The latest client is installed, all services listed in the Mozy Knowledge Base article on SnapshotError are set the way they should be, and when the backup is initiated things start out just fine – files encode (file names appear, the bar moves) it communicates with the server, etc., but then somewhere between 29-34% percent encoding Mozy stalls. CPU load goes to >80% and everything stops. Using Sysinternals Process Explorer it is clear that the load comes from the System process, but nothing stands out as the culprit. Using the vssadmin list writers command you can see that the VSS writers have gone from Stable [1] to Waiting for completion [5]. Once mozybackup service has been terminated and the CPU load finally drops (shoots to 100% first), then VSS writers return to stable except for WMI writer, which remains in State 5 apparently forever (until I reboot).

I added the registry key without any affect on the result described above. Despite the fact that I don’t have SQL or any unusual VSS writers, the problem still sounds like it is somehow related. Do you have any ideas or suggestions?

Thanks for anything you can offer. /rb

On my system (Win XP, SP3) the MS Software Shadow Copy Provider wasn’t running and both the COM+ Event System and COM+ System Application were both set to manual, rather than automatic start. I changed those all to automatic and it’s been fine since. Fingers crossed it will stay that way!