Windows Backup failed – 0x81000037
If you are a Windows 7 user and you have important data, you have probably used an integrated Windows 7 Backup so far. If you have googled to come to this solution, then you have probably experienced this error:
‘The backup was not successful. The error is: Windows Backup failed while trying to read from the shadow copy on one of the volumes being backed up. Please check in the event logs for any relevant errors (0x81000037). Event ID: 4104’
0x81000037: Windows Backup failed while trying to read from the shadow copy on one of the volumes being backed up
Cause:
The cause of this error is in reparse points pointing to a location that contains any compressed file formats (multimedia files, .zip; .rar etc), or Antivirus/Antimalware application is reporting some bad files and holding locks for those files.
More on reparse points can be found HERE, HERE and HERE.
Solution:
To fix this problem, please remove reparse points from the library and then run the backup again. To backup contents for this reparse points, select the absolute path of this location from the Windows Backup configuration user interface. Basically, try to use the absoluthe path to a network location instead of a mapped drive path.
You should also check your Antivirus/Antispyware software for bad files reporting. If those files exists and are quarantined, please delete those files. If that won’t help, you can always try to disable your antivirus/antimalware application to see if it will work then. Apparently Microsoft Security Essentials and NOD32 can cause this behaviour.
If you still have issues, please post your comment below and I will try to help.
I had to successively backup half my files at a time, each time one half would fail with this error. I then took half of the failed directories and ran backup – half would fail. I continued to successively select half of the failed directory tree. Eventually I isolated a hidden folder containing cookies. When I tried to find this folder using explorer, it wasn’t there, but when I did a search for ‘cookies’ the folder showed up. I deleted the folder and all the cookies in it. Then I was able to backup my entire system without the error. FYI – the folder was: R:UsersPaulAppdataRoamingMicrosoftWindowsCookiesLow I removed the Cookies folder and all its files and subdirectories.
Thanks for your comment Shiff.
All sites where solutions are discussed are saying “remove all the reparse points”, but there are no explanations _how_ to do that!
Reparse points are basically data paths that you have configured for backup.
@Nik: You still didn’t answer Rasp’s question: *how* do you remove reparse points? How do you even determine what they are? Basically, can you elaborate on the *exact* steps to take.
[quote name=”Shiff”]I had to successively backup half my files at a time, each time one half would fail with this error. I then took half of the failed directories and ran backup – half would fail. I continued to successively select half of the failed directory tree. Eventually I isolated a hidden folder containing cookies. When I tried to find this folder using explorer, it wasn’t there, but when I did a search for ‘cookies’ the folder showed up. I deleted the folder and all the cookies in it. Then I was able to backup my entire system without the error. FYI – the folder was: R:UsersPaulAppdataRoamingMicrosoftWindowsCookiesLow I removed the Cookies folder and all its files and subdirectories.[/quote]
Make Sure the Virtual Disk Service is not disabled and is running.
I disabled Microsoft Security Essentials and the backup completed.