This error may occur when copying open/locked files and the files and the system is overloaded. The possible solutions are:

  • This error may occur if you have other profiles running at the same time and they are also copying locked/open files
  • Close any unnecessary programs, or pause them
  • Defragment the partition the locked files are on

    

To defragment your hard disk

  • Open Disk Defragmenter by clicking the Start button . In the search box, type Disk Defragmenter, and then, in the list of results, click Disk Defragmenter.
  • Under Current status, select the disk you want to defragment.
  • To determine if the disk needs to be defragmented or not, click Analyze disk. Administrator permission required If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
  • Once Windows is finished analyzing the disk, you can check the percentage of fragmentation on the disk in the Last Run column. If the number is above 10%, you should defragment the disk.
  • Click Defragment disk. Administrator permission required If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

           

By default SyncBackSE/Pro will wait a maximum of 5 minutes to be able to copy open/locked files from a drive. It is possible to change the amount of time to wait:

  • Run SyncBackSE/Pro
  • For SyncBack V9 (or newer) versions, select burger menu > Global Settings > Settings tab (for SyncBack V8 (or older) versions select Preferences > Options from the main menu and go to the Expert tab)
  • Click on the path inside the group-box with the title The settings are stored here. A Windows File Explorer window will open.
  • Exit SyncBackSE/Pro now (it is vital that you now exit SyncBackSE/Pro, otherwise any changes made after this will not be saved)
  • In the Windows File Explorer window double-click on the file settings.ini
  • Go to the end of the file and add the following line:

SSSleep=360000

  • Save the file and exit the editor. Now run SyncBackSE/Pro.
  • It will now wait 6 minutes for the VSS DLL to become available. The VSSSleep value is the number of milliseconds, so if you wanted it to wait 7 minutes, for example, you would set it to 420000


If you are still getting the same error then consider modifying the registry to tell Windows to use a larger area of the drive for VSS use:

  • Run the Windows registry editor (regedit.exe)
  • Navigate to the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\VolSnap\
  • Modify (or create) the DWORD value MinDiffAreaFileSize
  • The default size is 300 and the maximum is 3000. This is the minimum size (in megabytes) to use on a drive for VSS.
  • Reboot


Microsoft also recommends that the Windows event logs are kept below 64MB in size. You can clear them, or set their maximum size, using the Event Viewer in Windows.