Error 0x81000203 in System Restore and VSS

When you open the System Properties dialog (sysdm.cpl) and click System Protection, the error 0x81000203 occurs. Here’s the full error message verbatim:

There was an unexpected error in the property page:

System Restore encountered an error. Please try to run System Restore again. (0x81000203)

Please close the property page and try again.

Under “Protection Settings” the “Available Drives” field may show “Searching…” and the disk drives don’t appear.

Also, none of the vssadmin.exe console commands work. Running the list vssadminshadowstorage or vssadminresizeshadowstorage commands would return the following error:

No items found that satisfy the query.

The Application event log shows the following events:

Log Name: Application
Source: VSS
Event ID: 12293
Task Category: None
Description:
Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Error calling a routine on a Shadow Copy Provider {b5946137-7b9f-4925-af80-51abd60b20d5}. Routine details IVssSnapshotProvider::IsVolumeSupported() failed with 0x8000ffff [hr = 0x8000ffff, Catastrophic failure].

Log Name: Application
Source: VSS
Event ID: 12289
Level: Error
Description:
Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Unexpected error DeviceIoControl(\\?\Volume{992b5b8c-3b45-4b15-b42f-ce2612d6e01a} - 00000000000002EC,0x00530024,0000000000000000,0,0000013564406940,4096,[0]). hr = 0x80070001, Incorrect function.

This happens even though the following services start started and running:

• Volume Shadow Copy ( vss)
• Virtual Disk (vds)
• Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider (swprv)

Cause

The above issue happens if an uninstaller has deleted the UpperFilters registry value under the Storage Volume Class GUID. The registry value should have volsnap as the value data.

Kaspersky’s Antivirus uninstaller tool is known to cause this issue.

Resolution

To fix the System Restore and VSS error 0x81000203, restore the UpperFilters registry value.

1. Start Regedit.exe and go to:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{71a27cdd-812a-11d0-bec7-08002be2092f}

2. Create a new REG_MULTI_SZ value named UpperFilters
3. Double-click UpperFilters.
4. In the Value data field, type volsnap and click OK.

   

5. Click OK when you see the following message:

   Warning
   
   Data of type REG_MULTI_SZ cannot contain empty strings.
   Registry Editor will remove all empty strings found.

6. Make sure the value/data looks like this:
   
7. Exit the Registry Editor and restart Windows.

Storage Volumes
Class = Volume
ClassGuid = {71a27cdd-812a-11d0-bec7-08002be2092f}

That should fix the System Protection settings dialog and the Volume Shadow Copy feature in Windows.