My "Installation was interrupted..." solution

I'm running a Win 2003 Server, and I was having lots of trouble getting any version of Acronis to install. The error:

"The installation was interrupted before Acronis True Image Enterprise Server could be installed. You need to restart the installer to try again."

I contacted the guys at Acronis and sent them my installation logs, and they came to the conclusion that my COM+ services weren't running (they have to be for Acronis), which they were. Here's the log.

ERROR:
[CUSTOMACTION]: - Error code: -2146368511 [0x80110401]
[CUSTOMACTION]: - Exit code: 113
[CUSTOMACTION]: - Description:
[CUSTOMACTION]: - Source:
[CUSTOMACTION]: - Help file:
[CUSTOMACTION]: - Help context: 0
[CUSTOMACTION]: - COM+ Errors detected: (2)
[CUSTOMACTION]: * (COM+ ERROR 0) on C:\WINDOWS\system32\snapapivss.dll
[CUSTOMACTION]: ErrorCode: -2146368486 [0x8011041A]
[CUSTOMACTION]: MajorRef: C:\WINDOWS\system32\snapapivss.dll
[CUSTOMACTION]: MinorRef: <invalid>
[CUSTOMACTION]: * (COM+ ERROR 1) on SnapVssProvider
[CUSTOMACTION]: ErrorCode: -2146368486 [0x8011041A]
[CUSTOMACTION]: MajorRef: {5FC845EB-F299-40F0-9725-34045F7EA8BA}
[CUSTOMACTION]: MinorRef: <invalid>
Action ended 8:21:14: InstallFinalize. Return value 3.

It turns out the reason I couldn't install had nothing to do with the COM+ services. I had applied a security policy to the computer and it disabled a service called "Volume Shadow Copy" (VSS). Acronis True Image could NOT be installed with this service disabled. It doesn't need to be running, it just couldn't be disabled. So I set it to Manual, and the product installed just fine.

It seems as though many different errors will throw this annoying installation message at you, but hopefully this solution helps out at least someone.

 

Hello nate,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Remote Server Backup Software.

Please accept our apologies for the delay with the response.

Sharing your experience is very much appreciated.

If you have any further experience to share, please feel free to post your thoughts on this forum.

Thank you.
--
Alexey Popov

 

I suspect these are on Windows 2003 Server Release 2 which locks everything down by default as part of Microsoft's aim to make their operating system's more secure.

I'm just trying TM Enterprise in a VM for evaluation purposes and the same problem occurred.

Starting the Volume Shadow Copy service didn't have any effect. Enabling and starting the COM+ System Application did allow TM Enterprise to install.

This needs feeding back to the developers that they need to check that the services are running and issue a more meaningful error messages.

Cheers, Rob.