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Unable to create backup

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#1 ·
I am attempting to backup my win7 machine and I keep getting this error about shadow copy (see attachment). I have turned off antivirus, I have gone to services.msc and started Volume Shadow Copy Service and Software Protection Service. I've set the backup to go to my external HDD which has 3.69TB of free space. I'm at a loss of what to try next. Help!

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#4 ·
Thanks for the link. I followed the first 5 steps and free space is 32MB, not enough per the page. The next steps are a little confusing, sorry. My C drive has my Windows installed (boot, page file, crash dump, primary partition). The system reserved is on another drive that contains a few partitions - M, P, S, Z and system reserved. Do you have any better directions or tips. I'm not completely ignorant with computers, but this is a little tougher to follow for me. Since the system reserved is on a drive different than my C drive (and Windows), do I want to move it to the C drive? Another partition on the current HDD it is on?

Thanks for any tips you can provide.
 
#5 ·
Give the System Reserved partition a drive letter in Disk Management, then open that drive letter in Windows Explorer and inside the Boot folder Copy all the language folders (they look like en-GB, de-DE etc) to another drive/partition, then delete them, but if you are not using en-US (english USA) then make sure you don't delete the one for your language.
That should free up enough space to let the backup work.
 
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#7 ·
It won't cause issues, I have mine set with a drive letter, you can remove it later though.

I would copy the folders first before you delete them, just in case this doesn't work, then you can copy them back in again.

Just be careful not to delete any other folders or files, in my Windows 7 there are these other folders inside the Boot folder :-

Fonts
qps-ploc
qps-plocm
Resources
sr-Latn-CS
sr-Latn-RS

You may not have all of those and you could have others so be careful.

If you can't see the Boot folder use the methods here to show System folders and files AND protected operating system files. :- https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/show-hidden-files-and-folders-in-windows-vista/
 
#8 ·
It won't cause issues, I have mine set with a drive letter, you can remove it later though.

I would copy the folders first before you delete them, just in case this doesn't work, then you can copy them back in again.

Just be careful not to delete any other folders or files, in my Windows 7 there are these other folders inside the Boot folder :-

Fonts
qps-ploc
qps-plocm
Resources
sr-Latn-CS
sr-Latn-RS

You may not have all of those and you could have others so be careful.

If you can't see the Boot folder use the methods here to show System folders and files AND protected operating system files. :- https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/show-hidden-files-and-folders-in-windows-vista/
I'm finally getting around to this. I've copied all language folders as a backup, leaving EN-US. When I try to delete the others it says "you require permission from TrustedInstaller to make changes to this folder" and even if I keep hitting "try again", I get the same message.
 
#9 ·
I found this page (https://helpdeskgeek.com/windows-7/windows-7-how-to-delete-files-protected-by-trustedinstaller/) and I'm looking at changing the owner. On the Owner tab, current owner is TrustedInstaller, in the change to section is my account. If I click edit, there is the administrator account and my account. My account (under User Accounts in the control panel) has my login name, says administrator underneath, and password protected. Does this mean I can change owner tk administrator?
 
#13 ·
Changing permissions worked - I was able to delete the language folders, leaving EN-US. I went back to the computer management console in order to see free space for the new reserved drive (R:\) and it's been opening for about 5 minutes now, not showing any drive info.
 
#24 ·
The 10th Post down in this link shows how to do it. Backup fail .
Allan who is a Moderator on this site advises not to extend the boot partition. He has other ideas you can try first. I have a windows 7 install I am willing to sacrifice to test this on. As always research is the best step.
I will see if I can find info changing the size causing problems one way or the other.
Caution is always best. Remember if in doubt do nothing.
Peter
 
#25 ·
Exactly, I'm very cautious. It's taking me some time to figure some of this out. In fact, each suggestion offered I do research on it before proceeding. 😂
Fonts is a folder inside the Boot folder, not one of the language folders, are you sure you deleted it already ?
Fonts deleted (after backup. Now have 45.2MB free. If you think this is enough to try again, I will do so in the morning. Thanks.
 
#27 ·
If it fails again then you can test if it is the System Reserved causing the problem.
Choose Backup>Setup backup> Select destination>Let me choose. Tick what you want and leave System Reserved un-ticked. Un-tick again at the bottom Include a system image of System reserved.
It it works we know it is System reserved causing the problem.
 
#28 ·
PeterOz, at the link you gave this is part of the 10th post :-

Since the default System reserved partition cannot be extended, creating a new system volume is the workaround. Here are the steps to move the system volume to any other volume:
 
#30 ·
Ok if all else fails and you are left no other option and you want to try and extend the System Reserved partition. I have tried 4 different FREE partition programs and the only one to work was Aomei partition manager. This allowed me to resize the partition and the computer rebooted to windows. The catch 22 is we are not 100% sure the partition size is the problem and they advise to backup firsto_O All I can say is if you do try this as a last resort I had no problems with the computer rebooting to windows
Cheers
Peter
 
#31 ·
OK, I tried again today and I'm getting the same error as my original post.

@PeterOz - I then changed my backup settings as you suggested:
Let me choose, then I selected both data files (backup for newly created users and my libraries), I selected the C drive and no other drive, and at the bottom I've left the box selected for "Include a system image of drives" which includes other partitions on the hard drive (which includes the R drive). I get same error. I'm not sure if I need to leave that selected or de-select it.
 
#34 ·
:cry: I will keep searching. I found this worth a try? From this site
1. Control Panel\System and Security\System
2. Under protection settings, I pressed Configure
3. I noted that no space was allocated for System protection on the main system volume.
4. A volume marked "Toshiba Volume" had the protection column "off".
5. I allocated a couple of GBytes for system protection and turned the Toshiba Volume on.
6. I was then able to create both a system image and a backup of all of my files with no errors.

A similar procedure also worked for my Dell.

It appears that during my upgrade from Vista Ultimate to Windows 7 Ultimate, the System Protection and "shadow files" were turned off by default.

Later on today I will see if I can replicate the problem by changing the size of my system reserved partition.
 
#35 ·
The problem you may find when resizing the System Reserved (SR) partition is you have to create space by shrinking the C partition and assuming it's a standard install which has SR as the first partition and Windows on the second partition, that moves the boot sector and the boot process can't find it so it can't get into Windows.
 
#36 ·
Hi Allan
I resized using Aomei and I just had to say make 480MB and take from partition C: It then rebooted into WinPE mode and did the resize. It left the partition in the same place and rebooted. I do understand your concerns
and advised to do this as a last resort only
Cheers
Peter
 

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