Web Talk

In Windows Vista, while using System Restore you might get the following error: “Can’t create system restore point. Shadow Copying the specified volumn is not supported. (0×8004230C) Please try again”. You could face this kind of error even in Windows Server 2003 while using Symantec Backup Exec. In this case the error message could be slightly different from Vista: “OFO: Initialization failure on: “\\server-name\Shadow?Copy?Components”. Advanced Open File Option used: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).OFO: Snapshot error (0×8004230c): 0×8004230c (2147754764). Unexpected provider error.” This error is the result of the Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider service which has stopped working or is just disabled. As a result every service depending on it will stop working as well. To fix this issue it is just sufficient to make sure that Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider Service (SWPRV) and the Volume Shadow Copy (VSS) services are running. Here is the trick to activate them.

1. Click Start.
2. Click Control Panel.
3. Click System and Maintenance.
4. Click Administrative Tools.
5. Double click on Services.
6. Look for Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider and Volume Shadow Copy.
7. Double click on these services and set the “Startup type” to Automatic.