Windows Backup fails with Event Id 521 Error Code 2155348129

This error occured on a Windows SBS 2011 server whilst trying to run a Windows Backup to a USB External Drive:

Event ID: 521
Task Category: None
Description:
The backup operation that started at ‘XXXXXX’ has failed because the Volume Shadow Copy Service operation to create a shadow copy of the volumes being backed up failed with following error code ’2155348129′. Please review the event details for a solution, and then rerun the backup operation once the issue is resolved.

To make sure it is the sharepoint SPSearch4 VSS writer which is causing this problem,

1. Open an administrative command prompt

2. Run,  “vssadmin list writers”

3. Take a look at the output and find the details for ‘SPSearch4 VSS Writer”,  if it is in error with “Inconsistent Shadow Copy” as shown below run the steps below the error message.

     Writer name: ‘SPSearch4 VSS Writer’
     Writer Id: {35500004-0201-0000-0000-000000000000}
     Writer Instance Id: {34a1fd6e-667d-4671-a551-2d4689c4e508}
     State: [8] Failed
     Last error: Inconsistent shadow copy

To fix this Backup Failure,

1. Open an administrative command prompt

2. change directory to “C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\BIN “

3. Run “PSConfig.exe -cmd upgrade -inplace b2b -force -cmd applicationcontent -install -cmd installfeatures”

4. Reboot server (there are reports that you don’t need to reboot after this command but the backups failed until I rebooted). Apparently this issue can occur after running Sharepoint SP1 or other Sharepoint updates.

Cannot Search Within File Contents of PDF Documents on Windows 7 64 bit

Check to see if you have the iFilter installed:

Open Control Panel and type in the search box “Change how windows searches” and click on the link shown:

Select Advanced

Then select the File Types Tab and scroll down to PDF and you will see “Registered iFilter is not found”

Cancel and close out of these screens and goto http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=4025 and download and install the fix from adobe.

Cannot log into HP server after SmartStart Installation of Windows 2008

After using the HP SmartStart 8.5 CD to clean  install Windows 2008 to a ML350 G5 server I discovered I couldn’t log into the completed OS installation.

As soon as the brief moment of panic and anxiety went away I thought that maybe the password I used for the administrator during setup might have been to long (20 Characers). After truncating each character in turn I found that the password the SmartStart disc used was shorted to 14 characters.