Virtual Disk Error during Win 10 image backup

Question

_{Monday, June 12, 2017 8:07 AM}

You don't have a forum category for Backups so I put this in General.  Please forward if necessary.

Problem:

I am unable to perform a simple image backup due to a "virtual disk system limitation" error (see below).

"The requested operation cannot be completed due to a virtual disk system limitation.  Virtual Hard Disk files must be uncompressed and encrypted and must not be sparse.

(0xC03A001A)"

Background:

This is a plain old home Windows 10 64-bit desktop system with no "virtual disks" that I am aware of, whatever they are.  I have had numerous OS problems since a major virus attack about a year ago.  I lost some data due to expired or lost encryption keys. Since then I have avoided encrypting files other than emails just to keep these problems from recurring (encryption only helps the bad guys it seems - but I digress).  My system is now operational but unreliably, and it refuses to run my subscribed copy of McAfee Total Protection beyond 50% before it freezes to a standstill.  No errors are reported of any kind (naturally) that would be too easy.  McAfee says the problem is caused by corrupt OS files, so I'm rebuilding the OS, but a backup must be done first to preserve my data and programs and now I can't even do that.   

I can save most of the data by Cut and Pasting it onto a network drive but not so the programs.  For that I need a working Windows 10 Backup utility.  I can try to let Windows 10 repair itself by loading a new image on top of the old OS but without a working backup utility I'd be throwing caution to the wind.  The instructions are clear - do a backup first!  So, again, how can I fix my copy of Backup and Restore so I can finish rebuilding my OS?

Thanks!

All replies (7)

_{Tuesday, June 13, 2017 2:12 AM}

"The requested operation could not be completed due to a virtual disk system limitation. Virtual hard disk files must be uncompressed and unencrypted and must not be sparse. (0xC03A001A)"

From my search, you may get this error if you have placed a compressed VHD image on your SSD/HD and then you try to backup the entire drive. So, try to decompress the image, if you have enough space on the SSD/HD. Right-click the vhd, properties, uncheck compression. Option 2, Remove and place the VHD onto a different drive temporarily. A better solution is to store the VHD's onto a different partition or drive.

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_{Tuesday, June 13, 2017 2:12 AM}

In addition, for system issue, backup files and rebuild a new system is a correct way, your behavior is reasonable.

But in my opinion, why not execute a repair upgrade directly?

You could download original iso image file and use it to in-place upgrade current system, after upgrade, corrupted system files, broken system functions and crashed permission will be fixed, of course, you data will be reserved, just some programs need to be reinstalled.

Regards

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_{Wednesday, June 14, 2017 3:08 AM}

Thank you for your responses.

I am, however, unable to decompress my VHD because to my knowledge, I don't have one.  If I do have one, how do I find it? Is there a special extension that identifies it?  The error doesn't identify any particular file to use in a search engine.

Also, I have taken your suggestion and done a complete Windows 10 Repair Upgrade with a fresh download from Microsoft.  It went well enough, but the problem remained, that is, backups still deliver the aforementioned error and McAfee bogs down to an absolute crawl after less than an hour and scanning only a few thousand items. Sometimes it will go as high as 50% completed, today it didn't go past 1%.   During the scans the disk activity light blinks normally but soon goes on solid and stays that way while the usual disk thrashing tapers slowly to a complete stop. The system then takes many minutes to respond to a single mouse click and won't return to normal without a reboot.  There's no overheating and no error messages from McAfee, only the one Windows error while attempting a backup.

This is a nine year old Intel quad-core system with 6 GB of RAM and plenty of disk space (132 GB free of 250 GB on C:\.  It runs cool and clean and was quite fast and reliable until this problem surfaced.

Thanks for any help you can give!

_{Wednesday, June 14, 2017 6:43 AM}

Vhd file is a file that has a .vhd extension, look at this picture, you can open Disk Management to check if you have a vhd.

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_{Wednesday, June 14, 2017 6:44 AM}

After repair upgrade, system need to check and download updates from Microsoft website, which will cost bandwidth and system resources(memory/disk), if you run Anti-Virus software to scan disk, it will also cost many system resources, and lead to system become slow, it’s a normal phenomenon.

Please wait patiently, let system update itself to the latest build 15063.413. Meanwhile, check the Device Manager, make sure all devices run properly, if there is any abnormal state on a device, update its driver.

One more thing, after upgrade, programs need to be reinstalled, your McAfee belongs to these type of programs. I suggest to uninstall it temporarily, enable Windows Defender, when your system recover stable, turn off Windows Defender and install McAfee.

Regards

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_{Friday, June 16, 2017 1:45 AM}

I have now confirmed via *.vhd file search that there is no VHD in my system.  However, another backup attempt produced the same error so the "error" is somehow in error of itself and I am at a loss as to how to explain it.  I have now replaced Windows 10 with a complete reinstall with no change in symptoms.  McAfee was also replaced twice by a McAfee technician two weeks ago, but for argument's sake, I did it again myself last night. Again no change - McAfee bogs down to a absolute crawl after less than an hour of processing with at most 14,777 items scanned, 4.35% out of the 340,000 files in my system despite McAfee reporting only 1% items scanned.  At 40 mins a single file took 25 minutes to scan, the next didn't happen at all even after waiting another hour so I aborted. Actually, I rebooted with a hard reset because the system was so crippled at that point Window's Start menu wouldn't come up and not even McAfee's Pause button would work.  I put the thing in sleep mode overnight and this morning it took 20 mins just to bring up the login screen.  After a successful login it ran fine - long enough to type this message - and it probably will work fine the rest of the day as long as I don't do any backups or McAfee scans.  By the way, the same McAfee Total Protection program, with no adjustments, works fine in my much slower Win 7 laptop.  It also worked fine in this system before these problems began making me think that it is not a McAfee problem.

So, the problem remains after replacing the major players.  Time to go after the minor ones which promises to be a slow and painful process.  How can I tell which files/programs/services are causing Backup to fail and McAfee to bog down?  Is there a systematic approach I can employ that could narrow down this search, in blocks perhaps?  Are there log reports I can access?  Why can't Windows and McAfee do a better job of reporting these problems?

Your help is appreciated!

_{Friday, June 16, 2017 8:34 AM}

You could open Event viewer to check event log about backup failure.

And, download Process Explorer to monitor processes’ behaviors and resources usage.

Regards

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