Hi there,
I would like to setup backups for my server machine. After installing the Server Backup features, I went to use it for the first time.
Opened up the Windows Server Backup where I received:

"Reading data; please wait..."

The problem is, that it never progresses past this screen. My mouse turns into a timer icon and nothing happens. The application just hangs.

Anyone else having this issue?


OS: Windows Server 2008 Standard Edition x64
I just recently installed Hyper-V and upgraded my BIOS, if that matters. However no virtual machines are presently installed yet.

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Well I just let it sit and "load" ... it ended up finally going. Any clue why this happened. Took forever!

Thanks for reporting the issue. on retrying - does it repro again?

if it reproes again - Please do the following.
1. goto c:\windows\logs\windowsserverbackup folder. delete all files
2. launch the issue in UI to see the issue.
3. launch backup wizard and cancel it. this is required to generate a log file.
4. zip the contents of %windir%\logs\windowsserverbackup folder and send to sushilbaid@microsoft.com(only use the highlighted letters this is to avoid spam)

It is happening to me also. I have SBS 2008 Premium. I guess the problem started when I installed Hyper-V role. I wanted to have virtual Vista 32 running on server to do some management stuff that can not be done on 64 bit systems. After having backup problems I removed the role but the problem persists. I do not know what to do. Sushil Baid, I am sending you the logs.

I did not receive the log files. did the mail bounce back?

it is good to zip the contents and send.

my email is sbaid-nospam@microsoft.com (use the highlighted letter only in the name)

alternatively - you can upload the logs to something like skydrive and share the link also.

We have had this problem on three Server 2008 systems now. All had Server 2008 as a Host and one with Hyper-V the other two with VMWARE.

We've had the problem while the VM guest (one with SBS2003, others with SBS2008)were running.An easy way to totally killa Server is run aBackup on the VM and just click on Windows Server Backup on the Host,it never gets passedtherefresh and Keyboard and Mouse acess is gone. When we've had Task Mgr running, you can see the system is still doing something but it's hardly using any CPU.We thenhave to manually power off the server and restart.

I can understand that running two backups at once (one on the Host and one on the Guest)would be a problem for VSS but the problem seems to lie in the Server Control Panel.

will it be possible for you to raise a support case and share the support case # for reference?

Was anyone able to find a solution for this? I had the same issue pop up yesterday. Thanks!

I've got it too - anyone found the fix?

Has it been over a year already?

Did anyone find an answer?

This problem still exists for us and we're now up to R2. Could it be that Server 2008 Server Manager is trying to locate all the backup drives (external USB in our case) to display their status? Not all would be plugged in at the same time hence there could be a wait for time-out problem.

Same problem here.  Anyone fix this?

I'm having the same issue aswell, server 2008 R2 with Exchange 2010. I have disabled the VSS thing in regedit aswell. I'm starting to hate the windows server backup tool, try running a schedule external USB's to rotate every day. its impossible with this stupid little program.

I just want to click backup and point to a drive letter using a schedule, that’s all!!!! it was that simple with NT backup in 2003 days.

to diagnose the issue - will need to collect some information.

zip the files at c:\windows\logs\windowsserverbackup\*etl and send to sbaid-nospam@microsoft.com (remove -nospam to get the correct email id. this is to avoid automated spammers.)

also can you check the following:

1. clear events in microsoft.windows.backup event channel using eventvwr and see if that resolves the issue.

2. from elevated command prompt - run wbadmin.exe get versions and see how many backup versions are listed.

 

Did we ever get a fix for this?

 

I tried the last two steps above:

 

1) Cleared the backup event logs from the event view, but no luck

2) There are maybe 60-70 versions listed in wbadmin.exe get versions

Hi Sushil,

I've emailed you log files, as requested. Please let me know of any developments, or if any further information is needed.

I'm having the same issue aswell, server 2008 R2 with Exchange 2010. I have disabled the VSS thing in regedit aswell. I'm starting to hate the windows server backup tool, try running a schedule external USB's to rotate every day. its impossible with this stupid little program.

I just want to click backup and point to a drive letter using a schedule, that’s all!!!! it was that simple with NT backup in 2003 days.

Yeah,  Everyone seems to be having issues with WSBU.  Me too.  Server 2008 R2 64 Bit with RDS (but I am working from the console).  Same problems.  Is there a good 3rd party utility that might actually backup the File system and make an ISO also?  I have heard of one that works well, but cost as much as server... :(  (What's the big deal with getting a decent backup tool?)

 

I was having the exact same problem. And found out that while the server backup hangs the search function does not work either, so I restarted windows search service, and it worked! At least it worked for me.

The problem still exists in Windows Server 2012. "Reading data; please wait... (forever)"

Sushil, in my case it is the SQL Server VSS Writer that is the reason Windows Server Backup hangs. If the SQL Server VSS Writer service is not running Windows Server Backup load instantly.

Do you have any recommendation what to do? I really need the SQL Server VSS Writer running since it make the backup of the SQL databases possible.

I've got the same problem with WSBU on server 2008 R2 x64

I've got Server 2008R2 running in a Citrix Xenserver environment, when i check the Virtual Drivers allocated to our RDS/Application server I've noticed that there is a drive mounted with no storage size defined, meaning it's an incomplete snapshot. in addition to this, also in XenCenter, I've noticed that the RDS server seems to be creating snapshots of itself, almost everyday, which worries me, as I'm not able to change the VSS options or access Windows Disk Management from the Server Roles feature... they both hang when you select them and the information never seems to load.

In our case, we use a warehouse management software, which requires SQL 2008 to be installed, in addition to this I've got XenVSS provider, and the standard MS Volume shadow copy service, I've just disabled them all via services.msc and am about to restart the server (slightly worried) but holding thumbs, will update after the server comes back up if it's made any difference to the problem mentioned above.

All,

I know this is an old... old... old (!) issue but I thought I'd throw my suggestion into the ring as it may help others.

The solution for me was to simply run the backup Application as Admin. That is, right click and run as administrator. This solved all of my hanging issues and it worked pretty much perfectly from then on.

Good luck!