-Olaf-

jcimarron

omberli --
I know this does not answer your question directly but backing up to a HD disk on the same PC is not the best place for the backup. An external drive would be better.

Concerning the failed backup, what can you learn from Event Viewer?

Olaf Berli

ASKER

Thanks for your response. I know that backing up to a disk in the same PC isn't very good, but there are also a couple of other backups running - to external disks / network.

Event viewer doesn't tell more than the initial error message, but I found a couple of suggestions on the net. Tried the suggestion at http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-system/backup-keeps-failing-error-0x81000033/4dda0585-47b9-4ce7-926c-64aa5d6a54da but it didn't solve the problem.
Next try will be http://www.pagestart.com/win7br0x8100003301.html
Hoping the best.

noxcho

The problem is caused by MSR partition which is 100MB big. And usually it contains boot files which take up to 40MB space. If snapshots put their files into system information folder then this partition does not have enough space for VSS snapshots.
Go to Windows Disk Management and see how much space is left on MSR partition. To get to WDM right click on Computer - Manage - Disk Management.
To clean up the space you need to run from command line a command vss snapshots delete all. Or delete shadows from this small partition only, read how: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc788026.aspx

Olaf Berli

ASKER

Thanks for the info.
The system volume has aprox 65MB free.
Ran the vssadmin command to delete shadow copies. It reported that it didn't find any elements....

-Olaf-

noxcho

Hi Olaf, can you take a screen shot of your Windowd Disk Management and post it here?

Olaf Berli

ASKER

Here is a screen shot of the Disk Management. Backups are stored on the X: volume
Hope it is understandable even if it isn't in English..
diskmanager.jpg

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

noxcho

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Olaf Berli

ASKER

Thanks, noxcho. I checked the partition and deleted a few small files. Still shows as 0% free. Since this partition is needed in case of a recovery, I'm hesitant to delete it. Reduced the OS partition and tried to increase the HP SYSTEM partition, but it seemed impossible (at least in Disk Manager) to increase it.

Since the backup has been running fine for several months with the same SYSTEM partition it seems a bit strange that it suddenly should start making problems...?

noxcho

It will run till some update initiates restore point creation which puts VSS snapshots into the system volume information folder. And this takes space.
If you have already backups of your system then you do not need this partition. It contains the factory restore image in it.

Olaf Berli

ASKER

Checked out running a backup without including the HP recovery partition, and it completed ok (didn't include "My Documents" and some other libraries - located on the network, but that may be a limitation of the software). So - problem well explained and solved. Thanks for your help noxcho!