SSR 2013 Trial - VSS_E_INSUFFICIENT_STORAGE error

[KenIsaacson]

Just downloaded SSR 2013 trial. (I was a Ghost 15 user, but upgraded to Windows 8 so can no longer use Ghost.)

On my first attempt to do a backup of my drive, I got a VSS_E_INSUFFICIENT_STORAGE error. A bit of online research made me think I had to go to System Properties|System Protection and increase the amount of disk space available for system protection, which I did. I increased it from about 9GB to about 100GB.

That did not help.

FWIW, my hard drive is about 923GB, with about 760GB free.

Any guidance?

Many thanks.

Ken

[KenIsaacson]

More info, after following some of the suggestions online:

I ran "vssadmin list writers" and found all stable except:

WMI Writer, which showed State: Failed and Last error: Timed out

Same result for MSSearch Service Writer.

Are these results relevant?

Thanks.

Ken

[KenIsaacson]

After much research and dabbling, I think I narrowed down the problem, but have no solution. My backup job seeks to backup the C drive and hidden drives ESP and WINRETOOLS. If WINRETOOLS is omitted, the backup runs without problem. However, SSR warns me that without including both ESP and WINRETOOLS, I may not be able to restore fully. So, what's the problem with WINRETOOLS that is causing the error? Thanks. Ken

[Markus_Koestler]

Did you come across this: http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH200584

[KenIsaacson]

Markus, Thanks for responding. I did see that article yesterday, and I've taken all the listed steps, except that I don't know how to do the 3rd--"Ensure that the various Application VSS Writer services can be started in the services console without any errors"--because I don't know the names of the various services. However, I do know that when the computer starts up, if I run VSSADMIN LIST WRITERS, all writers are shown to be stable. It is only after trying a backup that includes WINRETOOLS that I find some to have failed. (Incidentally, the list of failed writers that I gave in an earlier post is incomplete. There are more.) I've run the batch file. I also ran SFC /SCANNOW, which found no errors. Don't know what to do from here. Symantec tech support won't help me, because I'm using a 60-day trial. But I'm unlikely to actually buy the program (which would entitle me to tech support) if I can't be assured that it works. Seems like a silly customer support philosophy IMO. Any other suggestions? Thanks again.

[Markus_Koestler]

I've escalated this post to support, I hope someone will take care of your problem.

[KenIsaacson]

Thanks, Markus... How long do they generally take to respond?

[Markus_Koestler]

It depends.

[Andreas_Horlach]

In C:\Program Files\Symantec\Symantec System Recovery\Utility, double-click onPartInfo.exe. It will generate a PARTINFO.TXT. Reply and attach that file. 

[KenIsaacson]

Andy, Here's the file. Thanks for offering to help.

[KenIsaacson]

Andy, you haven't bailed out on me, have you? :)

[KenIsaacson]

Somewhat disappointed that no one from Symantec is offering any help on this issue. Baffles me that they offer a trial version, hoping that people will decide to pay for the product, but won't give support when the trial doesn't work. Why would I decide to actually buy the darn thing then?

<sigh>

[JohnTech]

I'm having the same problem/error message and need a solution.  Brand new Dell XPS 8500 W8 64bit.

[kumarm]

Please do following and let us know

1) From command prompt, run vssadmin list shadows

2) If it list any shadow copies, run vssadmin delete shadows /all

3) Check all the shadow copies are deleted

4) Run the backups

Also, let me know if you increased the shadow storage capacity for WinRE partition as well. If not, then please do so either through system properties or from command prompt by ruuning e.g. 

vssadmin resize ShadowStorage /For=\\?\Volume{a309c667-5a3f-4718-9d4b-e128827866eb} /On=\\?\Volume{a309c667-5a3f-4718-9d4b-e128827866eb} /MaxSize=UNBOUNDED

You can see the volume GUID by running command "mountvol"

JFYI (it seem not applicable in your case), there should be no bitlocked volume included in the backup

Thanks,

Manish

[Andreas_Horlach]

Sorry about that - I guess i dropped the ball on that. Try Kumarm's suggestion and let us know what you see. This information is also in technote: http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH200584 

[Andreas_Horlach]

JohnTech - As a test, can you create a new 'test' backup job and exclude the Dell partitions, such a...

[criley]

Can you also provide some more details on your WINRETOOLS partition:

What size is it and how much free space is there?

Is NTFS, FAT or FAT32?

Is it locked via BitLocker?

[KenIsaacson]

Chris,

I believe WINRETOOLS partition is NTFS. Can you tell from the partinfo.txt file I attached on 02 Apr?

Thanks.

Ken

[JohnTech]

I deleted 5 shadow copies with vssadmin command.  Reran SSR and got same insufficient storage errors.  (Also get the vproconsole.exe there is no disk in drive d -- look at other thread for info on this problem).  Even after clicking continue SSR 2013 fails with insufficient storage.  (I had increased storage for c: drive to 50GB so plenty of room on it)

I then created a new backup definition of just the c: partition.  It is now running without any errors, so that looks good.

My partitions (Windows 8 was preinstalled by Dell, no modifications):

500mb efi system partition

40mb oem partition

500 mb recovery partition

918 gb c: partition

11.97 gb recovery partition

[KenIsaacson]

Kumarm and Andy:

Have tried your suggestions. No luck. Saw the page Andy referred to, and as my 01 Apr post says, I ran that batch file, to no avail.

What next?

(Incidentally, to Chris's question: No BitLocker.)

Help!

Thanks,

Ken