Workstation Cannot Backup to Windows Server

I recently had to troubleshoot a PC that wouldn’t backup properly to Windows Server. At precisely 1% complete, the backup would fail every single time. The only intelligible error I could find was “EspCaptureFailed.”

To fix this issue, I highly recommend running a full checkdisk on your PC. Open a command prompt as an admin and run chkdsk /f /r.

Next, if you are running Windows 8 or newer, go ahead and run the commands to check your Windows image and repair/cleanup if necessary. Again, at a command prompt, run:

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth

Once completed successfully, run a system file check.

SFC /scannow

Once that scan is done, reboot if corruption was found and scan again until no further corruption is found. Next comes the fun part, open another command prompt as administrator and run:

diskpart

list volume

Search through the list and find and unmounted partition labeled EFI, ESP, or it may be blank… However, it will not be the WINRE partition. When you find it, note the volume number (#) on the left. Also, note a letter that is not currently used by Windows to map a drive, we’ll use this below where the (Z) is.

select volume #

assign letter=Z

exit

When diskpart closes out, you’ll be back at a regular command prompt. Run the following command:

chkdsk Z: /f /r

This will scan and you may be prompted if you want to continue. Choose yes and the scan will repair that partition.

Now return to diskpart, select the same volume, and run the command “remove letter=Z” and “list volume” one more time to verify that the drive is unmounted. Now you should be able to quit diskpart and reboot your PC. If your ESP partition was corrupted, it should now be repaired enough to allow for the computer to backup properly.