Server 2003 R2 VSS error.

Question

I inherited a Windows Server 2003 R2 standard edition x86. After doing a bit of checking on it, I see it has not been backed up for some time. Drive C is handled by an Adaptec controller card and has 2 drives in Raid 1 configuration with total space of 68.2GB
with 33GB free and fragmentation of 1%. Drive D is handled by a 3Ware controller card and has 9 drives in Raid 5 configuration (8 active, 1 spare) with total space of 7.27TB with 4.65TB free and fragmentation of 1%.
When looking at either drive thru Windows explorer, properties, Shadow Copies tab it shows "Failed to retrieve volumes that are eligible for shadow copies. Error 0x8004230f: The shadow copy provider had an unexpected error while trying to process the
specified operation."
If I check thru command prompt and run vssadmin commands I get the following.
C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>vssadmin list providers
vssadmin 1.1 - Volume Shadow Copy Service administrative command-line tool
(C) Copyright 2001 Microsoft Corp.
Provider name: 'Symantec Software VSS Provider'
   Provider type: Software
   Provider Id: {262b716e-bb23-41b5-aaef-e2c15e767167}
   Version: 1.0
Provider name: 'Microsoft Software Shadow Copy provider 1.0'
   Provider type: System
   Provider Id: {b5946137-7b9f-4925-af80-51abd60b20d5}
   Version: 1.0.0.7
C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>vssadmin list writers
vssadmin 1.1 - Volume Shadow Copy Service administrative command-line tool
(C) Copyright 2001 Microsoft Corp.
Writer name: 'System Writer'
   Writer Id: {e8132975-6f93-4464-a53e-1050253ae220}
   Writer Instance Id: {0a076449-61f7-459b-8288-9684c8a6b860}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error
Writer name: 'SqlServerWriter'
   Writer Id: {a65faa63-5ea8-4ebc-9dbd-a0c4db26912a}
   Writer Instance Id: {1f5f638e-3bc0-430b-849e-17bf69b42b64}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error
Writer name: 'FSRM Writer'
   Writer Id: {12ce4370-5bb7-4c58-a76a-e5d5097e3674}
   Writer Instance Id: {1ee21ac2-2dd2-450b-87f9-e425b4ee599e}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error
Writer name: 'MSDEWriter'
   Writer Id: {f8544ac1-0611-4fa5-b04b-f7ee00b03277}
   Writer Instance Id: {c8b96527-9328-4ce3-92ac-6efc995dbef5}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error
Writer name: 'Registry Writer'
   Writer Id: {afbab4a2-367d-4d15-a586-71dbb18f8485}
   Writer Instance Id: {c6e9592a-3a8a-4873-9589-4fb9072f045b}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error
Writer name: 'WMI Writer'
   Writer Id: {a6ad56c2-b509-4e6c-bb19-49d8f43532f0}
   Writer Instance Id: {0c50faba-aec4-4f76-96ad-d25c0b5066ca}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error
Writer name: 'Event Log Writer'
   Writer Id: {eee8c692-67ed-4250-8d86-390603070d00}
   Writer Instance Id: {76fcde0f-d18b-4936-a3f6-1dd399630101}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error
Writer name: 'COM+ REGDB Writer'
   Writer Id: {542da469-d3e1-473c-9f4f-7847f01fc64f}
   Writer Instance Id: {5ea9ac74-036c-44f3-bf52-684784c03131}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error
Writer name: 'IIS Metabase Writer'
   Writer Id: {59b1f0cf-90ef-465f-9609-6ca8b2938366}
   Writer Instance Id: {f02d80c6-e208-4e9e-9076-3032677fe594}
   State: [1] Stable
   Last error: No error
C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>vssadmin list shadows
vssadmin 1.1 - Volume Shadow Copy Service administrative command-line tool
(C) Copyright 2001 Microsoft Corp.
No items found that satisfy the query.
C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>vssadmin list volumes
vssadmin 1.1 - Volume Shadow Copy Service administrative command-line tool
(C) Copyright 2001 Microsoft Corp.
Error: The shadow copy provider had an unexpected error while trying to process
the specified command.
Now if I look in the event log under Applications I see 2 errors showing.
Error 1
Source VSS. Event ID 12302. Volume Shadow Copy Service error: An internal inconsistency was detected in trying to contact shadow copy service writers.  Please check to see that the Event Service and Volume Shadow Copy Service are operating properly.
Error 2
Source VSS. Event ID 12293. Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Error calling a routine on the Shadow Copy Provider {b5946137-7b9f-4925-af80-51abd60b20d5}. Routine details IVssSnapshotProvider::QueryVolumesSupportedForSnapshots(ProviderId,29,...) [hr = 0x8000ffff].
Checking error 1 event id 12302 is says to make sure COM + is set to Automatic.  It is set to automatic and is running. It also says to command prompt vssadmin list writers and verify none are reporting errors. None are reporting an error. It also
says to check volume shadow copy in services. Start up set to manual, which it is and it will run with no problems.
Checking error 2 event id 12293 it says to use vssadmin create shadow for each provider. If I do that I get the same errors.
I have done a lot of research on this and found 3 hot fixes from Microsoft. None of the 3 apply to the error messages that I am getting. But to give it a good try, I have applied all 3 hot fixes and none made it better, and none made it worse (different
error messages). I have also tried the following
 cd /d %windir%\\system32
Net stop vss
Net stop swprv
regsvr32 ole32.dll
regsvr32 vss_ps.dll
Vssvc /Register
regsvr32 /i swprv.dll
regsvr32 /i eventcls.dll
regsvr32 es.dll
regsvr32 stdprov.dll
regsvr32 vssui.dll
regsvr32 msxml.dll
regsvr32 msxml3.dll
regsvr32 msxml4.dll
regsvr32 Vssapi.dll
regsvr32 Vssui.dll
net start vss
net start swprv
The only errors I get when doing this is the following. 
"msxml4.dll not found"  I understand this as my system now has msxml6 and in doing some research msxml6 and msxml4 are not compatible and msxml6 replaced msxml4, so I can live with that, I guess.
"Vssapi.dll was loaded, but the DllRegisterServer entry point was not found. The file cannot be registered."
I am at a loss. Does anyone have any suggestions

Answer 1

Hi,
Do you install Symantec on your server? If so, please try to remove the entries of Symantec from system to check the result.
In the meantime, please try the steps listed in the following article to see if it can help:
Error message when you run the "vssadmin list writers" command on a Windows Server 2003-based computer: "Error: 0x8000FFFF"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940184
Please note, you need to backup the registry before making any changes to it.
Regards,
Mandy
We
are trying to better understand customer views on social support experience, so your participation in this
interview project would be greatly appreciated if you have time.
Thanks for helping make community forums a great place.