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Domain Controllers failing to do System State Backup

I am having an issue with two Domain Controllers (one with 2012 Standard, and one with 2012 R2) failing to do system state backups. No matter the drive i choose to save to I get "A virtual disk support provider is not found for the file" and then fails. On the first DC is intializes and starts and fails around the same point in time, whereas the second DC just fails right at the beginning.

I thought it might have had to do with Hyper V and trying to save the VM data but the second DC doesn't have Hyper-V installed at all, so that idea is shot down. I can't find a whole lot on this issue anywhere else. Anyone else seen this before?

I have also set the FsDepends key to 0.

noxcho

Can you take then backup of entire HDD? The error says that it is not able to handle some specific file. Which one is this? Does it show the path to this file?

sivtec

ASKER

Hey Noxcho,

Unfortunately it doesn't give me the file it fails on. I have tried doing all 3 types of backups, Local C: drive, System State, and Bare Metal. Same error:
"The operation ended before completion. Detailed Error: A virtual disk support provider for the specified file was not found"

When looking at the Event Viewer, here is the error:
The backup operation that started at '‎2015‎-‎09‎-‎28T18:55:47.971306500Z' has failed with following error code '0x807800C5' (There was a failure in preparing the backup image of one of the volumes in the backup set.). Please review the event details for a solution, and then rerun the backup operation once the issue is resolved.

noxcho

How many volumes do you have on the drive? Try to backup them one by one. Check also of there are any vss errors in event log.

sivtec

ASKER

I have the Windows System 32 volume aka C: drive and the system reserved volume. Also the only time I have got a VSS error was once so it doesn't happen each time i try to run the back up. Here is the error:

The backup operation that started at '‎2015‎-‎09‎-‎28T18:54:06.327000000Z' has failed because the Volume Shadow Copy Service operation to create a shadow copy of the volumes being backed up failed with following error code '0x81000110'. Please review the event details for a solution, and then rerun the backup operation once the issue is resolved.

noxcho

Try the following: in command line pefrom CHKDSK X:/f where X: is the drive letter of a partition on your HDD.

Then perform System File Check (SFC), and then check if this fixes the issue.

Follow the steps:

a. Press “Windows Key + Q” to open Charms Bar.

b. Type “cmd” without quotes in the search box.

c. On the left pane, right click on the “cmd” option and select “Run as Administrator”.

d. Type “sfc /scannow” without quotes and hit enter.

Note: It may ask for windows installation DVD to fix and to enable SFC to make more than minor repairs. Some files saved on your computer might get deleted when fixing corrupted files.

sivtec

ASKER

Hey Noxcho,

Finally got some time to run both and believe it or not both came up clean. I feel like i am missing something considering this is happening on two servers.

sivtec

ASKER

Some other information I have discovered. I tried doing a system state backup of another server with Windows Sever 2012 R2, this one being a VMhost and I got another fail. This time it was a bit different of an error in regards to what the Windows Server Backup was telling me: The Semaphore timeout expired.

However, when looking in the Event Viewer it looks like I am getting the same Event Viewer Error:
The backup operation that started at '‎2015‎-‎09‎-‎30T16:22:49.620960900Z' has failed with following error code '0x807800C5' (There was a failure in preparing the backup image of one of the volumes in the backup set.). Please review the event details for a solution, and then rerun the backup operation once the issue is resolved.

I have to be missing something here....

sivtec

ASKER

So a bit further today. Oddly enough both servers didn't have the updated loopback driver installed for the Virtual disk supporter. Not sure how I missed that the first time. Now that that's been remediated I am getting another error. This time i am getting Semaphore timeout error. Happens on both servers. Anyone have this issue?

sivtec

ASKER

Last update for today. After spending quite a bit of time, seems I am back to consistent error messages. One server gets The Semaphore timeout error, and the other gets "The I/O operation has been aborted because of either a thread exit or an application request." Both are still getting the same event viewer error listed above in the original problem. Does anyone know what to do here?

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

noxcho

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sivtec

ASKER

Alright, so looks like one of the root problems was the GPO that we had in place. It was blocking some of the device drivers needed to install which ultimately failed while updating. That on top of the fact that I wanted to backup to a Buffalo NAS device which was erroring out with a version not supported message. Decided to backup to another Server drive on the network and it looks like it works fine. I have set them on a schedule and will report back tomorrow to see what the results are.

noxcho

Nice. Glad to hear it works now.

sivtec

ASKER

Looks like we are good!

sivtec

ASKER

I've requested that this question be closed as follows:

Accepted answer: 0 points for sivtec's comment #a41025403

for the following reason:

Worked through each of the errors one at a time.

noxcho

Thanks for update. Good experience for future.

noxcho

No point for me? :)

noxcho

A suggestion to try a backup to a local drive was made. Which would obviously point to the NAS device as a bottle neck.