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
    2014-11-05T16:42:22+00:00

    Paul I see on your initial page that pesky \\f\volume partition which is a mistake on the C ssd drive.  As far as I can tell its created by booting up from a usb port and installing a saved image.  Its bogus and should not be there.  At one point in the restoration you answered the question to reformat the drive and that's when it was installed.  All my discussions are how to avoid this.  Harry wants to do repartitions which might work but this is beyond where I want to go.  Anyway you and I suffer the same problem so its not just my pc with this problem.  I only got rid of the problem by using the initial install dvds, wiping the C drive clean, and starting over reinstalling everything.  Now all my system images do not have this partition.

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-11-05T12:47:47+00:00

    Jobongo's "Fix" is the best one, see page 1.

    As for my Ignorance, well Harry I wish I was as clued up as you seem to be, Easy to solve problems when they have already been solved or worked around, long before you joined the Topic.

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-11-04T23:26:43+00:00

    Harry I had that unpleasant experience of my pc being locked out with the message you describe and now I recall having to boot up from the usb port to do a restore at that time.  It was the only way I could get control of the pc.  Maybe that is when I picked up that nasty bootup anomaly I've been describing and may still have part of it on my system, the part that screws up the usb bootup and adds the unwelcome partition on the C drive.

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-11-04T22:32:09+00:00

    You are absolutely correct, it puts unnecessary wear on the drive and does not help seek times. I have learned that periodic trim maintenance keeps the write speed at it's optimum. Windows 8 wont defragment a SSD but it will preform the trim maintenance. It is also best to move the page file to a separate spinning drive to reduce wear on the SSD as you can see in my screen shot on the last page. There is one exception that I force a one time defragmentation (defrag C: /d /u /v) on a SSD and that is after a new installation is customized, Office, Nero, IE Explorer configured, updates, etc. Then run disk clean up, Windows 8 manager 1 Click cleaner which defrags the registry then optimize (Trim if SSD/Defrag if spinning) the operating system drive just before creating the base system image backup for a lights out or system intrusion restore.

    For those of you that like to use any other web browser than IE...See this...

    https://www.nsslabs.com/sites/default/files/public-report/files/Browser%20Security%20Comparative%20Analysis%20-%20Socially%20Engineered%20Malware.pdf

    Windows has built in antivirus (Worm/Malware) Built-in "Windows Defender)", All the other antivirus piggyback off of Microsoft and usually charge a fee. Security starts with you...Keeping updates current and watching what you click on including e-mail attachments.

    The bad guys have a really nasty one out there. It invades your computer access every file on your drives including USB, Network Mapped/Homegroup, cloud based storage. It seeks out specific file consisting of user files such as documents, spread sheets, pictures, videos and many more then proceeds to encrypt them making you pay typically a fee of $500 to get the key to un-encrypt them, it uses RSA-2048 and is virtually uncrackable. The names are crypto locker/crypto wall. Here are some security measures for this I have found and the second I thought of due to the fact that once it invades it must phone home to get a public key specific to your machine before it can encrypt your files. I uses a proxy server to do this. So I came up with the idea of using group policy management to block this ability. I have not done the research to see if this would be effective. This is for if they get in at least they won't be able to encrypt your files. This is where an image backup comes in handy. Group Policy Management (admin command prompt - gpedit.msc) is only abailable on professional and higher versions of windows. Here it is... Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Local Security Policy

    [Local Security Policy]

    Right click on "Software Restriction Policies" and choose new. Right click on "Additional Rules" and choose path for each one of these...

    %AppData%\*.exe      Path     Disallowed     Don't allow executables from AppData.

    %AppData%\\.exe   Path     Disallowed     Don't allow executables from AppData.

    %Temp%\Rar*\*.exe   Path     Disallowed     Block executables run from archive attachments opened with WinRAR.

    %Temp%\.zip\.exe   Path     Disallowed     Block executables run from archive attachments opened using Windows Zip support.

    [Local Group Policy Editor] gpedit.msc

    (Set to stop crypto Locker/Wall from connecting home to get public key for encryption of user files...)

    Computer Configuration/Administrative Templates/Windows Components/Internet Explorer/Prevent Changing Proxy Settings

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