Windows Volume shadow copy error: 2155348129

Question

Developing a VSS writer app:
see this error during backup, initiated by windows backup tool, is there defined error codes for 2155348129 from Microsoft?

The backup operation that started at '‎2010‎-‎07‎-‎20T02:54:19.354000000Z' 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 '2155348129'

This does not happen when VSSwriter service (my application) is stopped.

Any help is appreciated. Nothing useful found on TechNet.

Hackish workaround: Interestingly the back up works is when "windows partition is made active". Of course this leaves the system non-boot-able upon restart

Answer 1

TechNet Blog

Decimal 2155348129 is 0x807800A1 in hex.

Quickly searching the Internet for this value takes me to this blog:

• Microsoft TechNet "filecab" blog, Jose Barreto, 2009-09-16, Diagnosing Failures in Windows Server Backup – Part 1 (VSS/SPP Errors) (Archived here.)

It's an HRESULT

This error code is of a special type called an HRESULT.

Namely it's a VSS related HRESULT

And TechNet has a table that lists our specific HRESULT value:

• TechNet: Troubleshoot VSS issues that occur with Windows Server Backup (WBADMIN) in Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2:

  • HRESULT: 2155348129
  • HRESULT (in hex): 0x807800A1
  • Error Message: A Volume Shadow Copy Service operation failed. Please check "VSS" and "SPP" application event logs for more information.

Note: VSS is short for Volume Shadow Copy Service. SPP is short for Shared Protection Point. They log into the regular Windows application event log. And they use VSS and SPP as their event-Source-identifier.