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Known Issue: System State Backup Fails and the System Writer is Missing

Summary:

System State backup set fails and the System Writer is missing.

Cause:

Carbonite Safe Server Backup (CSSB) uses the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) to perform backups of your Windows-based machine. VSS has several writers that are used for this purpose.

You can return a list of VSS writers by opening a command prompt and entering the command vssadmin list writers. The names of these writers are mostly self-explanatory. The SQL Writer is for backups of SQL. The System Writer is for backups of System State, and so on.

System Writer absences can be caused by an excessive number of sub-folders in the C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\ directory. The system writers internal implementation can only support enumerating 1000 sub-folders in order to build the file list for the metadata XML file of a given system directory. A typical example of this would be the temp file storage of an ASP application stored in a directory like C:\Windows\Microsoft.Net\Framework\v2.0.50727\Temporary ASP.NET Files\.

This article applies to:

Carbonite Plans Products Platforms
Power and Ultimate (Not sure?) Carbonite Safe Server Backup (Not sure?) Windows

Solution:

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All listed Operating Systems EXCEPT Windows Server 2008 and Windows Small Business Server 2008

  • Make sure that Windows is up to date and that all recommended updates are installed. Microsoft has provided many updates to resolve various VSS issues over the years.
  • The System Writer will not appear if your C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\ folder contains more than 1000 subfolders. This is a known defect with Windows and there is a hotfix available from Microsoft at https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2807849

Windows Server 2008 and Windows Small Business Server 2008

Creating a Registry Key for System State Backups of an External Drive

If you are performing a System State backup of an external drive, a registry key must be created.

  1. Open the registry editor.
  2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\wbengine\.
  3. Create a new subfolder named SystemStateBackup.
  4. Create a new DWORD entry.
  5. Set the value of this entry as follows:
    1. Name: AllowSSBToAnyVolume
    2. Data type: DWORD
    3. Value data: 1
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