This error indicates a problem with the Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) Writer sub-system. Additionally, you will see the following text in the Macrium Reflect VSS log.
ERROR: Selected writer 'Registry Writer' is in failed state!
- Status: 9 (VSS_WS_FAILED_AT_FREEZE)
- Writer Failure code: 0x800423f4 (<Unknown error code>)
- Writer ID: {afbab4a2-367d-4d15-a586-71dbb18f8485}
- Instance ID: {8e4e7645-fd10-4db3-bd07-57e5ad67842b}
VSS 'Registry Writer' failures are often transient and will be resolved with a system reboot. If that doesn't help the Registry writer can be safely excluded from your VSS snapshot without any effect on the integrity of your backup.
To exclude the Registry Writer:
- Download the file 'RegistryWriter.txt' from here: RegistryWriter.txt
- Rename this file to ' RegistryWriter.reg' using Windows Explorer
- Double-click the file in Windows Explorer. Windows should offer to import this information into the registry. Select OK.
If you have anti-virus blocking this action, run Regedit.exe from the run prompt, select File then Import and import this file into your registry.
Once this process is complete, Reflect will ignore the Registry Writer and your backup should then proceed correctly.
The contents of the file RegistryWriter.txt is shown below:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Macrium\Reflect\ExcludedWriters]
"RegistryWriter"="{afbab4a2-367d-4d15-a586-71dbb18f8485}"