Online Backup: Volume Shadow Copy Features

Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) allow you to backup files that are exclusively opened. Without VSS, you will get the error message “The process cannot access the file because another process has locked a portion of the file” if you are trying to backup a file that is exclusively opened (e.g. Outlook PST file).

Please note that VSS is only available on Windows XP / 2003 and you must have administrative privileges to start the VSS service on a computer.

If you are running Windows 2003, please install the Windows 2003 VSS hot fix available in http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;887827 before running VSS.

If you are running into problem with running VSS on Windows XP, Microsoft's recommendation is to try re-registering the Volume Shadow Copy Service again. Simply run the script [PerfectBackup Manager Home]\bin\RegisterVSS.bat to do so.

For more information, please take a look at the following page for a technical introduction to Volume Shadow Copy Services (VSS):

http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/en/library/2b0d2457-b7d8-42c3-b6c9-59c145b7765f1033.mspx

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