Imaging operation failed

Error code

Product

Applies to

BA2501

BackupAssist

BackupAssist v4.2 and later

Description

There are multiple reasons why this error may occur. The Drive Image section of your backup report will display the specific cause of the problem. The description provided in the report, can be matched with the appropriate solution in the Resolution section below.

Resolution

These are some of the error messages that may appear in the Drive Image section of the backup job report.

Error 1 - The writer experienced a transient error. If the backup process is retried, error may not reoccur.

This error occurs when there is an issue with one of the VSS writers on the system. It is recommended that you identify the writer that is causing the issue. To do this, open an elevated command prompt and run the following command:

vssadmin list writers

This will provide an output of all VSS writers known to Windows on that machine. Look specifically for the Last error detail and anything that does not show No Error - is most likely to be the cause of the error.

You should also check the event logs in Event Viewer for further information. The steps to do this are shown in this video.

For the following systems:

  • If the problem is on Windows Server 2012 R2, the following hotfix can also resolve this error: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3063283
  • If the problem is with a Hyper-V VSS Writers, check the event logs on the guest mentioned in the log. It is likely that the backup failure is caused by a problem with the configuration of the guest, or a problem with a VSS-aware application that is running on the guest.

Error 2 - The drive cannot find the sector requested.

There is an issue where Windows Backup will attempt to back up sectors that are not available.

To resolve this, Microsoft has advised that the total size of the source volume should be reduced by 5 - 10 MB.

This has been confirmed to resolve this error by Fedorro on this MS forum.

Error 3 - One of the backup files could not be created.

This has been found to be caused by not having enough space on the destination to fit the backup. More information on space management with the Windows Imaging engine can be found at the following link: http://blogs.technet.com/filecab/archive/2009/06/22/backup-version-and-space-management-in-windows-server-backup.aspx

Error 4 - The system cannot find the path specified.

This error can be generated when a conflict arises from having multiple snapshot managers installed on the system.

If you have (or had) more than one backup program installed on your machine, disable/uninstall all of these programs except for one and try run the backup job again.

The problem is due to different backup solutions having their own proprietary snapshot manager, which can cause conflicts with other snapshot manager installed on the system.

It is a recommended best practice to only have one backup solution installed at any one time.
Be sure to also run a registry cleaner as well, as outlined in this VSS article

This error will also be produced when attempting to run the backup to an unshared folder on a network location. This is usually due to inherited permissions from the parent folder.

Error 5 - The version does not support this version of the file format.

This error can occur when running a backup to a NAS device that has the sparse file format enabled. This is a Windows limitation and the information required to resolve this can be found in our Custom access policies for AWS page.

.You should also check that the NAS drivers and firmware are up to date. The drivers and firmware will be available from your NAS vendor.

Error 6 - Insufficient storage available to create either the shadow copy storage file or shadow copy data.

Microsoft recommends that you allocate at least 50MB for snapshots on partitions smaller than 500MB.

This is mentioned in Sneha's reply on the following forum:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itprogeneral/thread/cbd8b4da-7277-4714-8c71-8746fe784b6d

Option 1

Check the amount of space allowed for the snapshot storage on the 100MB system partition and increase it. Re-run the backup after you have done so.

Option 2

Another options is to allocate sufficient VSS shadow storage space on another permanently attached volume that has free space (and always will).

To change where shadow copies are stored for one volume is, run the following command:

vssadmin add shadowstorage /for=<the drive you're backing up> /on=<the drive that will store the shadow copy> /maxsize=<percentage of space you want to be used>

EG If the shadow copies for D: drive are to be kept on C: drive and can use up to 90% of the free disk space on C: the command would be: vssadmin add shadowstorage /for=d: /on=c: /maxsize=90%

Option 3

This problem can also be caused by the USN journal leaving information within the system reserve partition.

You can remove the information left by the USN journal - this is safe for the system reserved partition, and will be recreated as needed.

To assign a drive letter to the System Reserved volume in Disk Management:

  1. Go to an administrator command prompt
  2. Run the command: fsutil usn deletejournal /D (eg. fsutil usn deletejournal /D S:)
  3. And remove the drive letter (which will probably hang around until the next reboot).

Further information regarding the USN journal is as follows https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa363877(v=vs.85).aspx

Error 7 - The semaphore timeout period has expired.

This error is usually related to the backup destination, mostly network shares. However, it can be related to other destinations as well.

Try and back up to a different destination as this will help determine if the problem is caused by the media that you are currently writing to.

This error can also be resolved by performing a reboot of the machine.

Error 8 - Some files could not be backed up.

This is a known issue on Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 which is resolved with hotfix https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/982502.

Error 9 - There was a failure in preparing the backup image of one of the volumes in the backup set.

This is often generated when there is a problem with the backup destination. It is recommended that you recreate the backup destination (such as iSCSI target or Data container) and restart the backup job.

If this does not resolve the issue, check that all Windows Updates have been applied to the server.

Backing up to an alternate location can also result in a successful backup. If this is successful, it confirms that the original destination was the cause of this error.

Error 10 - Incorrect Function

This error typically occurs if there is an issue with the backup destination configured (most commonly network shares, but it can occur on local destinations as well). We recommend that you try and run a backup to an alternative destination (preferably a local destination connected directly to the system BackupAssist is installed on) to see if this works.

Should that test work, then you will need to investigate the issue with the original destination that produced the error – this may also mean contacting hardware vendors for configuration advice.

Last updated

Created

Further assistance

21st Dec 2017

21st Feb 2008

BackupAssist Support page