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
    2014-11-04T15:34:30+00:00

    Thanks.

    Are there actually any people from Microsoft on this forum?

    Can they give an official explanation?

    Does everybody who installed the Win 8.1 update have the same problem with the system backup?

    This is a built-in feature and it should work out of the box.

    If not, then Microsoft should fix it!!!!!

    Messing with partitions is risky.

    Certainly if you can't make a backup first!!

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-11-04T15:21:16+00:00

    From page 63...

    Your Welcome.  I'm (Harry Tapp) pasting information I posted on page 55 for those that come along and need it so it is fresher in this thread.

    Just remember as a solid guideline that ANY partition on ANY drive which is included in the image backup must have this free space for success on either MBR or GPT/GUID systems.

    volume shadow creation during the imaging process.

    volumes 499mb or less require 50mb of free space.

    Volumes 500mb to 999mb require 320mb of free space

    volumes 1000mb (1gb) and larger require 1000mb (1gb) of free space.

    Windows Volume Id's

    Basic Data -  EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7

    MSR (GPT Reserved) - E3C9E316-0B5C-4DB8-817D-F92DF00215AE

    UEFI/EFI (EFI System) - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B

    Windows (Recovery Partition) DE94BBA4-06D1-4D40-A16A-BFD50179D6AC

    This lack of free space is the root cause of the failure, windows disk management does not reveal the MSR partition on GPT/GUID - UEFI systems. It is best to use partition wizard to see and manipulate partitions as needed to solve the problem.

    The first step is to identify which partitions are deficient in free space using Partition Wizard following the guidelines for free space requirement above to discover the total free space that is going to be needed. (Usually the UEFI/EFI (EFI System)  is the culprit and making it 490Mb solves the problem.)

    Next step is to shrink the front of C: partition using partition wizard to gain the needed unallocated space.

    Slide the MSR partition down to meet the front of C:,.

    Then expand the back of the UEFI/EFI (EFI System) partition to meet the MSR partition.

    Click apply and the computer will reboot automatically to complete the requested operations.

    Due to the diversity of systems  it is impossible to create one procedure for every situation, which is why Microsoft cant release a global patch to solve this problem.

    I prefer to boot from a USB to do the work because one time when the computer booted to complete the operations they system got stuck in an endless boot loop. I do have a Hirens boot ISO with the needed tools and will provide a link if needed.

    I would also need a screen shot of windows disk management using the snipping tool and stretching the right of the window to reveal all the partition information.

    I have a Legacy standard bios system, so here is an example of mine...

     As you see I made sure both parentheses are showing with the information (System,...Primary Partition)

    I also included Disk 1 because it contains the Page File. I did this because I have a SSD as my operating system drive and keeping the page file on it would cause excessive wear to the SSD.

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-11-04T15:17:17+00:00

    There is no solution.  There is a workaround.  The problem and it may be only my pc, is that when doing a recovery of a saved image from a usb bootup or a dvd bootup, you will note that the image wants to reformat the disk and install a new partition labled \\f\ on the drive.  Do not do this.  The way to recover and install the image backup is to start windows 8 or 8.1 and from inside the program go to setting from the right swipe, and choose change pc settings, and then update and recovery, and then go to advanced tools and do the image restore from there.

    You may not have an image saved.  To save an image from a good win 8.1 install, go to the control panel and select file history and down in the lower left corner is a system image backup you can select to make an image backup.  I find these very useful.  If you do this again it will wipe out the first image backup.  The way around this is to rename the directory of the original image backup from "WindowsImageBackup" to a slightly different name.  Then it will not be written over when doing a new image backup.  To use that older image backup you will have to rename the directory back to WindowsImageBackup.  This renaming allows several copies of an image backup to be saved on just one pocket drive and even from different pcs using win 8.1.  Hope this helps.  Its the way I manage win 8.1 image backups and recovery using image backups.

    Once the \\f\ messed up partition is created its best to wipe the disk clean and reinstall win 8 or 8.1 from scratch and then install your old image backup to bring the pc back to its full working order again.  Ive been doing this for several months and it works well.  I have had some corrupted updates and/or bad software installs that required going back to a good image that was saved recently.  Just remember to check to see if the image restore wants to reformat your disk when it should not be doing so and think carefully before proceeding.  Reformatting should not normally be needed.

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-11-04T13:41:37+00:00

    Can someone give a brief description of the solution to the original problem in this post?

    I don't want to read all 73 pages...

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