Delete All Files and Folders Under a Folder

Very simple to do with Powershell, Open a powershell command prompt and type:

Remove-Item c:\DirYouWantToDelete\* -recurse -force

The Filename, Directory Name, or Volume Label Syntax is Incorrect

When you try and add another USB external drive to windows backup you get the following error “ The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect”.

This message occurs if you have another drive currently assigned to the backup and it is NOT currently accessible. eg. its offsite or you only have one dock attached to the server. To add another disk and get around this error do the following:

1. Open an Administrative Command Prompt

2. Run ‘wbadmin get disks‘

3. In the output of this message locate the external USB drive you want to add to the backup set. The format of the output will be something like:

Disk name: xxxxxxxxxxx
         Disk number: x
         Disk identifier: {xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx}
Total space: xxx.xx GB
Used space : xxx.xx GB

4. Run the following command copying the Disk Identifier from step 3 at the end of the command:

       WBADMIN ENABLE BACKUP -addtarget:{xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx}

5. Answer yes to the prompts.

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.