VSS contains blank writers list
by chadeldridge on Mar.15, 2011, under Tech
Basically what happens is there are several things on 2008 server that cause a corrupted Reg entry and then a lot of other entries spawn off the bad one. Since the key created is technically correct but made of the wrone reg type it causes the issue and the software installer doesn’t catch it as being a problem. So If you start seeing VSS errors on a server do the following:
In CMD mode type “vssadmin list writers” if it returns data then this is not your issue, if it returns nothing, then you have the problem.
If nothing is returned do the following:
1. Remove any software that uses the VSS writer service, at this point all I can guess would be DPM agent or the BackupExec agent. SQL and other writers that use it do not seem to cause the issue
2. Open regedit and find this key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\EventSystem\{26c409cc-ae86-11d1-b616-00805fc79216}\Subscriptions
3. DELETE the entire key and all its subs
4. Close regedit and then create a batch file of the following commands, then run it.
net stop “System Event Notification Service”
net stop “COM+ Event System”
net stop “Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider”
net stop “Volume Shadow Copy”
cd /d %windir%\system32
net stop vss
net stop swprv
regsvr32 /s ole32.dll
regsvr32 /s oleaut32.dll
regsvr32 /s vss_ps.dll
vssvc /register
regsvr32 /s /i swprv.dll
regsvr32 /s /i eventcls.dll
regsvr32 /s es.dll
regsvr32 /s stdprov.dll
regsvr32 /s vssui.dll
regsvr32 /s msxml3.dll
net start “System Event Notification Service”
net start “COM+ Event System”
net start “Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider”
net start “Volume Shadow Copy”
5. Reboot the machine
6. Create another batch file with the following commands and run it
cd /d %windir%\system32
net stop vss
net stop swprv
regsvr32 ole32.dll
regsvr32 oleaut32.dll
regsvr32 /i eventcls.dll
regsvr32 vss_ps.dll
vssvc /register
regsvr32 /i swprv.dll
regsvr32 es.dll
regsvr32 stdprov.dll
regsvr32 vssui.dll
regsvr32 msxml.dll
regsvr32 msxml3.dll
regsvr32 msxml4.dll
7. Type “vssadmin list writers” and you should see all the VSS writers again.
