If you run vssadmin list writers in cmd on a Windows 2008 but get no results back this post might be of some help. Although the Event ID’s I have received are different from Microsoft’s documentation is different the fix was still the same.

I’ve been running a 3rd party backup solution on Windows 2008 without any flaws, until that is it starting failing with VSS errors.

Event ID 12347

Message: Volume Shadow Copy Service error: An internal inconsistency was detected in trying to contact shadow copy service writers. The Registry Writer failed to respond to a query from VSS. Check to see that the Event Service and Volume Shadow Copy Service are operating properly, and please check the Application event log for any other events.

Microsoft’s TechNet article suggested

•    Check COM+ Event is enabled (it was)
•    Check Volume Shadow Copy is enabled (it was)
•    Check registry VSS writer is operating properly (this failed)

To check if registry VSS writer is operating properly you need to run the command vssadmin list writers and the results should populate with available writers on the system. When I ran the command it came up empty.

I had been advised to run the following in cmd:

Cd windows\system32
Net stop vss
Net stop swprv
regsvr32 ole32.dll
regsvr32 vss_ps.dll
Vssvc /Register
regsvr32 /i swprv.dll
regsvr32 /i eventcls.dll
regsvr32 es.dll
regsvr32 stdprov.dll
regsvr32 vssui.dll
regsvr32 msxml.dll
regsvr32 msxml3.dll
regsvr32 msxml4.dll

This failed at regsvr32 /i eventcls.dll with the error:

The module eventcls.dll was loaded but the call to Dll install failed with error code 0x8000ffff

After some digging around I was told to try Microsoft KB 2009533 article which provides a registry fix but the event ID’s were different than what I had received, Event ID 12347. The article mentions the following ID’s:

• Event ID: 34
• Event ID: 8193
• Event ID: 13
• Event ID: 8193

The article suggests doing these steps:

1. Click Start, type regedit in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.
2. Locate and then click the following registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\EventSystem\{26c409cc-ae86-11d1-b616-00805fc79216}\EventClasses\{FAF53CC4-BD73-4E36-83F1-2B23F46E513E}-
   {00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}-
   {00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}
3. Locate the TypeLib registry value.

NOTE The registry type of TypeLib should be shown as REG_EXPAND_SZ. If that is not the case, you have to delete the key, and then you have to recreate the key. To do this, follow these two steps:

a. Select the TypeLib registry value, and then delete it.

b. Create a new Expandable String Value, and then name it TypeLib.

4. Double-click the TypeLib registry value. In the Value Data box, type %systemroot%\system32\EVENTCLS.DLL, and then click OK.

5. Close Regedit.

6. Click Start, type services.msc in the Start Search box, and hit Enter.

7. Right-click the following services one at a time and click Restart:

• COM+ Event System
• Volume Shadow Copy

8. Close the Services snap-in.

9. Open an elevated command prompt, type vssadmin list writers, and then hit ENTER.

10. Verify that the VSS writers are now listed.

I was able to verify the VSS writer could be listed but also the backups worked again.