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
    2014-04-03T17:34:21+00:00

    Because I am picky about clients/friends being able to return their computer back to factory out of the box condition I always recommend creating factory recovery media. (Cd/USB) The CustomRefresh.wim looks the perfect size for the factory image that ASUS says they do not have. It is a good idea to use drive cloning software as a safeguard. Since post restore might send you back to Windows 8.0 I would use a third party program Like Driver Genius Pro to grab your 8.1 drivers first. Then restore your computer with the backup that uses the CustomRefresh.wim, This should restore your computer back to the out of box condition maybe containing the users, programs and changes made since the computer was first turned on from the factory. The object being to be able to re create the factory restore pen drive and guard it with your life. Now you are free to use your MSDN 8.1 Pro and do a clean install instead of an upgrade. Because of Windows partition sizing problem when in 8.1 setup you delete partitions 3,4,5 leaving 6 alone (D:\data) then format partitions 1 (800Mb) and 2. then extend partition 2 with all the unallocated space towards what was partition 6 and install to partition 2. Since I believe you are on a UEFI system Windows will automatically create the additional partitions (GPT Reserved, EFI System, MSR Reserved) but now post install you will be able to delete partition 1 having 800Mb unallocated space for partition resize and movement. Remember Partition Wizard allows you to move or resize partitions within unallocated space towards the beginning or end of a drive. Remember volume shadow copy restrictions when resizing. Now you can apply the driver packages and install your base programs...Office, Nero, Adobe Reader etc. and updates. Once the system is customized and functioning to your satisfaction then create a new

    %\WindowsImageBackup% master backup. Like the factory pen key this backup is like gold because no matter what happens you can go back to those points with perfection using the install (Factory/Windows) boot media imaging tools. I know it is a lot of work but when you are done you have a clean tight machine. I also noticed you have C:\ - 146Gb at the beginning of the drive. This is great because on spinning drives it limits fragmentation and keeps the OS and programs at the beginning of the drive for faster access.

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-04-03T11:08:25+00:00

    You are very kind with your patience and I have some news.

    Yes, your impression reagentc is quite right (for manipulating the Windows Recovery environment - repair your computer - for offline booting and the "/setosimage" was for the Windows install files "install.wim" for system reset), but also to put customrefresh.wim, created on the backup drive, when you create a system image backup from the control panel. I looked at contents of recovery partitions and I noted they contain reimage tools, and I also looked at backup drive, and I note a folder "custom_image_refresh", whose path is indicated by reagent /info, that contain a single file CustomRefresh.wim of about 10GB dated as the previous backup and a new WindowsImageBackup\computername\ with the actual system image of recovery partition, system partition and Windows partition (C:) as (virtual disks vhdx files).

    This latter folder is the last succesfull system image backup including my programs and data installed (I think because the size is right that, actually about 33GB). 

    If I feel like I will try the recovery, but not before making a copy of everything with another program or in another way.

    The news are that Asus offered me (free!) to restore factory settings by sending my machine to their labs, they don't have a system image to send me, but I am very much in doubt whether to accept, perhaps I'd better forget it.

     What do you think?

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-04-02T19:45:46+00:00

    I was under the impression reagentc was for manipulating the Windows Recovery environment (repair your computer) for offline booting and the "/setosimage" was for the Windows install files (install.wim) for system reset. If you can't get the needed drivers from the ASUS website there is a program called "Driver Genius Pro" which will backup existing drivers to a self installing executable or zip file. This program will also locate and offer to install drivers for the current system configuration.

    On system I work with I install to a pre created partition (Disk0, Partition1) denying Windows setup the ability to create additional partitions (MBR Systems) forcing Window to put all the boot and system files on active partition1

    As you can see my primary drive is a SSD so I put the page file on the Hitachi 2TB to reduce wear and tear, I could turn off paging because I have 12Gb DDR3 1680Mhz triple channel ram. The same principal applies when creating a distribution share image on a reference machine because there is only one partition image to transfer to the target machine. After leaving audit mode with sysprep generalize/OOBE/Shutdown I boot from Hirens Boot Cd/USB use it's tools. The one which works best for me is "TeraByte Image for Windows" to capture the image to an external USB hard drive. Then you can apply it to machine which meets hardware requirements and on first boot it will go through a mini setup. Using TeraByte to capture will work for any existing operating system  but you must apply it back to the same hardware (HAL)

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-04-02T18:20:19+00:00

    Yes, you are right, I checked that box (Delete Recovery Partition).

    No, because before any restore I'll repeat the creation of the system image after redirecting path with the reagentc /path /setreimage  command. and eventually by recreating a Windows image and using again reagentc with option /setosimage. But all this is too complicate: I will use a backup product, it is simpler!

    Restart with a clean install for me is not a problem: I own discs and product keys for Windows because I had a free copy of Windows 8 Pro from Samsung when I bought my SSD disk for my other older notebook and Windows 8.1 Pro/Enterprise etc because I am a VS + MSDN subscriber (open volume, much expensive licence).

    Even I installed Windows XP SP3 32 bit and Windows 8.1 Pro 64bit (English, I am Italian) as Hiper-V Virtual Machines (on VHDx disks).

    The problem now is to find all the updated drivers needed for this machine from the OEM.

    The machine is not simple as you see, is a big all-in-one, 27' touch screen, HD TV tuner, video cam, USB2/3, cable NIC, Wireless NIC, etc. with  wireless mouse and keyboard, double graphic adaptor (Intel and NVIDIA), etc.

    And also I am using this machine by sharing video (with touch screen!), mouse, keyboard, video cam and USB2 ports with my older notebook on a docking station with Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit (that now is even touch!).

    Now that I have an updated copy of system image, I am pretty quiet, and this is why, before touching my partitions I ask for thousands of confirmations.

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