Volume Shadow Copy Error 0x80042336 - partial writer failure.

Error code	Product	Applies to
BA957	BackupAssist	7.2.2 and later.

Description

This error is usually generated when one of the VSS writers is not in a working state and causes the snapshot process to fail.

Resolution

Many backup solutions have their own proprietary snapshot manager installed which can cause conflicts with other solutions installed on the system.

It is best practice to only have one backup solution installed at any one time.

If you have (or have had) more than one backup program installed on your machine, disable/uninstall all of the programs except for one and try run the backup job again. We also advise that you run a registry cleaner after the uninstalls.

For more information, see this article: http://www.backupassist.com/blog/support/how-to-resolve-a-ba910-volume-shadow-copy-error-0x80004230/.

Resolution 2 – Check for failing VSS writers

Check to see if there is a failing VSS writer.

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. Anything that does not show No Error is most likely to be the cause of the error.

Resolution 3 – Check for Shadow Copy errors within Event Viewer

VSS can write additional information to the event logs of your system which can help identify the cause of the problem and how to resolve it.

Open Event Viewer by clicking on Start > Run > Eventvwr to see if there are any specific VSS warnings or errors being generated in the Application and System logs in from the system during the backup process.

Last updated	Created	Further assistance
2nd Mar 2016	27th Aug 2013	BackupAssist Support page