Last day I tried to create a system image in Windows 7 x64 over the “Backup and Restore” option in Control Panel and got the following error message.
The backup failed.
There is not enough disk space to create the volume shadow copy on the storage location. Make sure that, for all volumes to be backup up, the minimum required disk space for shadow copy creation is available. This applies to both the baclup storage destination and volumes included in the backup. Minimum reqirement: For volumes less than 500 megabytes, the minimum is 50 megabytes of free space. For volumes more than 500 megabytes, the minimum is 320 megabytes of free space. Recommended: At least 1 gigabyte of free disk space on each volume if volume size is more than 1 gigabyte. (0×80780119)
The error message does not reflect the true, I have had nearly 500 GB of free space on the target volume and my system volume to be backed up was only 37 GB.
I have immediately checked the System and Backup events ( Start > run > eventvwr.msc ) and saw the following event:
Log Name: Microsoft-Windows-Backup
Source: Microsoft-Windows-Backup
Date: 02.01.2011 21:31:12
Event ID: 9
Task Category: None
Level: Error
Keywords:
User: SYSTEM
Computer: QUADRODescription:
The backup operation that started at ‘2011-01-02T19:31:07.497000000Z’ has failed because the Volume Shadow Copy Service operation to create a shadow copy of the volumes being backed up failed with following error code ’2155348249′. Please review the event details for a solution, and then rerun the backup operation once the issue is resolved.
Solution:
I have immediately checked the Volume Shadow Copy Service to be sure that it is running and saw that it is set to “Manual” and was “Stopped”. I haven’t stopped this service manually. I have set it to automatic and started the service.
Additionally I have checked the other services and saw that the Virtual Disk Service is also set to manual and was stopped.
I have seen this service several times running during formatting a disk and thought that it might be necessary during the System Image Creation.
I have set it to automatic and started the service too and tried again to create a backup.
Bingo !
I was able to create the System Image. It looks like that a patch or update set these services to manual and stopped because I haven’t ever changed the status of these services.
Good luck !