All system restore points constantly deleted with VSS services/volsnap errors

It is absolutely outside of Windows. As I said either hardware or something you installed or

malware. Trying to fix any of those in Windows is fruitless. You need to determine the real

cause. Because is you find a fix in Windows it will only be temporary since the root cause

still exists and it will come back.

Sorry there are no other real choices.

My vote would be hardware such as the hard drive, motherboard controller, or something

else with the motherboard. (That is assuming you have not installed something that caused

it.)

Have you installed any sort of 3rd party antivirus or backup program? Those are notorious

for causing this issue.

Rob - SpiritX

LHi Rob,

Like I said, as far as I know, I hadn't installed ANY software before the first error. There doesn't seem much I can do about a hypothetical internal hard drive (I can disconnect the external ones) , motherboard and all the rest. A computer for me is a tool for work, not a full time occupation

Hi,

I would checking with the System/Motherboard Maker and the hard drive maker. If it is

hardware then you can't fix that with software.

Rob - SpiritX

No problems for the last 12 days (never gone more than 5 days before with no problems) - problem is, I've not changed anything! I turned off anything else doing backups (WD Smartware - backs up to an external hard drive and Dropbox; Acronis Trueimage non-stop backup; backs up to another external hard drive), then turned them back on, one at a time, and no problems! Bizarre!

Hi-

Was an answer for this ever forthcoming Tom? Maybe it was a solar storm? My situation is so similar I wont bother to explain all the details. I appluad you sticking with it and trying to figure the problem out.

I build my own PC's and have for over 20 years. I use all Western Digital Drives....2M hour MTBF drives...Intel, etc. I don't skimp on my PC's is the point, or on how they are set-up. I am not an idiot and I have checked the "on switch".

I do multi-boot. I do use Malwarebytes but not as a service - only manual checks - and I run Windows Defender on real-time. I have an Intel mainboard, 32G of Ram, Intel i7. All security feeatures on my board are turned off. I do not quickboot. I power off every night. I have never had my PC run out of resources and I run some serious engineering software. I have tunred on VSS and Task Sched to automatic start. SFC, defrag, chkdsk, etc. 

For my friend SpritX:

Please stop the insistance it's not Windows when you obvioulsy have NO CLUE as to what the cause is. People like you are the worst, you have no idea what the problem is yet continue to tell people to reload windows or "you might have a sneaky vuirus Malwarebytes can't detect" ..... BullSh**!! Just google missing restore points and tell me this isn't a pretty large issue, statistics tells you this. I have another post on this very subject. there are many many threads on this issue over more than 5 years ...many. I read this entire post and my head almost exploded after seeing SpiritX' comments on this subject. WTH are you doing posting on this if you have never had the issue, have no idea what the cause is, and have no idea as to the solution??

SpiritX, since you seem to have a window into the blackbox that is Windows...tell us....why can this NOT be Windows? I mean you are very certain, and I'd like to hear why beyond "not possible" or operator error. Maybe some facts, evidence, details or a process flow diagram. I mean you have this right? Some process flow or timing diagrams...anything???

Maybe, just maybe, since most IT folks don't use MS for back-up and restore Microsoft hasn't really fully developed these features for personal use. I am sure it works great with all the other network tech, AD and security features, but for personal stand-alone PC's - I am guessing system Restore was never fully developed and marketing pushes it cause they know most peple will never be able to figure out it really doesnt work or they themselves dont know.

Best as I can tell Tom, we aren't doing anything "wrong". I am guessing you aren't an idiot and either am I...matter of fact most IT guys I know come to me for stand alone Windows or PC issues. I have worked very hard to figure this out and haven't come up with a solution I can reproduce or explain.

VSS and it's underlying framework are essentially a blackbox. All the interconnectedness of Windows is hidden. VSS and task scheduling, WMI, etc. are all tightly integrated into Windows ...which is really a Server dumbed down. I am GUESSING....there is some setting or feature or security issue that is inherit to Windows that just doesn't work properly when the PC is in a non-networked environment.

We need something like what Active Directrory uses to check itself and tell you what needs to be done or services that need to be installed/configured. SFC and Chkdsk aren't really cutting it anymore.

It seems power users are left behind in Microsofts quest to break into Apples market. Disappointing.