Unlock the partition using diskpart

Symptoms

1. You back up your Windows Server 2003 using Acronis Backup with using Volume Shadow Copy Service;
2. After the backup, the partition is locked. As a result, Database stops working, because it cannot write data to the locked partition.

Cause

VSS may lock the partition after a backup by changing the partition's attribute to read-only.

Solution 

See Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 840781.

Unlock the partition using diskpart:

• Click Start -> Run;
• Issue diskpart;
• In the command-line issue list disk;
• select disk [number of the disk that has the locked partition];
• list partition
• select partition [number of the locked partition]
• att vol clear readonly
• att vol clear nodefaultdriveletter
• att vol clear hidden
• att vol clear shadowcopy

Check the partition attributes:

• detail volume

It should display the following attributes:

• Readonly: No 
• Hidden: No

More information

Troubleshoot other VSS-related issues with the free Acronis VSS Doctor tool.

See also Using Acronis True Image to Back Up a System with VSS.

You can also use batch files to stop the database for a second before the snapshot is taken and then immediately start it, while Acronis True Image proceeds with creating the backup. See Using Batch Files in Acronis True Image.

To investigate why exactly the partition was locked up, please do the following:

1. Use AcronisInfo Utility to collect the necessary information;
2. Get the VssShadowStorageReport.txt file by issuing the following command:
   vssadmin list shadowstorage > c:\VssShadowStorageReport.txt
3. Contact Acronis Support with the collected information and a reference to this article.