What is a Reparse point? - Can anyone reveal the answer in plain English please?

Question

This is causing errors on Win 7 backup - code 0x81000037 as usual....

MS state that;

*"If the reparse point points to a location that contains any compressed file format (multimedia files, .zip files, and so on), you receive an error message that resembles the following: To work around this problem, remove this reparse point from the library, and then run the backup wizard again. To back up content for this reparse point, select the absolute path of this location from the Windows Backup configuration user interface. "*Looks to me as though if I try to backup any video or Zip files for instance then that's simply not possible as its "compressed file format" - whats the point of backup if I can't backup video files!!!  -Surely this can't be correct or am I reading it wrong??

Answer 1

A reparse point is what linux calls a symbolic link.  It is actually similar to a shortcut or link that people use all the time.  An icon on your desktop is not really the program that it launches - it is simply a file that points to that program and tells it to launch when you click it.  A reparse point is the same concept except at the OS level instead of the user level.  In Windows 7, the easiest way to see an example of this is to open a command prompt and type dir /a and press enter.  You will see several entries that say "junction" and it will show you what they point to (junction point is another name for reparse point).  Any files that a program tries to write to a directory that is really a reparse point get sent (totally blindly to that program) to the other directory instead.

If you're having problems backing up video files, it's likely because you've set the video library as the location to backup, and possibly reassigned the location of the video library.  If that's the case, all you have to do is open explorer and right-click on the video library and select properties.  This will show you the actual location of your video folders.  When you go into the backup program, deselect whatever is already selected for backing up your videos (such as your video library) then select the actual folder locations that you see in the properties instead.

If it's something different than the video library causing the problem, simply navigate to that parent folder at the command prompt, then execute dir /a and get the location the reparse point causing the problems actually points to, then deselect that reparse point from the backup set and again add the actual folder it points to.

Answer 2

I also use 64-bit Windows 7 and generally love it, but was stumped for awhile with this same backup problem. Apparently reparse points are related to or associated with backup restore points in some manner. I had moved files to a new physical disk and partition I installed recently. Backups of the moved files were failing with the 0x81000037 error. I followed the steps below and was able to get a successful backup.

1. Open Windows Explorer and right click the drive letter where the files are stored that cannot be backed up. Click Properties.
2. From the General tab click "Disk Cleanup".
3. On the Disk Cleanup window, switch to the More Options tab.
4. In the System Restore and Shadow Copies section, click "Clean up..."
5. Click Delete

This initially made me nervous about possible file deletion, so before testing I made another copy of the files to a different partition - a backup of my backup I guess. However this process apparently only deletes restore point information associated with files on a given partition. Once that was done, backups worked fine.

Answer 3

Basically, reparse point is a jacked name for mount point. After wading through the document that gets tossed in your direction whenever you mention failed backups and 0x81000037, after digesting the thing and removing reparse points from all your libraries, you find that MS Backup gets a lot further along until it hits the directory that you have mounted your secondary internal drive using a "Reparse Point" and dies. The drive is mounted as C:\mountdir, but what you see MS Backup trying to back up is C:\subdir
instead of C:\mountdir\subdir\ which tells you that MS Backup cannot even properly backup secondary drives attached to mount points.

So, if you install a second drive in your Windows 7 system, and it offers you to set it up with a drive letter or to attach it in a directory,always give it a drive letter! Or find backup software that can actually do backups...

This has got to be the goofiest and most obtuse chunk of language I've read from Microsoft in the past month:

A file or directory can contain a reparse point, which is a collection of user-defined data. The format of this data is understood by the application which stores the data, and a file system filter, which you install to interpret the data and process the file. When an application sets a reparse point, it stores this data, plus a reparse tag, which uniquely identifies the data it is storing. When the file system opens a file with a reparse point, it attempts to find the file system filter associated with the data format identified by the reparse tag. If a file system filter is found, the filter processes the file as directed by the reparse data. If a file system filter is not found, the file open operation fails.

So, when MS Backup hits one of these, it essentially collapses, the file open operation fails because it is one directory level out of whack and it dies with the famous boohoo hex number.

Funny how everything else is doing just fine accessing data on this drive...

Answer 4

How do I find and delete the "reparse point" that is causing my backup to fail?

The backup was not successful. The error is: Windows Backup failed while trying to read from the shadow copy on one of the volumes being backed up. Please check in the event logs for any relevant errors. (0x81000037).

Answer 5

same error with same program.

"In Windows 7, the easiest way to see an example of this is to open a command prompt and type dir /a and press enter.  You will see several entries that say "junction" and it will show you what they point to (junction point is another name for reparse point)."

when i type dir /al /s or dir /a in cmd  i see a date and time followed by <junction> and then a directory. there is no info about anything pointing to something else or what is being pointed at, and when i use fsutil to query those directories it says they're not reparsepoints.

in this article ( http://support.microsoft.com/kb/973455 ) it says:

"To delete mounted volume reparse point, follow these steps:

1. Locate the reparse point you found, right click the reparse point icon and click Properties.
2. In the General tab, confirm the folder Type is Mounted Volume and then delete this folder."

how do i locate the reparse point icon to click its properties? when i go to explorer and seek the directory after <junction> shown in cmd and check its properties, it says file directory, not mounted volume, and deleting it would delete the files.

for me the first directory that is listed after dir /al /s is C:\Users&lt;name>\AppData\Roaming. i cannot delete that folder.