Windows System Restore Point Creation Error 0x80070005: Solution

What Does Error 0x80070005 Mean?

When attempting to create a system restore point via the Control Panel or PowerShell, the system interrupts the process with a message like Failed to create a restore point or The Volume Shadow Copy service is not running. The Event Viewer often logs error code 0x80070005 (Access Denied) or 0x800423F3.

This error indicates that the system protection module cannot write a snapshot of the file structure to the hidden System Volume Information folder. The operating system blocks the operation to prevent writing corrupted data or operating under a critical resource shortage.

Common Causes

This failure rarely appears spontaneously. It is usually triggered by the following factors:

• Full system drive. Windows automatically suspends snapshot creation if free space on drive C: is less than 300–500 MB.
• Stopped VSS service. The "Volume Shadow Copy" service runs in the background and directly depends on the Task Scheduler and RPC.
• Corrupted system files. Faulty kernel libraries or storage drivers interfere with the disk state capture process.
• Incorrect protection quotas. The settings allocate a hard disk space limit that is already fully exhausted by old restore points, and automatic deletion is disabled.
• Third-party software conflict. Antivirus programs, disk encryption software, or aggressive optimization utilities can block access to the folder containing system snapshots.

Solutions

Method 1: Free Up Space and Clean Temporary Files

First, check the free space on your system partition. If less than 5 GB remains, the process will definitely fail.

1. Press Win + R, type cleanmgr, and press Enter.
2. Select drive C: and confirm the action.
3. In the window that opens, click the Clean up system files button (administrator privileges required).
4. Check the boxes for "Windows Update Cleanup," "Temporary Windows installation files," and "Recycle Bin."
5. Confirm the deletion and wait for the utility to complete.

💡 Tip: After cleanup, open "This PC" and ensure that drive C: has at least 10% free space relative to its total capacity.

Method 2: Restart the Volume Shadow Copy Service

If space is sufficient but the failure persists, restart the dependent services via the command line. This will resolve any software freezes in the module.

1. Open the Start menu, type cmd, right-click on "Command Prompt," and select Run as administrator.
2. Execute the following commands sequentially, pressing Enter after each:

net stop vss
net stop swprv
net start vss
net start swprv

3. Check the current service status by running sc query vss. The STATE line should indicate RUNNING.

Method 3: Reconfigure System Protection Settings

This method resets corrupted configuration metadata for the restore point storage. All old snapshots will be deleted, so use it only if you don't need to revert to previous states.

1. Press Win + R, type sysdm.cpl, and navigate to the System Protection tab.
2. In the "Protection Settings" section, select drive C: and click the Configure button.
3. Select the Disable system protection option and click "Apply." Confirm the deletion of existing restore points.
4. Close the window and restart your computer.
5. Reopen the protection settings, select drive C:, enable protection, and set the disk usage slider to 3%–7%.
6. Click "Apply" and immediately click Create in the main window to test the function.

Method 4: Check and Repair System Files

If the previous steps didn't help, there may be corruption in the component store or file system drivers. Built-in Windows utilities will automatically fix inconsistencies.

1. Open Command Prompt or PowerShell as an administrator.
2. Run the component store check:

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

3. Wait for the operation to complete (may take up to 15 minutes). If a message indicates successful restoration, run:

sfc /scannow

4. After the scan, restart your PC and try creating a restore point manually via the system properties.

Prevention

To prevent the error from recurring, follow these simple system maintenance rules:

• Regularly run the built-in "Disk Cleanup" utility every 1–2 months to remove update caches and temporary files.
• Do not disable the "Task Scheduler" and "Remote Procedure Call (RPC)" services—VSS directly depends on their proper operation.
• Configure automatic restore point creation via Task Scheduler so the system doesn't rely solely on manual initiation before software installations.
• Exclude the C:\System Volume Information folder from real-time antivirus scanning, as constant access to snapshot files causes lock conflicts.