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
    2015-10-22T16:27:19+00:00

    The ultimate reason is the size of the partition. Therefore make sure all the partition have enough free space. Usually the reserved partitions are trouble maker due to invisible disk. MAKE SURE SUCH FREE SPACE ENOUGH!!!!!. If the reserved disk is smaller than 50MB. It will be really suck!! Why? Windows requires at least 50MB free space for the partition less than 500MB. Resizing it is only the option not matter how you clean up the USN journal stuffs!!!!

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-09-23T15:50:31+00:00

    Thanks so much JonKuhn - that did it for me!

    I had

    • failed Backup because my target disk was near full, so I released 1.2T of disk.
    • cleaned the Journal files
    • chkdsk /f q:, which showed there is 36MB of "something" on the disk, and 50MB log files, leaving about 5MB free.
    • tried to shrink the 100mb partition and looked at the event 259 which didn't translate to a file name in the end cluster.
    • tore out a lot of hair.  Went to bed
    • fresh this AM, I read your post and flushed the logs to 2K - Shazammmm! 
    • Windows is creating a system image and backup now.  Fingers crossed.

    I will also chkdsk -f my c: and reboot.  Who knows what evil lurks in the Shadows.

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-01-10T18:22:43+00:00

    Thanks JohnKuhn,

    That would have worked for me if I had not found this solution below.  I'll still include the fix I used in case the NTFS log fix doesn't work for everyone.

    I changed the C: drive to be the bootable partition using EasyBCD (do not use this if you want to is bitlocker disk encryption)

    Instructions here:

    http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/209885-bootmgr-move-c-easybcd.html

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-07-22T02:16:07+00:00

    I was getting this error and found that my System Reserved partition appeared to be full.  I assigned it a drive letter in disk management and saw that it was almost full even though only 15MB of files were on the volume.  The other space is taken up by NTFS internal structures.  One of these structures is the log file. By running chkdsk /L R: (where R: is the drive letter you assigned to the System Reserved partition) it will tell you the current size of the log file as well as the default size of the log file.  I found that the current size was ~50MB and the default size was 2MB. Seeing that I ran chkdsk R: /L:2048 to reduce the size of the log fie to the default.

    I didn't see any reference to this particular solution online so I wanted to contribute what fixed the error for me.

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