0

My Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials server has started throwing the same error each time during daily backups, each backup has this error in the failed items backup log:

Error in backup of E:\System Volume Information\SRM\quota.md during write: Error [0x80070020] The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.

E: is a parity Storage Space. Each backup status is now incomplete but otherwise all other data appears to have been backed up. It does mean however that each backup task now runs a full backup on E: rather than incremental because of the "failure" status.

I tried using the Dashboard to exclude this path from backup however I just got a different error related to items under the System Volume Information folder. There seems to be a underlying issue as to why System Volume Information is now causing problems, but I'm not sure what it is. As far as I'm aware I am not using any Quota functionality unless Windows itself is doing something I'm not aware of.

Additionally the core configuration of the server has not changed, so I am slightly confused as to why the backup is now "failing".

James White
  • 654
  • 3
  • 17
  • 32
  • What were the results of a disk/file-system check (`chkdsk`)? – techie007 Dec 07 '15 at 19:19
  • @Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 I haven't run one yet, because the Storage Space is large 6TB pool. – James White Dec 07 '15 at 19:31
  • Welp, I'd say start running it... ;) You are saying you have unexpected file access problems, so a CHKDSK is the first (or one of the first) steps that should be done to confirm/deny file-system corruption. Once you've done that, come back and update your question with the results... – techie007 Dec 07 '15 at 19:37
  • *so I am slightly confused as to why the backup is now "failing"* - A chkdsk likely will eliminate your confusion. I presume you have restarted? – Ramhound Dec 07 '15 at 19:47
  • Fair point. I have only held off because `E:` holds various network shares so chkdsk will force it to be dismounted and become unavailable for a while. I will report my findings. I have already restarted the server and it hasn't fixed it. – James White Dec 07 '15 at 19:50
  • `chkdsk` ran, a few cleanup operations on index entries occurred but other than that FS appears clean. Will have to wait until next backup occurs to see if it fixed it. – James White Dec 07 '15 at 20:57
  • [This is all I could find](http://www.clickbay.de/win/wintip/w2003-01-quota.htm) but appears some services have files in use and locked. –  Dec 07 '15 at 23:05
  • Slightly different error `Error in deletion of [E:\System Volume Information\SRM\] while pruning the target VHD: Error [0x80070020] The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process`. Still appears to be some form of lock on the folder – James White Dec 08 '15 at 22:30
  • A similar problem I found: https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/a9ec7dc7-2f87-4a1e-bebe-e1717b4b1565/cannot-backup-dsystem-volume-informationsrmquotamd?forum=winservergen. However I'm not using WSUS but it seems exclude rules seem to be related. I am excluding some items on `E:/`. – James White Dec 12 '15 at 10:10
  • I always delete that junk and recycler before proceeding to do any backups. – Overmind Sep 11 '19 at 10:49

1 Answers1

0

While this doesn't explain why 0x80070020 error occurs. The problem appears to be when wbadmin.exe is provided an exclude flag. Running whole backup of the E:/ storage space completed successfully.

A similar problem was reported related to WSUS:

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/a9ec7dc7-2f87-4a1e-bebe-e1717b4b1565/cannot-backup-dsystem-volume-informationsrmquotamd?forum=winservergen

Ultimately for whatever reason Windows doesn't like the exclude option in the backup now. It had worked fine up until a few weeks ago and the only thing that would of changed would of been the amount of data being excluded overtime.

I suspect this is a bug in Windows.

James White
  • 654
  • 3
  • 17
  • 32