Question : Shadow Copies: Error 0x80070003 - The system cannot find the path specified.

Hi all.

In the Disk Management Console of a Windows Server 2003 R2 machine, I access the "Shadow Copies" tab of my "C" drive. It reads:

Initialization failed.
Error 0x80070003: The system cannot find the path specified.

I have Googled this and when I cross-reference "Shadow Copies" and "0x80070003", I get a disappointing 53 results. I take it this isn't so common.

Any thoughts? Attached is a screen shot. Thank you!

Answer : Shadow Copies: Error 0x80070003 - The system cannot find the path specified.

Sorry guys. Found the answer very quickly. Upon noticing that the Volume Shadow Copy service was not started, I attempted to start it. I could not as I received the error, "The specified path could not be found." The Volume Shadow Copy service did not have an "ImagePath" entry for its service in the registry under the following path:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\VSS

To correct this, I added a new Multi-String value under the above path named "ImagePath" and set it's value to:

%SystemRoot%\System32\vssvc.exe

This allowed the service to start and the properties tab to be configured. As a side note, I have had a problem with several Windows 2003 Server boxes in my organization, upon reboot, missing the ImagePath key for several services. This of course renders the machine nearly useless. I've had to go service by service, discover the correct ImagePath value, create the key and set the value. Strangely enough, that seems to be the ONLY value missing. Hope this helps someone!

Matthew Connor
Gyro-Trac USA