Windows 10 V1803: Backup fails with 0x800706BA

[German]Owners of Windows 10 version 1803 who try to perform the onboard system image backup end with an error. The function fails, at least in the 32-bit versions of Windows 10 V1803, with error 0x800706BA

German blog reader Volker E. informed me about this issue at the end of July 2018 by mail (thanks for the hint).

The error description

If you are searching the Internet for 'Windows 10 V1803 Backup error 0x800706BA', you will find at least a hit within the English Technet forum. Here the error description

After the Windows 10 version 1803 upgrade on April 30, 2018, my System Image Backup keeps failing withe two messages. "The backup failed" "The RPC server is unavailable (0x800706BA)".

Note that the System Image Backup worked before the upgrade. The upgrade completed OK and I have not found any other issues.

I checked that =1= The RPC (Remote Procedure Call) service in Services is active and running and =2= the DCOM (Distributed COM) is enabled. There used to be a SYSTEM disk when I did the defrag, the defrag does not show the SYSTEM disk in version 1803.

Is it a bug, or is there a fix or should I try the Image Recovery (that might fail as well).

After upgrading to Windows 10 V1803 (April 30, 2018), system image backup with the build-in Windows 7 backup fails. The above error message occurs and the error code indicates that the Remote Procedure Call (RPC) server is not available. It should be added that it is a 32-bit Windows. This is not an isolated case, also in the English Tens forumthe error is reported. It occurs in the 32-bit version V1803 of Windows 10. 

That is a bug

This can be described as a bug in Windows 10 version 1803. Attempts to repair something is useless. If you go back to Windows 10 version 1709, the system image backup works. The bug has not been fixed (as far as I know) with any of the cumulative updates till yet.

However, there is hope for the upcoming Windows 10 V1809. Within this forum thread somebody wrote:

Here is the fix.
Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 17711
We fixed an issue where creating a system image from backup and restore in control panel would fail on x86 machines.

But I should note, that you should no more trust on Windows system backup. The reason: The backup function is still from Windows 7 and has not been made progress since then. Microsoft has declared the Windows system backup as deprecated and intends to omit the system image backup in newer builds sometime (see also Windows 10 Fall Creators Update (V1709): Things removed/deprecated).

There are workarounds

There is a workaround for people who depends to continue using the system's backup function. You have to use wbengine.exe from a backup of Windows 10 version 1709 and copy this file to the system with Windows 10 version 1803, which was mentioned by blog reader Volker E. in his mail, but is also mentioned in the English Technet forum thread:

I talked to tech support (Ticket #1424749859) about this for over 3 hours while watching a tech on my laptop remotely, until he finally admitted defeat. ("Wait for an update that fixes the problem.")

After all was said and done, i replaced the x86 1803 version of wbengine.exe with the 1709 version through the recovery command prompt.

After that the image backup worked and a recovery disc PRIOR to 1803 successfully restored it.

While I wouldn't propose this as a solution, it certainly defines the problem.

wbengine.exe (x86) is the problem. RPC is merely a symptom.

The x64 version of wbengine.exe in 1803 is not a problem.

I reported this back to tech support under the same ticket number. Apparently you have to tell them from 4 different directions before someone notices.

I gather from the forum post that the 64-bit version of wbengine.exe in Windows 10 V1803 is probably not affected (this is also explicitly written here, and can be implicitly derived from this CNet forum discussion). However, given the many errors with Windows Backup, I recommend using third-party backup software.

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