How to remove Acronis and StorageCraft VSS driver / provider

After you uninstalled these products, if the problem persists, follow these steps:

Step 1: Open the Registry Editor (Start -> Run -> enter “regedit”, hit enter)

Step 2: Navigate to the entry HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\VSS\Providers

Step 3: (optional) Right-click on the entry {5fc845eb-f299-40f0-9725-34045f7ea8ba} or {f5dbcc43-b847-494e-8083-f030501da611} and export it to a file so you have a backup of it, just in case. You can confirm it’s Acronis by opening it up and checking the provider name. It points to a DLL called snapapi.dll (or similar name)

Step 4: Delete the tree {5fc845eb-f299-40f0-9725-34045f7ea8ba} or {f5dbcc43-b847-494e-8083-f030501da611}

For StorageCraft installations you’ll see other numbers

Step 5: (optional but recommended): Open the Command Prompt with administrator rights (Start -> All programs -> Accessories -> Right click on Command Prompt and select Run as Administrator) and enter: vssadmin delete shadows /all  to clean up any dead VSS snapshots that may be slowing down your machine

More useful VSS info here:

//backupchain.com/How-to-fix-volume-shadow-copy-service-error-creating-the-shadow-copy-provider.html

and here:

//backupchain.com/hyper-v-backup/Troubleshooting.html

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