Re-register VSSAdmin - Writers not stable

Written By Tami Sutcliffe (Super Administrator)

Updated at April 23rd, 2025

We do NOT recommend this process be performed on Small Business Server.

WARNING: Steps performed on Small Business Server are at your own risk.

Stabilize the VSS writers

 Before a backup can be successful, your VSS writers must be in a stable, healthy state. 

Please be sure you have completed these steps before attempting to re-register your VSS writers:

1. To bring your writers to a stable, healthy state, right-click the following services one at a time. For each service, click Restart: 

  • COM+ Event System
  • COM+ System Application
  • Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider 
  • Volume Shadow Copy

2. In an elevated command prompt (run as Administrator), enter the command 

  vssadmin list writers   

and press enter.

 All writers should now be stable, with no errors. 

If they are not, or if you continually have writers that are not stable, you may need to re-register the VSS components of VSSadmin

Re-register the VSS components

1. In an elevated command prompt, run the following commands. 

IMPORTANT NOTE: Each command is a single line. Press enter at the end of each command. All of these commands must be run in this order.

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 msxml.dll
regsvr32 /s msxml3.dll
regsvr32 /s msxml4.dll
vssvc /register
net start swprv
net start vss

2. When you have completed that step, again run the command   

 vssadmin list writers

  and press enter. 

  • If the writers are all stable, with no error, attempt to run the backup again. 
  • If any writer is in a non-stable, failed, or error state, please reboot and verify the writers are stable, with no error before attempting a new backup.

 Note: VSS is a native Windows service, not an x360Recover service.

  • Your x360Recover backups use this Windows service to function. 
  • Your x360Recover backups do not cause these services to fail.  

If the VSS is not in a healthy state or runs into software conflicts when backups attempt to run, the backups will fail.

    There are a wide variety of reasons that can cause backups to fail, including but not limited to: 

  • multiple backup products installed on the same machine (that are attempting to run at the same time, or simply interfere with each other by being present)
  • antivirus software interference
  • software installations completed without required reboots
  • software corruption
  • improperly completed OS updates
  • under-configured windows resources
  • storage performance bottlenecks
  • corruption at the software or hardware level,

Identifying the cause of your VSS issue may not be possible for x360Recover Support and in some cases will require expert support from Microsoft to resolve. 


 

 


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