Volume Shadow Copy Service causing problems

Hi,

(Vista SP1 x86)

Over the last few months I've been seeing an issue where one of my hard
drives becomes unresponsive, then it returns to normal. At first I
thought it was a faulty hard drive, either remapping bad blocks or
failing internal cache, but extensive block-level and SMART testing
indicated the drive was OK.

I now notice there's a pattern to this problem. The Volume Shadow Copy
Service is always being started by Windows around the same time I'm
seeing the problem.

I looked in the scheduled tasks to see what times System Restore (SR)
was running, but the times did not coincide with the problem. I now
wonder if it's something to do with the "Previous Versions" feature?

I'd like to disable what ever is causing VSS to start, I can disable SR,
but don't know how to disable "Previous Versions". I don't really want
to disable the VSS service completely. I'd like to run it like this for
a few weeks and see if it solves the problem.

--
Gerry Hickman (London UK)

If you turn off Automatic restore points for a drive it also turns off
Previous Versions.

--
Kerry Brown
MS-MVP - Windows Desktop Experience: Systems Administration
http://www.vistahelp.ca/phpBB2/



"Gerry Hickman" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Hi,
>
> (Vista SP1 x86)
>
> Over the last few months I've been seeing an issue where one of my hard
> drives becomes unresponsive, then it returns to normal. At first I thought
> it was a faulty hard drive, either remapping bad blocks or failing
> internal cache, but extensive block-level and SMART testing indicated the
> drive was OK.
>
> I now notice there's a pattern to this problem. The Volume Shadow Copy
> Service is always being started by Windows around the same time I'm seeing
> the problem.
>
> I looked in the scheduled tasks to see what times System Restore (SR) was
> running, but the times did not coincide with the problem. I now wonder if
> it's something to do with the "Previous Versions" feature?
>
> I'd like to disable what ever is causing VSS to start, I can disable SR,
> but don't know how to disable "Previous Versions". I don't really want to
> disable the VSS service completely. I'd like to run it like this for a few
> weeks and see if it solves the problem.
>
> --
> Gerry Hickman (London UK)

Kerry Brown wrote:
> If you turn off Automatic restore points for a drive it also turns off
> Previous Versions.

Thanks Kerry,

Can you remind me how to do that?

--
Gerry Hickman (London UK)

Right click on Computer. Pick Properties. In the left hand pane under Tasks
click on System Protection. Click on Continue or supply Administrator
credentials at the UAC prompt. Remove the check mark beside the drive you
don't want protected.

--
Kerry Brown
MS-MVP - Windows Desktop Experience: Systems Administration
http://www.vistahelp.ca/phpBB2/



"Gerry Hickman" <> wrote in message
news:%...
> Kerry Brown wrote:
>> If you turn off Automatic restore points for a drive it also turns off
>> Previous Versions.
>
> Thanks Kerry,
>
> Can you remind me how to do that?
>
> --
> Gerry Hickman (London UK)

Disable System Restore in Windows Vista

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windo...windows-vista/
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"Gerry Hickman" <> wrote in message
news:%...
> Kerry Brown wrote:
>> If you turn off Automatic restore points for a drive it also turns off
>> Previous Versions.
>
> Thanks Kerry,
>
> Can you remind me how to do that?
>
> --
> Gerry Hickman (London UK)

Kerry Brown wrote:
> Right click on Computer. Pick Properties. In the left hand pane under
> Tasks click on System Protection. Click on Continue or supply
> Administrator credentials at the UAC prompt. Remove the check mark
> beside the drive you don't want protected.

Ah, it's under "Properties", no wonder I couldn't find it! OK, that's
strange, it says it's only enabled on the C drive, but I was having
problems with my D drive. Might turn it off anyway, and see what happens.

Thing is, I don't really want to disable SR, I only want to disable the
"Previous Versions" feature; is that possible?

The problem I'm having is not coinciding with SR, something else is
staring VSS and causing the problem.

--
Gerry Hickman (London UK)

I don't think there is a way to turn off one without turning off both.

--
Kerry Brown
MS-MVP - Windows Desktop Experience: Systems Administration
http://www.vistahelp.ca/phpBB2/



"Gerry Hickman" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Kerry Brown wrote:
>> Right click on Computer. Pick Properties. In the left hand pane under
>> Tasks click on System Protection. Click on Continue or supply
>> Administrator credentials at the UAC prompt. Remove the check mark beside
>> the drive you don't want protected.
>
> Ah, it's under "Properties", no wonder I couldn't find it! OK, that's
> strange, it says it's only enabled on the C drive, but I was having
> problems with my D drive. Might turn it off anyway, and see what happens.
>
> Thing is, I don't really want to disable SR, I only want to disable the
> "Previous Versions" feature; is that possible?
>
> The problem I'm having is not coinciding with SR, something else is
> staring VSS and causing the problem.
>
> --
> Gerry Hickman (London UK)

Gerry

Kerry is correct about the Previous Versions being tied to System Restore.
You cannot disable these components, individually.

If System Restore is enabled, the way it works is to create a Restore Point
once a day, by default. It then monitors that drive and records any changes.

The only other thing that might be using the Volume Shadow Copy Service
would be if you have a Scheduled Backup set to automatic.

--

Ronnie Vernon
Microsoft MVP
Windows Desktop Experience


"Gerry Hickman" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Kerry Brown wrote:
>> Right click on Computer. Pick Properties. In the left hand pane under
>> Tasks click on System Protection. Click on Continue or supply
>> Administrator credentials at the UAC prompt. Remove the check mark beside
>> the drive you don't want protected.
>
> Ah, it's under "Properties", no wonder I couldn't find it! OK, that's
> strange, it says it's only enabled on the C drive, but I was having
> problems with my D drive. Might turn it off anyway, and see what happens.
>
> Thing is, I don't really want to disable SR, I only want to disable the
> "Previous Versions" feature; is that possible?
>
> The problem I'm having is not coinciding with SR, something else is
> staring VSS and causing the problem.
>
> --
> Gerry Hickman (London UK)

Hi Ronnie,

> Kerry is correct about the Previous Versions being tied to System
> Restore. You cannot disable these components, individually.

OK.

> If System Restore is enabled, the way it works is to create a Restore
> Point once a day, by default. It then monitors that drive and records
> any changes.
>
> The only other thing that might be using the Volume Shadow Copy Service
> would be if you have a Scheduled Backup set to automatic.

I don't have any backup jobs defined. I can see VSS service start-up in
the Event log at times that do NOT match the SR scheduled task. I've
disabled SR on the C drive now, will see if VSS ever starts on it's own
again...

--
Gerry Hickman (London UK)

Hi,

OK, I don't think the problem is anything to do with VSS. I now see
what's happening. I'd been running chkdsk at the exact time of these
problems, and it's chkdsk that starts VSS!

The original problem is that the hard disk becomes unresponsive, and the
Event log fills up with

Event 57

volmgr

The system failed to flush data to the transaction log. Corruption may
occur.

\Device\HarddiskVolume3

This is a DYNAMIC volume, otherwise it would probably say something like
the "the device did not respond within the timeout period". Microsoft's
Event help does not have any help on the volmgr Event.

Caching is disabled, so I don't know why it needs to "flush" anything,
it should give an IO error instead.

Gerry Hickman wrote:
> Hi Ronnie,
>
>> Kerry is correct about the Previous Versions being tied to System
>> Restore. You cannot disable these components, individually.
>
> OK.
>
>> If System Restore is enabled, the way it works is to create a Restore
>> Point once a day, by default. It then monitors that drive and records
>> any changes.
>>
>> The only other thing that might be using the Volume Shadow Copy
>> Service would be if you have a Scheduled Backup set to automatic.
>
> I don't have any backup jobs defined. I can see VSS service start-up in
> the Event log at times that do NOT match the SR scheduled task. I've
> disabled SR on the C drive now, will see if VSS ever starts on it's own
> again...
>