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Shadow Copy problem in Backup


DavidEllis2

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I'm hoping someone can help me track down and fix a backup problem.

This is a fresh Win XP Pro reinstall with the service pack 3 and all the latest patches. I put it in about a week ago and have since installed a number of third party apps. I just noticed in the Backup logs that for the last three days it has been failing to start the Volume Shadow Copy Service. I think, but cannot be certain, that it was working early on or I would have noticed the problem in my prior checks of the Event logs. (The error in the Backup log tends to blend in with other messages and does not stand out.) Unfortunately, I am unable to _prove_ it was working originally. (I have no proof because I use Backup frequently so my backup logs don't go back more than the last ten runs and because I - probably unwisely - purged the earlier event logs as they were clean.) Anyway the present problem is as follows:

VSS gives an EventID 12292: Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Error creating the Shadow Copy Provider COM class with CLSID {65ee1dba-8ff4-4a58-ac1c-3470ee2f376a} [0x8007041d].

DCOM gives an EventID 10005: DCOM got error "The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion. " attempting to start the service SwPrv with arguments "" in order to run the server: {65EE1DBA-8FF4-4A58-AC1C-3470EE2F376A}

I have confirmed that the file swprv.dll is present in system32 and has proper security ACLs. I have also verified that the Volume Shadow Copy service is present. It is set to manual startup; I can start it manually; and I have tried running Backup after having started it manually. This error still persists. I've looked at the CLSID in the registry and also the VSS key and can see nothing obviously strange but I am not enough of a registry expert to know precisely what to look for.

I would greatly prefer to locate the damage and fix it rather than have to try and revert to a very much earlier backup. To go back as far as I would probably need to is likely to involve a full reinstall and yet another activation. (I'm probably right up close to my limit on activations and I'm not too keen on the prospect of spending another week sorting out third party apps!)

Any ideas on how to solve this?

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This problem is fixed. As I only came across the solution fortuitously, I'm posting the answer here.

The underlying symptom was that the MS Software Shadow Copy Provider service could not be started. After hours of comparing registry keys for SwPrv, VSS and RpcSs between the failing system and a very similar working system I could see no obviously significant reason. (The ProcessID in SwPrv was different by I exepcted that.)

I had recently installed Firefox and when I ran it a little while ago I noticed that it reported that it had installed a Java update and .NET 1.1. I had previously ignored installing .NET 1.1 from Microsoft Update because I had got .NET 3.5 installed. Because of the Firefox report I decided to sidetrack get .NET 1.1 from Microsoft Update just in case Firefox had not got it all. Lo and behold, after installing .NET

1.1 from Microsoft Update and returning to my Backup problem, the MS Software Shadow Copy Provider service startup was fixed.

.NET 1.1 is apparently required for the MS Software Shadow Copy Provider service.

If someone thinks I've misinterpretted what went on here, please let me know. It seems to be a strange solution to the problem.

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