Windows Server backup D: volume access denied error

backupfailedfile-permissionsnetwork-attached-storagewindows-server-2008

The problem:
When running a full server backup to NAS share, C: partition is backed up correctly, but at some point during backing up D: partition (around 300 GB out of 490 GB) if fails with access denied for volume D:

What I tried:
Took ownership of the volume, tried backing up only D: volume and still fails with same symptoms
Ran the backup with no one in the network except server and NAS, same problem occurs

Details:
Windows Server 2008 SP1
VSS is active and there is around 11 GB System Volume Information folder that i cannot take ownership of because it is a system folder
There are 5 folders in the drive, two folders on the volume are shared to domain users and the rest are shared to administrators group

I'm pretty sure that there is a permissions issue somewhere but my problem is that the failure doesn't leave any trace in the Event Log where to look for it or at least how to narrow it down.

Any help and ideas are greatly appreciated!

Best Answer

In order to reach the NAS you had to put a system account into Windows Backup. Is this a privileged account?Can it reach C:, D:, and the NAS? You should try to back it up through command line, on a local (might be usb) drive, using the local system account.

Use the wbadmin command, use this link for the syntax. Prevent the -quiet parameter. Take a look at the output. If it still fails, I don't think it's a permission related issue, as Windows Backup ran through the local service should be able to access anything locally. You may probably have some kind of filesystem related issue.

You may try a full read scan of D: in order to confirm every sector of your D: drive is actually readable. If you'll get an error on such test, you'll not be able to backup such drive entirely. Try a per-folder backup then, until you fix the drive(s)/filesystem of D:.

Running wbadmin manually can help you troubleshoot the issue.

I won't put command syntax on the answer, as I encourage people to make their own research, and in this case wbadmin usage is widely documented in every language.

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