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
    2013-10-29T14:59:37+00:00

    I will try and clarify:

    "1. What do you mean by moving EFI and MSR partitions?  Is that Partition Wizard copy MSR -> delete original MSR, copy EFI and delete original EFI partitions?"

    **The short answer is yes that is PartWiz Copy function though with the MSR partition it does not really work. There is no real data on the MSR partition and partwiz cannot create an MSR partition. This has to be done through diskpart. I only did it this way because of Microsoft's "recommended"partition layout which is Recovery>EFI>MSR>System. Having a partition layout of Recover>MSR>EFI>System is still OK which is what I would do because it is easier.

    "2. Resetting partition type is done using the command "set id = c12a7328-f81f-11d2-ba4b-00a0c93ec93b" command (EFI)? Do you also use the set command to set the type to the MSR partition? If yes, do you use ID e3c9e316-0b5c-4db8-817d-f92df00215ae? I have read that the set id command should not be used for the MSR partition, though. "

    You are correct. I did not use the set ID command for the MSR partition. I simply deleted the MSR partition and created a new one in the same space as the old one. You just have to figure out the offset (where the partition will start) on the disk.

    "3. In Partition Wizard, deleting system partitions requires OS reboot, correct? So if I delete the EFI-Boot-Partion and confirm reboot, does the PC really boot back to Windows 8.1 again without the boot partition?"

    Deleting the EFI system partition on my system did not require a reboot. Only when I resized the C: Drive did it require a reboot. After the C: Drive was resized, I could do everything else i.e. moving the EFI and MSR partitions, without rebooting. Also, I never meant to say that there should not be a EFI partition. I did all of the partitioning and resizing in one step in PartWiz initially and it worked for me, but I think it will be better to do each of the move, copies, and resizes individual steps.

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-10-29T15:32:37+00:00

    Dear friends i am providing you the 100% working guidance for systems having 4 partitions i.e Recovery>EFI>MSR>system. After following this guide you can backup system image.

    i have successfully tried this guide on 18 systems.

    Paragupadhyay ?? You have simply copied Jobongo's instructions, almost word for word...  the solution has been in this thread for well over 1 week now.

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-10-29T15:57:11+00:00

    I agree that this should work but you are taking out the MSR partition entirely. I would not recommend this as this is a reserved space for possible future use (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Reserved_Partition). This is not required to boot, I know, but again, for a system that I would like to keep the same for years to come, I would prefer to get it right the first time. 

    [edit] Yes it is possible to create an MSR partition later, but again, I think that doing it right, or at least as close to right in this situation as possible, would be the best way to go.

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-10-29T16:12:55+00:00

    @Jobongo

    Thanks, I think I understand. You used the diskpart command: create partition msrwith the respective offset to create the msr partition just before the shrunk system partition.

    A problem with that might be, that you only have an empty msr partition. I think the msr partition is used e.g. to decryt a bitlocker encrytped system partition upon boot. This functionality would be void following your guide.

    Now the following is just speculation, please correct me:

    I think, the partition setup for UEFI installations requires the recover-efi-msr-system layout. Maybe if the setup is recover-msr-efi-system as in your first proposal it works as the UEFI BIOS only looks for the EFI boot partition and starts the windows bootloader.

    However, what happens, if at some point windows uses the msr partition for some proprietary function, or the user actually wants to use bitlocker encryption. Possibly the installation fails then. The same would possibly happen with an empty msr partition in the correct second solution partition setup.

    Does anybody know how to recover an msr partition in an existing installation?

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