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

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments
Answer accepted by question author
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.

Was this answer helpful?

10+ people found this answer helpful.
0 comments

778 additional answers

Sort by: Oldest
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2013-10-23T09:29:22+00:00

     I also have another broken feature on my Windows 8.1 upgrades. File History reports that no usable drive was found although I have a second hard drive on all my computers.      

    I believe Windows 8.1 no longer supports being able to create a Repair disk - CD/DVD - you will need a flash USB.

    Windows 8 had both "Recovery Drive in File History" and "Windows 7 Repair disk functionality".

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2013-10-23T09:54:59+00:00

    I tried the guide advised earlier in this thread (resizing the recovery partition etc).

    Steps that i have done:

    • shrink c:
    • copy all the partitions (efi, the 128mb one) to the free space at the beginning of c:
    • extend Win Re partition to the amount of free space (increase of 100 mb)

    Result:

    • windows recovery does not work
    • windows itself is usable, but no backup, no recovery...

    Solution:

    • restored a clonezilla image
    • backup still does not work, but windows is back up runnig again
    • windows recovery works

    So, Microsoft, if you please could investigate and solve error 0x80780119, that would be great.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2013-10-23T10:59:18+00:00

    Did you reset the EFI System Parition as and EFI partition?

    Also, I would suggest resizing C:, reboot, and then only copy the EFI (100MB Fat32) partition to the extra space. Windows "recommends" that the partition layout should be like this,

    Recovery --> EFI --> MSR --> System

    but emphasizes that the Recovery partition needs to be at the beginning. So the setup with what you did should look like this.

    Recovery --> MSR --> EFI --> System

    This is the way that I have it on one of my machines and it works. The other, my desktop, I resized the C: drive shrinking it by 150MB, shifted the MSR and EFI to the right to take up that extra space and then extend the recovery partition. I ended up doing this in several steps instead of one big step and it worked great. Here is what I have,

    Recovery (450 MB) --> EFI (100MB) --> MSR (128MB) --> System

    The only thing with moving the EFI and MSR partitions over, you have to re-set the partition type to MSR and EFI. This can be done through diskpart.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2013-10-23T11:41:24+00:00

    RESULT !!

    upgraded to 8.1 and created a system image in 8.1

    the previous procedures i used have worked,

    changing the system partition in 8.0 BEFORE the upgrade,

    After the upgrade i still have the extended partition (see pic)

    now all i have to do is try a restore from this new 8.1 image :-)

    in partwiz back in 8.0 only adjust 1 partition at a time (giving partwiz less to do and keeping it simple) after the reeboots partwiz does its thing and has a better chance of succeeding if it has less to adjust.

    I ONLY EXTENDED THE SYSTEM PARTITION IN PARTWIZ (this time round) AND ALLOWED PARTWIZ TO USE UP FREE SPACE FROM THE C PARTITION INSTEAD OF CREATING FREE SPACE AT THE BEGINING OF THE C PARTITION THEN MANUALLY USING THAT FREE SPACE.

    When I tried to do this in 8.1 before over the last few days (extend sys partition into manually created free space at the beginning of C ie-100mb partition) it failed twice and I could not reboot 8.1!!

    Finally have 8.1 installed and a system image of the new 8.1 and extended sys partition.

    FINALLY !!

    Will now test this image and attempt a format of C and restore using 8.1 image !

    The optimise of the system partition still does not work from the windows GUI but I will attempt an optimise using the cmd prompt...

    and indeed this succeeded from the cmd line , the windows GUI now shows 0%fragmented! of the system partition.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments