mikemurphy324 Posted June 26, 2008 Report Share Posted June 26, 2008 I'm repeatedly getting a Blue Screen of Death crash during backup. Here's the basic context -- --Windows XP Service Pack 2, behaving normally with other applications (Adobe graphics apps, video editing) --Retrospect 7.5.508 (Just updated from 7.0, in attempt to resolve this problem) --Backing up USB external hard drive, and a network hard drive (similar behavior with both) --Backing up both large (500 MB to multi-GB) and small files. --Backing up to HP ultrium 230 LTO-1 external SCSI tape drive. After a variable amount of backup (usually between 10 and 20 GB), the system crashes with a Blue Screen of Death. After a brief hold on the BSOD, it restarts, and says the system has recovered from a serious error. When I restart Retrospect, I attempt to get the Retrospect catalog straightened out with "Update existing catalog." Sometimes this works, and I can try again. Sometimes when I try to backup after the update it says the catalog is out of sync and to use Update to put it back in sync. The only way around this loop seems to be to tell Retrospect to skip the current member and continue with a new tape. I don't want to do this, because I shouldn't have to, and because the tapes are $32 a piece, and I'm likely to face the same problem again within an hour or two. I've seen various posts about problems similar to this, but I haven't yet found any really definitive discussion or explanation. Does anyone here understand this BSOD behavior pattern? Is there an easy fix? Is there a Windows file I need to replace? Is there a configuration or registry setting that would help? (I'm currently trying a backup with "backup Open Files" turned OFF. I don't know yet if it will succeed ... ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mayoff Posted June 26, 2008 Report Share Posted June 26, 2008 What happens if you write to a different storage device, like an external hard disk? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikemurphy324 Posted June 26, 2008 Author Report Share Posted June 26, 2008 Hi Robin, thanks for super-fast response! I'm in the middle of trying a backup-to-tape again at the moment (with Open File Backup off, so far successful, 20GB and counting...). I frequently backup to HD also, usually shorter runs, just a few GB at a time. I'm trying to recall whether I've had this problem in that mode. If I have, it certainly hasn't been as frequent and persistent. I'll try it as an experiment when the current backup finishes. In the meantime, do you have any useful thoughts, insights, hints about causes of the BSOD behavior that we should be aware of? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mayoff Posted June 26, 2008 Report Share Posted June 26, 2008 BSOD is almost always a corrupt operating system/registry or a hardware failure. Retrospect itself can not cause a BSOD. Check the exchange logs for more details about the crash itself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikemurphy324 Posted June 26, 2008 Author Report Share Posted June 26, 2008 Hi Robin, here's the next development -- the backup-to-tape session failed -- BSOD after 24 GB of backup (out of 179 GB). Possible clues? The system event log entries just before and after are: 8:59:41 System Event -- The IMAPI CD-Burning COM Service service was successfully sent a start control System Event -- The IMAPI CD-Burning COM Service service entered the running state. System Event -- Error code 1000008e, parameter1 c0000005, parameter2 00000000, parameter3 f0288b40, parameter4 00000000. [This is the BSOD crash, I believe -- MM] 8:59:47 System Event -- The IMAPI CD-Burning COM Service service entered the stopped state. 8:59:50 System Event -- The HTTP SSL service was successfully sent a start control. System Event -- The HTTP SSL service entered the running state. I have no idea of the significance, if any, of the IMAPI and HTTP events -- they're at the same time as the crash. There was no foreground application running except the Retrospect session. Here's the Microsoft Error Report Signature: BCCode : 1000008e BCP1 : C0000005 BCP2 : 00000000 BCP3 : F0288B40 BCP4 : 00000000 OSVer : 5_1_2600 SP : 3_0 Product : 256_1 Upon restart, there was this message from Retrospect: Execution terminated unexpectedly, possibly due to a power failure or system crash. I couldn't find any further details in the Retrospect History or Logs. Couldn't immediately recreate the catalog, perhaps because this was a new Backup Set, and Retrospect has no record of the first member. I'll try to do a similar backup to external HD and report what happens. ---- MM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikemurphy324 Posted June 26, 2008 Author Report Share Posted June 26, 2008 Hi Robin, Can you clarify what you mean by the exchange logs? Is there more I can see beyond the logs in the XP Professional "Event Viewer" in System Administration? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikemurphy324 Posted June 26, 2008 Author Report Share Posted June 26, 2008 Hi Robin, Recognizing that it's something in the system, hardware, and configuration that's responsible for the failure and the Blue Screen, it's something about Retrospect's interaction with the system and hardware that's serving as the trigger. I'm hoping that you've dealt with it enough times that you can offer some insight on what the fix might be, or at least where to look for the problem, so I'll lose as little time as possible to the black hole of Windows error diagnosis. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mayoff Posted June 26, 2008 Report Share Posted June 26, 2008 You could be having a device communication issue, or the system is having a problem with the scsi controller. Anything is possible. Bad RAM could even cause a BSOD BSOD when using Retrospect is not very common. The next step is to test a large backup to something other then your tape drive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikemurphy324 Posted June 26, 2008 Author Report Share Posted June 26, 2008 Hi Robin, I attempted a 26 GB backup to an external USB-attached hard drive. It also failed, with this error signature: BCCode : 1000008e BCP1 : C0000005 BCP2 : 00000000 BCP3 : F05A4B40 BCP4 : 00000000 OSVer : 5_1_2600 SP : 3_0 Product : 256_1 The difference between this a previous signatures is in BCP3 One thing that was different -- this time it got all the way through the "copy" portion of the cycle, and failed during the "compare" portion. The earlier crashes happened at various points in the copy portion. I was checking it periodically, was encouraged, and then disappointed when I came back and found it with the "recovered from serious error" and "terminated unexpectedly" messages. What could I check next? ----- MM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mayoff Posted June 26, 2008 Report Share Posted June 26, 2008 This tells us the problem is not being caused by the tape drive. How much free space do you have on the C: disk? Try booting in Safe mode and running a backup to the hard disk to see what happens. I have no idea what the errors mean. Only Microsoft can answer. Run disk checks on the local backup servers disks. Maybe defrag the local C: disk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikemurphy324 Posted June 26, 2008 Author Report Share Posted June 26, 2008 Hi, thanks for your help. C disk has 64.5 GB of free space. I'll try the safe mode, disk checks, and defrag, and report back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MRIS Posted June 28, 2008 Report Share Posted June 28, 2008 (edited) I assume your computer is making minidumps at each crash? These are 68KB files located in this folder C:\WINDOWS\MINIDUMPS\ If you email me a few of these I'll tell you exactly why you are seeing BSODs. Edited June 28, 2008 by Guest moved email address to private message Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MRIS Posted June 28, 2008 Report Share Posted June 28, 2008 Mike emailed through the minidumps, and I've analysed them with the following results: 24 June 08 12:27pm - driver fault, involves onetouch.exe 24 June 08 3:10pm - system fault, involves onetouch.exe 24 June 08 5:00pm - system fault, involves onetouch.exe 26 June 08 8:58am - driver fault, involves onetouch.exe 26 June 08 11:52am - driver fault, involves onetouch.exe I'm seeing a pattern involving the onetouch software, a driver that comes with the Maxtor drives. My recommendation is to uninstall OneTouch and see if the problems go away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikemurphy324 Posted June 29, 2008 Author Report Share Posted June 29, 2008 Hi, thanks for interpreting these for me! I also got a notice back from Microsoft that mentioned the Maxtor OneTouch software, after sending them one of the automated "recovered from serious error" reports. So, I removed OneTouch from the startup sequence using MSCONFIG, and was able to do a 173 GB backup and verify with no crashes or errors (it ran throughout most of the day today). So, disabling OneTouch works as a workaround for me! I've sent an inquiry to Maxtor/Seagate to see if they have a solution to this. I'd like to have their software running, as I use two of their 1.5 TB RAID drives, and I think the software handles reporting for the RAID. But I certainly am now much better off than I was a couple of days ago. There's an irony -- Retrospect (express) has been bundled with the Maxtor OneTouch series, and their standard install includes both Retrospect and the OneTouch software that can kill it. --- MM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mayoff Posted June 29, 2008 Report Share Posted June 29, 2008 The Onetouch software is created by Maxtor. Only they can answer why it is crashing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikemurphy324 Posted June 30, 2008 Author Report Share Posted June 30, 2008 Hi Robin, I've e-mailed and posted Seagate/Maxtor about this pattern, and I've disabled the OneTouch software for now. And, my system is back at work on a lengthy Retrospect backup sequence. Thanks for your help as we worked on the issue. And, thanks to MRIS for analyzing the crash minidumps that pointed to OneTouch! I have no idea whether OneTouch is really the ultimate "cause" of the behavior -- in my experience, some failures come from weird combinations of software interacting in specific, not-commonly-encountered circumstances. I'll spend a little more time trying to chase it down (my guess is that the Seagate/Maxtor folks will assert that it's not in their territory and point elsewhere), then decide to live with the workaround. After all, my real goal in this isn't mastery of IT troubleshooting skills, it's having reliable backups of our working materials and finished videos. Perhaps this thread will help some others reach working solutions more quickly if they have a similar problem. (Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) found to be related to Maxtor OneTouch software, workaround being to disable OneTouch as a startup item using MSCONFIG) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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