Volume shadow copy issue with Win8.1 and alternative

In windows 8.1, microsoft has limited the vssadmin functionality. For example vssadmin create is not supported anymore.

Here is the alternative:

#In power shell:
(Get-WmiObject -list win32_shadowcopy).Create("C:\","ClientAccessible")

#On Win7 machine you can create vss directly by running command vssadmin create shadow /for=c: 

#Now check with:

vssadmin.exe list shadows

#mount what you see after "Shadow Copy Volume:"

Exit from powershell

mklink /D C:\myshadowcopy <here>\    #you need to add a trailing slash after the address.

Or You can also download the shadowexplorer GUI tool: http://www.shadowexplorer.com/downloads.html


How to exclude file and directory from VSS snapshot:

You can add entries to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\BackupRestore\FilesNotToSnapshot to exclude files from VSS

 For e.g. in my case it was C:\Users\test\Documents\* /s


Reference:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa819132(v=vs.85).aspx