Backup keeps failing : Error 0x81000033

Anonymous
2010-02-05T02:01:36+00:00

I keep getting the error: 0x81000033 when I try do run backup.

I have tried various backup devices all with ample disc space.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Internet and connectivity

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Anonymous
2010-02-05T23:17:21+00:00

Hi,

If you have any security software installed on the computer it would take longer for the backup center to backup files. Try to disable security software and try to take a backup and verify.

If that works fine later enable the security software.

Follow the link for more information

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Disable-antivirus-software

You may also run disk cleanup utility and check if that helps.

Start Disk Cleanup

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Start-Disk-Cleanup

Also try to run a Check disk for the hard drive.

To run Check disk

1.       Open Computer by clicking the Start button, and then clicking Computer.

2.       Right-click the hard disk drive that you want to check, and then click Properties.

3.       Click the Tools tab, and then, under Error-checking, click Check Now. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

To automatically repair problems with files and folders that the scan detects, select Automatically fix file system errors. Otherwise, the disk check will simply report problems but not fix them.

To perform a thorough disk check, select Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors. This scan attempts to find and repair physical errors on the hard disk itself, and it can take much longer to complete.

To check for both file errors and physical errors, select both Automatically fix file system errors and Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors.

4.       Click Start.

Depending upon the size of your hard disk, this may take several minutes. For best results, don't use your computer for any other tasks while it's checking for errors.

For information follow the link

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Check-a-drive-for-errors 

After you perform a check disk try running the backup process and check if that helps

Hope this information is helpful.

Amrita M

Microsoft Answers Support Engineer

Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think.

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-04-30T07:40:42+00:00

    TIP => Chances are your problems (including your Backup problems) will persist as long as you haven't run the McAfee removal tool and keep on using registry cleaners!

    PS: You really should have begun your own, new thread about YOUR computer & problems.

    I was surprised by your advocacy of the McAfee removal tool. I'd inferred from the tone of your previous posts that you saw it as a possible causeof my problems, not a solution. My backup problems are now fixed and I understand why it happened from reading this thread and the pointers to other discussions. I'd be interested to know more about what problems the McAfee tool might solve that I haven't already solved and that other tools don't address. 

    I'm also surprised that you suggest I should have started a new thread. All the other forums I've used have, sometimes quite forcefully, recommended that before starting a new thread one should look to see if there are already solutions posted on existing threads. This is what I did. From putting together information from the posts on this thread, and following up some of the links, I was able to understand the problem and to construct a solution for my variant of this problem. I then posted my solution for the benefit of the community. I'm surprised to be criticised for what I thought was best practice.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-04-29T19:30:45+00:00

    @AlanBundy

    TIP => Chances are your problems (including your Backup problems) will persist as long as you haven't run the McAfee removal tool and keep on using registry cleaners!

    PS: You really should have begun your own, new thread about YOUR computer & problems.  <EDIT> To avoid confusion & duplication of effort, please post any/all further follow-up in replies to your own thread =>  http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-update/windows-7-update-failure/8e769a15-0c4f-4ef1-94b8-f49a4288a965 </EDIT>

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-04-29T13:23:41+00:00

    Looking at one of the other posts, I realised I had to assign a letter to the unlabelled System Reserved partition first. I found the instructions to do this in this post (although they failed for the poster).

    They are:

    Run cmd as administrator.

    diskpart  (Puts you into the disk partition utility)

    list disk (Tells you what disks you have. In my case only disk 0)

    sel disk 0 (Selects that disk for further operations)

    list par (Lists the partitions on that disk. I recognised the system reserved partition from its 100MB size. It was partition 2)

    select partition 2 (selects that partition)

    assign letter=F  (assigns it the letter F, which now appears as a disk under Computer)

    Now follow the instructions for deleting the USN data.

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-04-24T14:25:06+00:00

    Thanks for these instructions, which I have tried, but with mixed results. 

    • My System Reserved partition is on the C drive. I don't have an F drive. The only other drive I have is the temporary D drive created for my external backup hard drive. The instructions appeared to work with C substituted for F though.
    • My System Reserved partition only had 28 MB of free space, so this does seem to be my problem.
    • I don't seem to have Acronis installed, so the USN journal problem must be being caused by another app.
    • After I had followed the instructions, there was still only 28 MB of free space on the System Reserved partition.
    • I optimistically rebooted and ran backup again, but it still failed with the same error message.
    • The instructions don't say how to deleted the old USN files from the partition to free-up the space for the shadow copy. Is the backup supposed to do this automatically or should I do it manually? If so, how?

    Here is some information about my set-up that might be useful. 

    Windows edition: Windows 7 Professional, Service Pack 1, 32 bit. This is the same set-up I bought the laptop with (apart perhaps from the Service Pack).

    Laptop: Sony Vaio VPC11Z9E

    Last Backup: Despite these failures, some partial backups seem to have been made on 23rd and 24th April. It's seen at least a month since I did a successful backup, but I can't find any history of exactly when. 

    Anti-virus s/w: I use Avast! (free version). I upgraded it just yesterday.

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