To identify the cause of this error, initially run a vssadmin list writers from a command (DOS) prompt on the machine after the backup has failed.
Confirm that the SPSearch4 VSS Writer is showing a status like the below:
Writer name: ‘SPSearch4 VSS Writer’
Writer Id: {35500004-0201-0000-0000-0
Writer Instance Id: {6d7435c2-c142-48
State: [8] Failed
Last error: Inconsistent shadow copy
This is the SharePoint VSS writer and although you may not have SharePoint installed / configured, Windows will need to see the associated VSS writer in a stable state before it will continue with a System Protection job.
To address the status of the writer follow the steps below:
- Open the command prompt as administrator.
- Go to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\BIN
- Execute the following command:
PSConfig.exe -cmd upgrade -inplace b2b -force -cmd applicationcontent -install -cmd installfeatures
After completing the above command restart the server and try to perform the backup operation again.
Please also see http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-AU/winserverfiles/thread/920bf71e-be19-49eb-9f2b-ebcf70ad8177 which gives further details regarding this error.
