Fix NTBackup: Error returned while creating the volume shadow copy:0xffffffff

NTBackup may return the following error on Windows Server 2003:

Error returned while creating the volume shadow copy:0xffffffff

This error is because the Volume Shadow Copy (VSS) service has an issue. To fix this, try starting NTBackup after each of the following steps:

1. Reboot the server
2. Patch your server, then install this hotfix (Details of the hotfix here)
3. Set the following services to start automatically, then restart them:
   • Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider
   • Virtual Shadow Copy
   • Volume Shadow Copy (VSS)
   • Remote Procedure Call (RPCSS)
   • COM+ Event System (eventsystem)
   • System Event Notification Service (sens)
4. Run the following commands in an elevated command prompt (right click command prompt and click Run as administrator:
   • Net stop vss
   • Net stop swprv
   • regsvr32 ole32.dll
   • regsvr32 oleaut32.dll
   • regsvr32 vss_ps.dll
   • vssvc /Register
   • regsvr32 /i swprv.dll
   • regsvr32 /i eventcls.dll
   • regsvr32 stdprov.dll
   • regsvr32 es.dll
   • regsvr32 vssui.dll
   • regsvr32 msxml.dll
   • regsvr32 msxml2.dll
   • regsvr32 msxml3.dll
   • regsvr32 msxml4.dll
5. Reboot the server
6. Try disabling your antivirus software
7. Look through the event log and see if there are any other errors pertaining to Volume Shadow Copy or NTBackup and fix accordingly