Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials says backup failed due to insufficient storage available, the fix may be chkdsk

Posted by Paul Braren on Nov 13 2014 in
  • HomeServer
  • Storage
  • Windows
  • This is a bit of a strange one, but here's the circumstance I ran into today, when trying to troubleshoot why a particular backup was failing.

    The warnings may have been a little strangely worded

    Backup details says Insufficient storage available for backup available.

    but the action plan seemed reasonably clear. Time to check in on how much available storage was available on that system. Guess what, that older laptop's Kingston 96GB SSD was only about 2/3rds full. Now what?

    Rather than trying nothing, I tried something rather tame, just-in-case. It was a bit of a long-shot. Then again, I thought, since it had fixed a broken backup on another system recently, why not try it? Since the laptop had an SSD, this fix procedure only took about 3 minutes total to complete:

    1. Right-clicked on that laptop's Windows 8.1 Start button
    2. chose Command Prompt (Admin)
    3. typed:
      CHKDSK C: /F
    4. and pressed enter
    5. it prompted me if I wanted to schedule this for the next reboot, I said yes
    6. reboot Windows
    7. Start the backup again, success!

    your results may vary, there are a variety of reasons backups fail

    Backup-details-says-Insufficient-storage-available-for-backup-available.-To-resolve-this-issue-either-add-more-storage-space-to-this-computer-or-free-up-some-space-on-an-existing-drive
    Backup details says Insufficient storage available for backup available. To resolve this issue, either add more storage space to this computer, or free up some space on an existing drive.

    See also

    Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials complaining about one of your drives? How to queue up multiple chkdsk operations for the next reboot.

    by Paul Braren on Dec 03 2014

    My post on homeservershow.com/forums recently:
    Anybody noticing their backups stopped after some patches in October, with Backup status showing "Not set up"?