I have been at this problem for several days and have tried many posted solutions. I still can’t get the backup and restore functions to work properly. All I did was upgrade from Windows Vista to Windows 7. The installation worked perfectly and all issues were resolved. That is, until I saw what was happening (or more accurately - what wasn’t happening) with the backup and restore functions. With respect to the backup function, I tended to get two types of errors - (1) “Last backup did not complete successfully … System cannot find file … Error Code 0X80070002” or (2) “Windows backup failed while trying to read from the showdown copy … Error Code 0X81000037.” I go to the event viewer, but nothing makes sense to me - for example, “8224: The VSS service is shutting down due to idle timeout.” I am trying to backup to an external drive manufactured by Western Digital. When I check the drive, I can see that the files were backed up. If there were files not backed up, I do not know which ones. I had trouble with the restore points. One solution suggested I check the configuration (msconfig) to make sure that the Volume Shadow Copy was checked. It wasn’t, and I checked it. Restore points would happened with the same time as the backup BUT would disappear on any shut down or restart. Funny that Microsoft does not show this on the pretty package the software comes in. Nothing but smiles and good times … NOT. Almost ready to give up. Any thoughts? Thanks

You may temporary disable or uninstall the anti-virus and run backup again. If the issue persists, please open Event Viewer, locate to “Application and Service Logs\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsBackup\ActionCenter”, try to find the backup process that cause the hanging issue. Also, please run the following command: vssadmin list writers > %userprofile%\desktop\vsswriters.txt Then open the file vsswriters.txt from Desktop, and try to find which writer has errors. Then you will find which program the writer belongs to.Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Thanks - I uninstalled my McAfee Total Protection, deleted whatever was saved from my Western Digital external drive (except for files I saved manually), and reran the Windows 7 backup. I got the same error message as before (0x81000037). Again, I found backup files created by Windows 7; if some were not backed up, I would not be able to tell which ones. I went to “Application and Service Logs\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsBackup\ActionCenter” and saw four entries all marked as "Information!" They were identical to the four entries on the previous backup run before I uninstalled my McAfee Total Protection. All four entries refer to "hc_stateid" The event ids were either 100 or 101. There was no on-line explanation. I looked at another set of comments where you were trying to help someone - I was searching on "hc_stateid." You had advised checking the registry subkey "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\SubSystems\Windows." Out of curiosity, I checked mine, and saw that there was "value not set" for "REG_SZ." I tried the "vssadmin list writers > %userprofile%\desktop\vsswriters.txt." Other than a quick flash in the upper left-hand corner, nothing happened. There was no file vsswriters.txt on the Desktop. Thanks for trying to help.

To run the command, please open cmd.exe as administrator and then run the command in it. Please let us know the result.Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Thanks. I was able to run the command successfully as the administrator. There are 11 "writer name" entries. All have "Last error: No error." However, three show "State: [5] Waiting for completion." How do I get the desktop report to you? Also, last night was the scheduled Windows backup for my computer (11:00 PM on Sunday nights). I could see that there was a backup by inspecting the external hard drive; however, the same error messages and event viewer notations appeared in the Windows 7 Action Center. Also, still get message - "No restore points have been created on your computer's system drive ..." Thank you

What are the names of the problematic writers? You will not which contents are not backed up from the name. Does the issue occur if you backup to a location on local hard drive?Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

The following three writer names reported the condition “State [5] Waiting for completion” - “System writer,” MSSearch Service Writer,” and “WMI Writer.” With regard to your second question, the back-up gives me three choices - Recovery (D), DVD RW Drive (E), and My Book (M), which is my external drive manufactured by Western Digital. I recall trying to change back-up to Recovery (D) and got roughly the same messages. I can try to run again to Recovery (D) if that will help you. Thanks again

I went ahead and attempted to perform a backup using my Recovery (D) drive. The backup failed with the following error message: “Windows backup failed while trying to read from the showdown copy … Error Code 0X81000037.” After checking the drive, it is evident that no backup was performed, unlike before. I did another vsswriters - everything was stable & no error. Again, the restore function does not work and I just discovered that the Windows 7 search functions does not work. The searches either do not identify known files, identify wrong files (e.g., identify a pdf document as a music or photo files), or do not search data within files. I will submit a second question on the latter problem. Once more. all I did was upgrade from Vista to Windows 7, and I do not understand why some of the Microsoft operating system features do not work. I can understand why some hardware or applications software might not work.

I could see that Windows 7 attempted regularly scheduled backup (Sunday, 11:00 PM). Got same error message about backup failing while attempting to read shadow copy, and same notice appears in event viewed as before. Also, could see that no backup files were written to the external harddrive. Restore function does not appear to be operational.

You may need to run In-place Upgrade to repair the systemPlease remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Thanks - what is the "In-place Upgrade?"

Thanks - what does "In-place Upgrade" mean?

I had the same problem, When the backup is creating the shadow copy; the anti-virus software (microsoft security essentials) finds a java virus in the cache directories. (e.g. C:\Users\Carl\AppData\LocalLow\Sun\Java\Deployment\cache\6.0\33 ) http://www.java.com/en/download/help/cache_virus.xml The anti-virus software (microsoft security essentials) removes it but some how it causes the backup to fail. The virus seems to be seeded in multiple cache directories. I followed the instructions on the java link above and I also went in with windows file manager and deleted all the cache directories. The backup ran correctly afterwards. I hope this helps you and others.

Thanks, CP - I gave this a shot. I went to JAVA in the control panel and removed all temporary internet files (they all appeared to be unneeded). I also searched for the 4 viruses identified in the link you provided - and found none. I reran backup and got the same error message (0x80070002) and results - that is, in checking my external drive (Western Digital), the backup seems to have been performed. I examined the event viewer and found the same four entries (2 event ID = 100 and 2 event ID - 101). The details did not shed any light (i.e., identify any particular file). Not sure what you meant by "windows file manager." Thanks for trying