Under My Hat

Solving error 0×80080005 of Windows Backup

Posted on 19 July 2010

the issue

solution

problems

resources

After using Windows Backup of Vista’s Backup Restore Center occasionally but without any notable problems, I happened today on a nasty message that I nor Google seemed to be able solve easily. It wasn’t until a few hours later that it occurred to me that me messing with the security of the System Volume Information had anything to do with it. The following describes how I solved the issue. If you came across the same issue and this helped you out, please let me know of your success or your findings.

The issue

When you click the button Back up Files or Back up computer you receive the error:

The backup application could not start due to an internal error:
Server execution failed (0×80080005)
Please check your system configuration and try again.

In your eventlog you may find the following entry under Application Events: “Block level backup engine service has stopped.”, under EventId 754, Level: Information, Source “Backup”.

Under the System event log you may find the following logentry: “The Block Level Backup Engine Service service entered the stopped state.”, eventId 7036, Level: Information, source “Service Control Manager Eventlog Provider”.

And under the same System event log you may find this entry: “The Block Level Backup Engine Service service terminated with the following error:
General access denied error”, EventID: 7023, Level: Error, Source: “Service Control Manager Eventlog Provider”.

When you try to manually start the service “Block level backup engine service” you receive the following error: “Windows could not start the Block Level Backup Engine Service service on Local Computer. Error 0×80070005: Access is denied.

All these errors have the same single source, as explained below under the solution.

The cause

While it has been reported that some bad behaving programs like McAfee, are known for causing the Volume Shadow Service to stop functioning properly (thanks McAfee!), the current issue is not caused by it.

Some remnants: the “5″ at the end of the error number suggested an access denied error to me, which was backed up by the Access Denied error reported in the eventlog under eventid 7023. Seeing this, I remembered I played around with the security of the System Volume Information. While I thought I only changed ownership to be able to view its contents, I apparently destroyed the ACL of some of the objects underneath that directory.

What you may have done to get the 0×80080005 error is the following, which is repeatable:

1. You tried to find out what the heck the System Volume Information folder is all about;
2. Not satisfied with the Access Denied error you got when clicking the folder, you changed its ownership and then its rights;
3. You received errors like the one in the screenshot on the right, you figured “ooops” and clicked cancel; you shouldn’t have done that!
4. You noticed that the directory is now readable and you didn’t give it another thought until your next backup moment.

What happened is this: the moment you clicked cancel, Windows stopped adding your new rights (the new ACLs) to the other directories and files. However, some files were half way being altered (either original rights removed, or half of the new rights added). This has resulted in one or more files or folders that are completely inaccessible by the system or by you.

Note that it is allowed to change the rights on this folder, but you must do so carefully and correctly. Note also that the next time you run the Volume Shadow Service (run by the Backup Service or any properly behaving setup), the original rights will be restored and subsequent access to that directory will be denied.

The solution

As mentioned in the intro, googling this issue doesn’t provide the right answers, so I’ll give it a try. If you are handy with security, the quick solution is: just restore the security of the System Volume Information directory to its defaults, which is: give SYSTEM full control on all its descendants. If you are unsure how to do this or you continue to receive errors, follow the steps in the next section:

Restore ACL rights of System Volume Information

If you did something similar or suspect another application to have done it for you, follow these steps to correct this:

1. Rightclick c:\System Volume Information in Windows Explorer and select Properties;
2. Select the Security tab and check whether or not SYSTEM is in the list with full control, if not:
   1. Click Edit and select Add in the next screen;
   2. Type “SYSTEM”, and click OK;
   3. Select Full Control under the Allow column;
   4. Click OK, you may get some access denied errors, in which case you should repeatedly click Continue;
3. Click the Advanced button, then click Edit under the main tab (Permissions);
4. Select Replace all existing inheritable permissions on all descendants with inheritable permissions from this object (see screenshot).
5. Click Ok. You may get some access denied errors, in which case you should repeatedly click Continue (note: do NOT click Cancel, as in that case, not all but only the first few objects will inherit the permissions!).

It just works

After these steps, you should be able to run the Block Level Backup Engine Service again. Just try it from the Services window, or run System Backup directly. If it doesn’t work, please let me know below.

Problems

Executing the steps in the previous section, you may repeatedly get the following message box:

If this happens, make sure to click Continue. Do not click Cancel, as that will result in the operation to stop right in the middle. It may well be that if you changed the System Volume Information security settings by hand previously, that you hit Cancel and thus caused the Backup Service to behave as described in the beginning of this post.

You will receive this message box more than once, notably for each oddly named system file in this directory that ends with “{3808876b-c176-4e48-b7ae-04046e6cc752}” (this GUID may be different, depending on your Vista or Windows 7 version and installed service packs). The amount of popups is equal to the amount of restore points you currently have, plus one.

Resources

None at this moment.

 

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