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

Is there much of a chance of something going wrong with this method?

I always thought that messing with partitions is potentially fraught with danger.        

In my case,  my system using partition tools for resizing and movement wasn't stable enough, as I run SSDs/HDs on multiple disk arrays so certainly something was wrong. 

But, on a single disk this method should work just fine as reported by others.

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. 

4. 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. 
5. 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

 

6. Open a cmd prompt with administrator privileges. Press Start Key, Type cmd, right click, select run as administrator. 

 

7. Type diskpart to start windows command line disk manager. 

 

8. 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

 

9. Select that disk by typing the command "select disk" and the disk number.

 

10. 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. 

 

11. Once you have determined the partition number, type "select partition " and your partition number

 

12. 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.

 

13. 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. 

 

Is there much of a chance of something going wrong with this method?

I always thought that messing with partitions is potentially fraught with danger.

If you are going to use the third option, I'd rather just have to reinstall windows 8 than take all of the time to download and install 8.1 only to have to reinstall both. 

By the way, no where I told to reinstall both !!

At the heart of any Disaster Recovery Strategy sits " Rehearsal "

Testing your backups is the key to your backup strategy.  What you understood as reinstall & reinstall is meanly to rehears & test your backups. 

Without that, backups you take are plain useless.

As I said before,

As for Microsoft acknowledgment of the problem .. can't comment on that.  And out fairness - not in defense of Microsoft - We tend to take Windows upgrade for granted, and most of the issues that we are currently facing is due to the lack of prober understanding of new features and their underlying requirements.  This was any eye opening to me of how much different Windows 8 from the previous versions underneath.

Back to your reply,

There are many reasons why one will take the extra effort to follow a Fresh install:

1. Windows 8.1 have a fresh & solid recovery option which worth taking the extra effort to install on a clean sheet.
2. New builds.
3. Not all PCs Firmware & Hardware created equally.
4. Not all PCs Booting from a single Disk.  Some, are equipped with Disk Arrays that are not Resizing & Shrinking friendly.
5. Traces of previous installation issues could come back.

Lastly, I came to this thread not to seek a solutions as my problem was sorted out by me much earlier.  I came to share with other my option that some users with new builds could benefit from.