Cant backup 8.1 using system image backup! Error 0x80780119, Cant optimise system partition, (this is why i cant backup) please read. . .

Anonymous
2013-10-19T14:16:48+00:00

I am having this issue, cant optimise the system partition 350mb. 8.1 official release,

This is also causing a huge problem, the optimise option in windows 8.1 allows me to optimise the c: drive but not the system partition this prevents a system image backup...!!

Due to the system partition being out of space for a shadow copy to be placed onto it the backup fails every time with this error code, -- 0x80780119 --.

Backups are a huge factor in operating systems and since upgrading I cant backup my system using windows image backup, if I could optimise the system partition and straighten out the file structure within it (free up some space) for the shadow copy then the volume shadow copy could be placed onto the drive but it cant...

This all worked fine in 8.0 but not now...please fix this problem!?

Not being able to backup your system is not good enough...

here is my my issue again in pictures...

1.system volume needs optimising

but pressing the optimise for this does nothing at all.. current status remains "Needs optimisation".

The way an ssd reclaims drive space is to use the optimise function, this not working prevents the reclaim for files/data to be written to space where files have been deleted previously. Giving the impression the drive/partition is full when really its not full just needs optimising/trimmed.

 

  1. initiate the system image backup

  1. both volumes to be backed up

  1. error message due to insufficient space on the system partition for shadow copy. 

 

  1. finally here is a capture of the current disk setup on my system, notice the system partition only has 17mb free space and according to the above error message I need atleast 50mb free for the volume shadow copy !? Due to this I cant create a backup of my system using windows 8.1 !

(system partition has no drive letter assigned to it 350mb)

PLEASE HELP !! Thanks for reading.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Windows update

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Anonymous
2013-10-20T20:19:10+00:00

I have found a way around this getting Windows System Image Backup working again. I did this on my laptop and desktop confirming that I could recover from the images. It is actually pretty easy but should not be necessary. The reason that the backup would not work was because the recovery partition was using 284MB of the 300MB available. There was not 50MB available for shadow copy. Here are the steps I took on an EUFI GPT disk:

Note: All commands are without quotes. 

Disclaimer: I would recommend backing up all of you important data as any time you mess with partitions, there is the possibility to lose data. This process was done one both my laptop (Win8.1 Home) and desktop (Win8.1 Pro). I cannot take responsibility if this causes any damage. With that being said, I hope this helps.

Download and install MiniTool Partition Wizard http://www.partitionwizard.com/free-partition-manager.html Note that none of the changes will take effect until you hit apply. I am sure others may work but this is the one that I used and it is free. 

You should have 3 Windows partitions; Recovery - 300 MB, EFI System - 100 MB, and your system Volume to start off with. 

  1. Once installed, Open Partition Wizard and Shrink your system volume, C: in my case, by 101MB at the beginning of the partition. (I had to put 101MB as when I tried 100 it said that the space was too small when doing the next step) To do this, Right Click the C: Drive, select, Move/Resize, and the put 101 in box named "Unallocated Space Before:" and click OK.
  2. Copy the EFI System partition (100 MB FAT32) to this new Free Space by right clicking, selecting copy, and then selecting the unallocated space. Then next the OK.
  3. Delete the 100MB EFI System Partition after the Recovery Partition. 

After this is done, you will see 100MB unallocated space after the Recovery Partition. 

  1. Right click on Recovery partition and select Extend. Drag the bar to take up all of the extra free space. This will change the recovery partition from 300MB to 400MB allowing for enough space (50MB) for the shadow copy. Click OK. 
  2. Next Click Apply. I received an error stating that it could not make changes due to C: being in use. I clicked restart. 

When the computer restarts, Partition Wizard will do its thing. Once it is done you should boot into Windows again.

This next part is essential, because, windows now does not recognize the partition that was moved before as an EFI System Partition. If you try and do a backup image now, only the system partition will show and not the Recovery or EFI System

  1. Open a cmd prompt with administrator privileges. Press Start Key, Type cmd, right click, select run as administrator. 
  2. Type diskpart to start windows command line disk manager. 
  3. Find the disk that Windows is installed on by typing List disk. This will be different on each machine but for illustration mine was disk 0
  4. Select that disk by typing the command "select disk" and the disk number.
  5. Next, determine the EFI partition that was moved earlier. This is the partition that was moved earlier and should be 100MB. Type in the command "list part" to see a list of the partitions on the disk. Mine was Partition 3. This may be different on your system. 
  6. Once you have determined the partition number, type "select partition " and your partition number
  7. Next you have to set this partition as an EFI System volume. Type in this command - "set id = c12a7328-f81f-11d2-ba4b-00a0c93ec93b" This changes the partition type to an EFI system volume.
  8. After all of this is done, restart your computer and you should now be able to back up you system using the System Image Backup in File History.

I know some of this may seem a little elementary to some but you never know who needs help and their technical knowledge. 

I hope that this helps and let me know if you have any questions.

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  1. Anonymous
    2013-11-26T15:58:07+00:00

    over 7000 hits and still no response from Microsoft.....will they "pull" the thread altogether or respond??

    I think at 10000 hits there will be action.... lol

    Interesting is also that no MS "system engineer"is showing up. Only at the very beginning of this thread one appeared and made some suggestions, which did not help at all. At least MS could officially acknowledge the problem. 

    Well, if nothing else, this issue has got me to go from Legacy BIOS to UEFI on my Asus Maximus VI Formula board. It's all "SecureBoot" and works fine. Even my Asus****GTX770-DC2OC-2GD5 video card worked...despite what some unhappy people have posted. And the boot time is sick-fast! :D

    So, now I have a Win 8, UEFI with image backups and most stuff I need before upgrading to Win 8.1. And yes, I was up AGAIN until after 3:00 AM! Thanks MSoft!

    I really wasn't totally kidding before about the Obamacare website developers working for Microsoft's Win 8, 8.1 team. I mean, how do you ship a system that has so much wrong with it? As a simple example, in Event Viewer, any search for a problem gets a "page not found" error. I've heard it said (again, NOT by Microsoft) that this is because there IS NO context-aware help for event logs....YET...but there will be, eventually.

    I mean, Apple's not perfect, they tend to leave stuff out of a release, rather than put in a bug-ridden update. How QA is supposed to work is there are X, say, 100 "line items" in a release, items that get put on collateral material (datasheets, brochures, etc.). The QA department is supposed to say to development: "If those 100 items aren't available in the candidate release you will send to QA by 3:00 PM today for testing, the missing, buggy or unfinished items will NOT go in the candidate release. If any of these 100 items fails QA or regression testing (testing of ALL old bugs we've seen before with this software), those items will also be removed from the final QA release that will be sent for beta and eventual release".

    Nobody, I mean, NOBODY ships a release saying "Yeah, that's not done, but we'll get around to it later", or "Well, that is supported, but the back-end database isn't done, so just ship it anyway, it will get finished eventually". I'd sure like some satisfaction for how Microsoft and O'care is able to work this way.

    Anyone have any insights? Anyone know somebody in MSoft they can talk to? You know, I hate to say this, but these issues almost sound like MSoft and O'care have outsourced their whole development process to some other country. You know, a place where people swear things are finished properly, according to standards and practices, an they're just lying to your face...repeatedly...and with gusto?

    Any of us who've been around for a while can point out any number of places where that sort of thing happens. Maybe the USA is just the newest "let's work as shoddy as possible and get a way with as much as we can" place in the world.

    Let's hope not!

    We've got to remember that MSoft's big. I've seen big companies, like IBM for example, start a project, move it to other developers in another division, have SVPs fight over who owns it and the vision of the project, etc. So, maybe it's just there are so many different departments and divisions that nobody's reading "from the same sheet of music". But such a huge project needs high-level design, low-level design, testing design, etc. where everyone knows what the inputs and outputs are for every module, for every line item for the whole project! No matter how many groups are involved!

    But jeeze, if that's it, if developers are working as well as they can in a political environment that's not conducive to a good product, or management's scope-creep is causing delays and errors...then I want to see somebody FIRED. Not just fired, but perp-walk in front of the news media, everything. That will help me feel better about $250 of software that's I've been playing with for 6 months and I'm still not nearly happy with!

    Cheers,

    -Ambi

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-11-26T11:33:52+00:00

    over 7000 hits and still no response from Microsoft.....will they "pull" the thread altogether or respond??

    I think at 10000 hits there will be action.... lol

    Interesting is also that no MS "system engineer"is showing up. Only at the very beginning of this thread one appeared and made some suggestions, which did not help at all. At least MS could officially acknowledge the problem.

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-11-26T02:44:10+00:00

    http://the-blue-orb.blogspot.com/2013/10/you-cannot-backup-or-restore-windows-81.html

    I hope this helps a little.

    M

    For those who have spent countless hours installing applications and configuring Windows 8.1 as I have, starting all over again is a totally unreasonable option.  Imagine all those poor people who have followed Microsoft's instructions to the letter and set up everything exactly as Microsoft told them to, then configured Windows just the way they like it, installed all their applications, configured them, and finally tried to back it all up.  Start all over again?!  I don't think so!

    Personally, I think if you've created a recovery drive and backed up drive C: (see my previous post), I don't see why there's any need to backup the Recovery Partition or the UEFI Partition.  But since Microsoft has deemed it appropriate to totally ignore my questions on this thread, I can't guarantee that will work.  The documentation Microsoft provides on system recovery is scant to non-existent.

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-11-26T00:43:29+00:00

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