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
    2013-12-21T13:00:12+00:00

    Hi,

    I have shrinked the wim file to 239 Mb, but still only 31.5 Mb available space and System backup fails.

    Tried to do all disk cleanup stuff, but nothing helps, only 31.5 Mb avalaible.

    Any suggestion what else could be on this partion that use space?

    Thanks,

    Ratko

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-12-21T02:57:36+00:00

    I followed the instructions from "ExperiencedUser" at this forum & it worked for me: http://www.eightforums.com/installation-setup/35722-updating-windows-8-1-may-destroy-your-computer.html

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-12-20T22:05:54+00:00

    Glad it worked for you.

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-12-20T07:30:53+00:00

    It worked!  The System Image backup worked!  I guess the 14MB difference in size was enough.  The total size of the recovery partition is now 257.71MB.  Now that I know how to do this, I will definitely use this method if and when I have to reinstall Windows 8, then 8.1.  Again, now that I know how to do it, it will be a much easier method than doing the partition manipulation method, and much faster.  I realized after getting it all to work, and looking back on what I had done, it's actually a safe method as it really manipulates nothing more than the wim file, and only creating a new one, at that.  I made sure to save the old wim file in case anything went wrong.  Scary at first, but definitely much safer.  Next time it should be a breeze.

           Thanks for answering all of the questions I had.  I'm sure it was a bit annoying answering some of the questions about things that to you are very basic and obvious.  I can physically build a computer with the best of them.  All of the latest and greatest components, high end liquid cooling, the best cases, etc.  But when it comes to things like this, I am a complete noob.  It helps when you have someone helping you that knows what they are doing and has the patience to answer the most mundane questions.  Many times in the past when I asked for help, the person would either help a little and then tell me to stop asking so many questions,  direct me to other places because they didn't feel like it, or just tell me to figure it out on my own.  I certainly do appreciate the help and the patience the must have gone along with it.  If you were around here I would buy you a pizza for all of the trouble. 

           Anyway, thanks again for all of the very detailed instructions and solutions.  I'm certainly glad that in the end it worked.

    P.S.  I wish there was a way to download this entire thread, as it's possible that Microsoft could delete it in the future.

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