Vista: Backup Fails with I/O device error (0x8007045D)

One of Vista Ultimate’s advertised virtues over other Vista versions are its Backup features. Why is it then that my first attempt to do a complete PC backup with Vista’s Backup and Restore program failed miserably?

 

What I wanted was simple: select the C:\ drive and make an image of that drive so that I can restore it in the unfortunate event if one of my RAID 0 drives fails. The image size was around 100GB and was to be backed up on one of the (many) SATA drives in the computer. After proceeding with the backup, all went smoothly until the very end, when the backup job failed with the following error:

The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error (0x8007045D)

I/O device error?? Where, why? My initial thoughts were that I may have corrupted hard drives or some other serious problem with no easy fix to it. Fortunately, the fix is easier than you’d think, if you know it that is. The problem seems to be with the contents of the shadow copies System Restore creates.

To overcome the I/O device error and be able to complete the backup succesfuly, you must reset the shadow copies. Here’s how to do it:

-          Press Windows Key + Pause/Break to bring up the System Properties window (or right click Computer and choose Properties or go to Control Panel, then System and Maintenance, then System).

-          On the left, click on Advanced System Settings.

-          In the next small System Properties window that appears, go to the System Protection tab.

-          On this tab, you most likely have Local Disk (C:) checked. To stop creating shadow copies, you must uncheck it and click apply.

-          Now to reset the contents of the shadow copies, you must enable it again. So put a checkmark back next to Local Disk (C:) and click OK.

Try to do the backup again. It should work now.