What is VSS Backup? How to Create Windows VSS Backups?

What is VSS backup?

VSS (Volume Shadow Copy) is also known as Volume Snapshot Service, Volume Snapshot Service,  or Shadow Copy. It is a technology included in Microsoft Windows to allows you to take manual or automatic backup copies or snapshots of computer files or volumes, even when they are in use.

So the VSS backup is also called Volume Shadow Copy Service-based backup, or shadow copies, which is a Windows service that captures and creates snapshots at a time point.

How does Microsoft VSS Backup work?

You may know the Microsoft VSS backup requires the Volume Shadow Copy Service, but it's not clear exactly how it works. It consists of the following 4 basic parts:

📌VSS service: It is used to help other components in the Windows operating system to communicate with each other and work together. 
📌VSS requester: It is typically a backup program, such as Backup and Restore (Windows 7), and has the ability to create shadow copies or import or delete them. 
📌VSS writer: It is to guarantee data consistency during the backup process and the VSS writers for various Windows components, such as the registry, are included with Windows operating systems. 
📌VSS provider: It is to create and maintain the shadow copies, and occurs in the software, such as Backup and Restore (Windows 7), or hardware. The previous one uses copy-on-write and the latter one with SAN (storage area network) offloads this task from the host operating system.

For more details, please refer to the Microsoft document.

Process a VSS copy backup with Backup and Restore (Windows 7)

Volume Shadow Copy is implemented as a Windows service called the Volume Shadow Copy service. It manages and implements Volume Shadow Copies used for backup and other purposes. By default, this service is enabled, so you don't need to do extra steps. But if you are not sure, you can check it in the Service. 

Click on Start, type services, and press enter to open the Services window. Roll down the mouse, and locate the service "Volume Shadow Copy", if its startup type shows Manual, right-click it, and select "Start" from the drop-down menu.

After ensuring the Volume Shadow Copy Service is running, you can then follow the steps below and create a backup under VSS with Backup and Restore (Windows 7).

1. Open Backup and Restore (Windows 7) by clicking the Start button, then clicking Control Panel, System and Maintenance, and Backup and Restore (Windows 7).

2. Click Set up backup.

3. Select where you want to save your backup and click “Next”.

4. Select Let Windows Choose or Let me choose and click “Next”. By default, it will include a system image if you don't uncheck the checkbox below. 

5. Here you can review your backup settings, confirm it click Save settings, and run backup.

Note: The Shadow Copy technology requires the file system to be NTFS in order to create and store shadow copies. You need to convert FAT/FAT32 to NTFS if it is not.

Create a VSS full backup with AOMEI Backupper Standard🔥

Sometimes, when you backup with a Windows built-in tool but fail, you may receive a Windows backup failed to read from the shadow copy or VSS insufficient storage error. If you are in such situations, you can choose to create a VSS full backup with professional third-party shadow copy backup software. 

AOMEI Backupper Standard is such software. It is not only embedded with Microsoft VSS technology but also provides a self-developed VSS backup service. If the Microsoft VSS is not working, it will use the AOMEI Backup Service instead, so you don't need to worry about the backup failing due to VSS errors. And it is totally free and more flexible for backup tasks.

It allows you to create system backup, disk backup, partition backup, file backup, or cloud backup. The last one allows you to back up files to the AOMEI Cloud and offers you 1TB of free cloud storage within 15 days of registering an AOMEI account.

 It helps you schedule a backup task daily, weekly, or monthly. By default, this software will enable incremental backup to backup only changed files since the last backup and it can be a full backup or incremental backup. 

It supports multiple backup destinations, such as external hard drives, USB drives, network drives, NAS, cloud drives, etc.

Please download VSS backup software - AOMEI Backupper Standard and follow the steps below to create a Microsoft VSS backup or use AOMEI Backup Service. For server users, try AOMEI Backupper Server!

Take hard drive backup as an example.

1. Install and launch AOMEI Backupper Standard. Click Disk Backup under the Backup tab.

2. Click Add Disk to select the disk you need to back up and then select a location to save the disk backup. You can backup the disk to any recognized device, such as an external disk, USB network drive, NAS, etc.

3. Click Options > Backup Mode > Backup Service > Use Microsoft VSS or AOMEI Backup Service and click OK to confirm it. By default, this software uses Microsoft VSS, if it is not working, it will automatically use AOMEI Backup Service to guarantee the data is consistent.  

You can also set other backup settings:

🚩Options: You can enable encryption for backups, email notifications, select compression level for a backup, etc.
🚩Schedule Backup: You are capable of running a backup task automatically with different frequencies, such as, daily, weekly, or monthly. The Event triggers and USB plug-in features are available in AOMEI Backupper Professional.
🚩Backup Scheme: You are able to choose incremental backup or differential backup, honestly, the latter is relatively independent and easy to manage. You can enable cleanup methods to automatically delete old backups and free up more space for new backups.

4. After all this is done, click Start Backup to create a shadow copy backup in Windows systems.

Besides, AOMEI Backupper is also an amazing image restore or deployment software. With images created by this software, you can easily restore the system, disk, partition, and files to a new hard drive or partition.

If it is a system disk, you can even use it to perform dissimilar hardware restore or deploy images to multiple computers over a network. These features are available in the advanced edition. Please learn more on the edition comparison page and select a proper edition.

Set up a VSS backup with AOMEI Cyber Backup👍

Besides AOMEI Backupper, the best enterprise backup software - AOMEI Cyber Backup can also help you with VSS backup. It provides a convenient and reliable solution for centralized backup management of all Windows operating systems.

• It enables you to create system/disk/partition backups for a bunch of Windows PCs and Servers, supporting Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7 and Windows Server 2022/2019/2016/2012 (R2)/2008 (R2).
• You are allowed to save backup images on a local disk, external hard drive, network share or NAS device, etc.
• You can schedule a backup task to run daily/weekly/monthly using the full/incremental/differential backup method.

Don’t hesitate to download this powerful enterprise backup software and try it now!

To backup hard drives on client computers, follow these steps:

1. Install and run AOMEI Cyber Backup. Log in with an AOMEI Cyber Backup account or Windows account.

2. Click Source Device > Windows > Add Windows Device to add the Windows device that you want to backup. You need to enter the IP address, username, and password of it.

3. Create a disk backup task.

• Click Backup Task on the left menu bar and select Backup Task > Create New Task.
• Choose Disk Backup as the Backup Type.

• Edit the Task Name based on your needs.
• In the Device Name field, click Select + to select the device you just added.
• In the Backup content field, click Select + to select one or multiple disks for backup.

• In the Target field, click Select + to add a local or network storage.

• Change the default schedule settings in the Schedule field.
• Click Start Backup > Add the schedule and start backup now to begin creating disk images.

What are VSS errors and how to troubleshoot them

VSS errors can expose the less favorable aspects of Microsoft’s backup system. For instance, during the creation of a snapshot, VSS writers are engaged. However, if any of these writers encounter an issue, the entire backup process can fail.

One frequent cause of VSS errors is using multiple backup solutions simultaneously. This can disrupt recovery efforts, as each backup solution might rely on a different VSS driver. Additionally, it can create confusion over which backup solution is responsible for protecting specific data sets.

How to troubleshoot VSS errors

Encountering VSS errors doesn’t mean you need to panic. Follow these troubleshooting steps to maintain business continuity:

1. Review Logs: Check the logs in C:\PCBP\Catalog.dir and C:\PCBP\Logs.dir.
2. Check Event Logs: Look at both the Application and System event logs.
3. Identify Failed VSS Writers: Determine if any VSS writers have failed.
4. Review Task Scheduler: Ensure no jobs are running simultaneously with the backup application.

Check Maintenance Schedules: Verify that SQL Maintenance and Exchange Maintenance schedules do not conflict with your backup application schedules.

FAQs about VSS backup

1. What is the difference between VSS copy and full backup?

A VSS full backup saves all your files, but it might delete some log files afterward. A VSS copy backup also saves all files, but it keeps the log files on your system.

2. What is the difference between VSS and snapshot?

VSS works at a low level on the volume. A snapshot is a read-only copy of the volume at a specific moment. Snapshots help make stable backups without changing or locking the data during the backup.

3. Which is faster, image or snapshot?

Snapshots are faster because they only save changes since the last snapshot. This makes them quicker and cheaper to create regularly compared to full disk images.

Conclusion

Now, you have a basic knowledge of VSS backup and know how to create a backup under VSS easily to ensure data consistency. The built-in software is worth trying if the Volume Shadow Copy Service is running well, and you can also use third-party VSS backup software - AOMEI Backupper Standard or AOMEI Cyber Backup.

It adds an extra layer of backup task security, you don't need to worry about the backup failing due VSS error. Because it will automatically use the AOMEI Backup Service to ensure the backup task running without interrupting when Microsoft VSS does not work. If you just want to create an exact copy of the hard drive, try the Disk Clone feature and migrate system from HDD to SSD.