I am running Vista Ultimate 64-bit, and I have a small problem. I am trying
to use the built-in backup program in the Backup and Restore Center, but I am
running into this error message when I attempt to use it:
---------------------------
Windows Backup
---------------------------
Windows could not find backup devices on your computer. The following
information might explain why this problem occurred:
Catastrophic failure (0x8000FFFF)
Please close the backup application and try again.
In the Backup and Restore Center, I can start the "back up files" wizard,
and it recognizes my backup source, but the "back up computer" wizard does
not. Only the "back up computer" causes the error message.
Also, in my event viewer I have these three errors:
Source: VSS
Event ID: 8193
Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Unexpected error calling routine
CoCreateInstance. hr = 0x80040154.
Operation:
Gathering Writer Data
Executing Asynchronous Operation
Context:
Execution Context: Requestor
Current State: GatherWriterMetadata
Source: VSS
Event ID: 13
Volume Shadow Copy Service information: The COM Server with CLSID
{faf53cc4-bd73-4e36-83f1-2b23f46e513e} and name VSSEvent cannot be started.
[0x80070057]
Operation:
Gathering Writer Data
Executing Asynchronous Operation
Context:
Execution Context: Requestor
Current State: GatherWriterMetadata
Source: VSS
Event ID: 34
Volume Shadow Copy Service error: The VSS event class is not registered.
This will prevent any VSS writers from receiving events. This may be caused
due to a setup failure or as a result of an application's installer or
uninstaller.
Operation:
Gathering Writer Data
Executing Asynchronous Operation
Context:
Execution Context: Requestor
Current State: GatherWriterMetadata
Additional Info:
I have plenty of free sace for a backup in several different areas, and they
are all detected in explorer and I can access them all freely.
Volume Shadow Copy, Windows Backup, Virtual Disk, RPC, and DCOM are all
running. I have disabled a few other services since I installed Vista though
so that could be the issue.
I searched the boards and found a possible solution to my problem by
stopping System Restore and reenabling it and then creating a restore point.
However, when I tried to create a new restore point, I received this error:
Quote:
---------------------------
System Protection
---------------------------
The restore point could not be created for the following reason:
Catastrophic failure (0x8000FFFF)
Please try again.
I tried to be as thorough as possible in giving you all as much information
as I can. And I tried to be as organized as I could with my post on these
forums. But if you have any more question then please ask. Thanks
I've found another person who had (and solved) this same problem. It
may or may not work for you, but I would try running chkdsk. According
to them, it was a corrupted area in the NTFS file system causing that
error.
(if you don't know--you probably do--but just in case, you can run
chkdsk in command prompt, by typing: chkdsk /f)
*BE CAUTIOUS ABOUT THIS*
The person also said that after the disk check, a windows .dll had
become corrupted. This may or may not happen to you as well, but if you
don't have a way to replace a .dll (e.g. a backup hard drive or the
vista installation disc) then I would stay away from a disk check since
it would permanently disable your computer until you got that file
replaced. After replacing the .dll (which is not hard, provided you
have something with a clean version of the file), the system should run
fine.
Hopefully, you won't have the same problem if you do decide to run
chkdsk.
However, I did notice something (unrelated to chkdsk) that was acting funny.
When I was booting my computer, I noticed some odd screens popup. They only
lasted a split second so I could not read them. They may or may not be
related to my problem, but I figure I might as well post it. I enabled
bootlogging, and here is the log:
Note: The odd screens popped up before Windows loaded. So, I think it might
have to do with my BIOS and I do not think the log caught it. Is there a way
log bios screens? Or do I need to go low-tech and record it with my digicam?
if it is a bios problem, then you're right, it wouldn't have been logged
by windows. to my knowledge, there's not a way to log the bios screens
so you might have to use the camera if you think it's something in bios
that's doing it.
I doubt that your bios is affecting the shadow copy service, however.
most likely one of the files that the service needs to run is corrupted
due to a bad write to your hard drive or something of that nature. if
chkdsk came up with nothing, then there's the possibility that part of
your OS was written to a bad sector on the hard drive, thus it may be a
physical flaw in the drive. If that's the case, you'll probably have to
do a low-level format and start over to fix it. But I've found some
possible answers to the errors you've found. Assuming they're linked to
your problem (which is a pretty good assumption), here are the
solutions:
Backing Up Problem 
Linear Mode
