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
    2014-04-17T12:48:35+00:00

    I have tried to follow your guidelines and started by shrinking the C-drive by 150MB using the MiniTool Partition Wizard. This went well as expected. After the reboot I started the Diskpart tool and deleted the MSR partition (using override option) but now it is not possible to recreate the MSR partition (Not enough space) even though I have 280MB free space and MBR is only specified with 128MB. I have double checked the offset, tried to reduce the offset by 1 and even tried to omit the size parameter but still with the same result. The MiniTool software shows 280MB free space, but something seems to block any further advancement. Does anyone have any idea of what might be going on here?

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-04-17T11:53:35+00:00

    The largest USB flash drive I have is 8Gb, so I will have to go buy a 16Gb one. Once I have that, I will create a factory recovery drive and resize the partitions as you suggest. I'll let you know if it works. Thanks!!

    Also, I have some questions. Should I delete the recovery partition from my pc after I create the factory recovery drive, or leave it alone? What is the purpose of creating a factory recovery drive? What will I need to do with it?

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-04-17T04:31:06+00:00

    I see a little bit to deal with. shrink winre_drv by 200Mb, extend the front of System_drv to consume all of the new 200Mb unallocated space. Shrink C"\Windows8_OS by 140Mb and stretch the front of the 350Mb unlabeled partition to consume the new 140Mb unallocated space. leave the 128Mb (other - Reserved) and Lenovo_recovery alone.

    Your culprits are the 1Gb partition 1 requiring 1Gb of free space and it only has 700.26 free. By reducing it  below the 1Gb threshold to 800Mb it will only require 320Mb of free space. since 299.74 is used subtract that from 800 and you have 500.24 free. well over the 320 requirement. Adding that to System_drv makes it 460 making it only require 50Mb free space leaving plenty of room for growth.

    The other one is the 350 which only has 23.35 free (no Bueno :-) So we grab 140Mb from the OS partition and apply it to the 350 making it 490MB still within the 50Mb requirement threshold.

    In the end you will have no unallocated space...GPT disks do not play well with unallocated space, that is why they make the 128Mb partition but do not format it setting ID as "system reserved" this allows the system to grow the EFI System partition if necessary using part or all of that space. The order must be EFI System - MSR_Reserved - Data C:\Windows_OS. Factories typically put their factory restore at the end of the drive, again I you have not created a factory recovery drive using a 16Gb USB flash drive I would suggest doing it. (definition of "suggest" - Subtle Command) CYA!!!

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-04-17T01:02:36+00:00

    Thanks for your help HarryTapp. I downloaded partition wizard and I think it shows what's really going on.

    Note: I don't have my external drive hooked up in this screenshot.

    According to the conditions, the 1000MB, 128MB, and the 350MB partitions all fail to have enough space. Should I take 100MB from the 1000MB one and give 50 each to the two partitions that need it?

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