The System or Provider Has Insufficient Storage Space for VSS copies (code 1037)

Situation

Backup plan fails with the following error **Not enough space to create VSS snapshot. If possible, delete any old or unnecessary persistent shadow copies and try again

Cause

Errors of this type generally arise due to insufficient disk space for shadow copies on one or more Windows OS volumes during backup plan execution. In some cases, system reserved partitions cause a significant shadow copy volume increase. To learn more about VSS snapshots, refer to the Volume Shadow Copy Service section at docs.microsoft.com.

Solution

Delete old shadow copies. To do this, proceed as follows:

1. Open an elevated command prompt (cmd)
2. In the cmd console, run the following command: vssadmin delete shadows /all

If the issue persists after deleting old shadow copies, you will need to expand the storage available for shadow copies.

On a Server OS

To resolve the insufficient storage space issue on instances running on server OS (Windows Server etc.), proceed as follows:

1. Click Start, then click This PC.
2. In the Drives and Devices section, right-click on a required drive.
3. In the context menu, select the Configure Shadow Copies... item.

4. In the Shadow Copies properties box, view the list of volumes. If the Used column is blank, it means no storage space is currently allocated for shadow copies.

5. To allocate the storage space for shadow copies, select the source volume for shadow copies, then click Settings.
6. In the Storage area box, select the target volume for shadow copies, then specify the shadow copy size limit or select the No limit option if you want to keep the storage space for shadow copies unlimited.

7. Once you are finished, click OK, then run your backup plan again to make sure the error would not occur again.

On a Desktop OS

To resolve the insufficient storage space issue on instances running on desktop OS (Windows 7, 10 etc.), proceed as follows:

1. Open an elevated command prompt (cmd)
2. In the cmd console, run the following command: vssadmin resize shadowstorage /on=x: /for=x: /maxsize=30%

The /on parameter specifies the target volume for the shadow storage. The /for parameter is the source volume of the storage. The /maxsize parameter specifies the maximum size for the shadow storage area on a volume.