The backup task fails with an "0x8004231f" error, resulting in an "Exit -311" error

Summary

Exit -311 and VSS error (0x8004231f) may occur.

03/30/2021 06:04:44.861 com exception caught(0x8004231f) in VssStart
     ：
03/30/2021 06:04:44.953 {IDS_STRING3018}Exit Code: -311

Causes

The "VSS_E_INSUFFICIENT_STORAGE" error, indicating "ShadowStorage does not have enough available space," is likely due to insufficient space on the destination drive for saving backup images. Ensure the destination drive has more than 10% available space of the total. If the drives have enough space, consider checking recovery partitions as a potential cause.

1)  To calculate the required space in the recovery partition, utilize the "diskpart" command to inspect the recovery partition.

DISKPART> list partition Partition ### Type               Size    Offset ------------- ------------------ ------- ------- Partition 1   Recovery            499 MB  1024 KB Partition 2   System               99 MB   500 MB Partition 3   Reserved             16 MB   599 MB Partition 4   Primary              98 GB   615 MB

2)  Employ the "diskinfo" command to calculate available space. Execute the following command to view detailed disk information, and examine the details related to the specified partition number.

C:Program Files (x86)ActiphyActiveImage Protectoraipcontrol diskinfo             Partition Number: 1         Drive Letter:     <None         Partition Type:   DE94BBA4-06D1-4D40-A16A-BFD50179D6AC         FSType:           Unknown(0)         Boot:             0         System:           0         CSV:              0         Extended:         0         Sector Size:      512         Cluster Size:     4096         StartOffset:      2048         Total Clusters:   127743         Free Clusters:    6781         Total Sectors:    1021952 (0.49 GB)         Serial Number:    B4CEB079         Unique ID:        ?Volume{6111596d-3375-48ec-bbda-b36dbfd5d28e}         Volume Label:     Recovery

3)  Calculate the required space using the "cluster" information.

Utilize the "Free Clusters" and "Cluster Size" values for the calculation of available space. For instance, (6781 * 4096)/1024/1024 equals 26MB. In this example, a recovery partition of about 499MB has approximately 26MB available space, which is insufficient.

According to Microsoft guidelines, a small volume is defined as follows: A 500MB or larger partition should have 320MB of available space, while a 500MB or smaller partition must have 32MB available space.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/it-pro/windows-server-essentials-sbs/ff402401(v=ws.11)?redirectedfrom=MSDN
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Ensure sufficient free space on each volume for the backup to run. Additional disk space is needed on the client computer to create a VSS snapshot. Follow these guidelines:

1)  On any non-system reserved volume, maintain at least 10% of available disk space.

2)  On a system reserved volume:

-  If the volume size is less than 500 MB, ensure 32 MB of free space for VSS snapshot creation.

-  For volumes 500 MB or greater, allocate 320 MB of free space for VSS.

If a volume lacks free space, consider extending it. Note that extending the system reserved volume is not possible.

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Workaround

Choose a volume to adjust backup task settings. If the problem involves the recovery partition, consider deleting it. For PCs from manufacturers, the recovery partition often contains important data for recovery options. Before deleting it, contact the PC maker to ensure it won't cause any issues.

Target Product

– ActiveImage Protector 2018

(13451167071385)