Windows Backup fails to create Shadow Copy

Windows Backup is failing with:

A shadow copy could not be created. Please check "VSS" and "SPP" application event logs for more information. Details: The writer experienced a non-transient error. If the backup process is retried, the error is likely to reoccur.

The VSS event log says:

Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Unexpected error calling routine IVssAsrWriterBackup::GetVolumeComponents. hr = 0x80073bc3, The requested system device cannot be found. .

Operation: OnIdentify event
Gathering Writer Data

Context: Execution Context: ASR Writer Writer Class Id: {be000cbe-11fe-4426-9c58-531aa6355fc4} Writer Name: ASR Writer Writer Instance ID: {108b2193-aab4-4e86-a66a-5232a580ee7e}

The SPP log says:

Shadow copy creation failed because of error reported by ASR Writer. More info: The requested system device cannot be found. (0x80073BC3).

System is 64-bit Windows 7. I'm trying to back up one internal drive to another (C->E). C: is a 111GB partition on a 160 GB Intel SSD (The System Reserved partition is 100MB). E: is a 2TB Hitachi hard drive (one partition, NTFS formatted).

Update:

Perusing the links provided by echarnley gave me the idea to try marking the C: partition active (it wasn't). That let me backup an image of C: without error, but if I selected any locations for files to backup, it failed with:

The system cannot find the file specified. (0x80070002)

Marking the system reserved partition active instead solved that problem, full backups (image + files) now complete without error.

It sounds like Windows backup is having a problem with your system reserved partition - try these steps: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968128.

Also, there is a discussion of the error here: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/smallbusinessserver/thread/627e1b48-3478-4fae-a7a2-d1703dd131d9/