Cant backup 8.1 using system image backup! Error 0x80780119, Cant optimise system partition, (this is why i cant backup) please read. . .

Anonymous

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.

initiate the system image backup

both volumes to be backed up

error message due to insufficient space on the system partition for shadow copy.

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.

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Anonymous

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.

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.
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.
Delete the 100MB EFI System Partition after the Recovery Partition.

After this is done, you will see 100MB unallocated space after the Recovery Partition.

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.
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

Open a cmd prompt with administrator privileges. Press Start Key, Type cmd, right click, select run as administrator.
Type diskpart to start windows command line disk manager.
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
Select that disk by typing the command "select disk" and the disk number.
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.
Once you have determined the partition number, type "select partition " and your partition number
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.
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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778 additional answers

Anonymous

2014-04-18T00:29:36+00:00

When modifying the OS partition it is best to do it off line booting from a USB/CD/DVD drive. The MSR is a plain unformatted partition with the disk ID set with diskpart. Hirens boot disk has a lot of tools. The goal is to get the system recovery and EFI System to just under 500Mb (I go no more than 490 to allow for formatting space) then the MSR 128Mb and then Data/OS. Partition wizard can do this live making everything right before clicking apply but then It needs to restart to modify C: and sometimes it wont boot into the dos based portion and apply changes. It is just much easier to do it booting from a Hirens USB. The problem is you don't have enough free space in front of partition 4 to make the other partitions large enough for image backup to succeed, makes the process a lot more complicated. (your failure is in the 300Mb and 100MB partitions) You would shrink the front of OS partition 4 so that there is 1200Mb (offset) slide MSR down and then EFI down, expand Recovery to 490Mb then slide EFI up and expand it to 490Mb then slide MSR up leaving it at 128Mb then expand the front of partition 4 (Data/OS) to meet the MSR. then use diskpart as/if needed to set the ID's

Windows (Recovery Partition) DE94BBA4-06D1-4D40-A16A-BFD50179D6AC --- (490Mb)

EFI System - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B --- (490Mb)

MSR (GPT Reserved) - E3C9E316-0B5C-4DB8-817D-F92DF00215AE --- (128Mb)

Basic Data - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7 --- (~Gb)

you can even shrink the back of partition 4 and create partition 5 to store data and the image backup (if this drive crashes you lose the image) unless you have another internal drive installed to put the image on. Keeping your OS partition small (~150Gb) reduces fragmentation and speeds up access time if you don't have a SSD.

If you do have a SSD I suggest moving the Page file (virtual memory) onto another internal drive or if no other internal drive if Possible turn paging off. This reduces the wear and tear on your SSD.
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Anonymous

2014-04-17T22:24:59+00:00

I guess I did not explain clearly enough what I was trying to achieve. First, I reduced the C partition leaving 152MB in front of the C partition. Next, the idea was to move the MSR partition up back-to-back with the C partition. Next, move the EFI partition up back-to-back with the MSR partition. Finally expand the Recovery partition up to the EFI partition, giving a resulting size of 450 MB for the Recovery partition. The problem is “moving” the MSR partition to its new position when the offset parameter apparently will not cooperate. Maybe I can specify a dummy partition taking up all free space but the 128 MB needed for the MSR partition - set up the MSR partition - and then delete the dummy partition again. At least it is worth giving a try.

Sorry Harry but I have not yet discovered how to insert images in the Community threads – that shall be my next project :-)
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Anonymous

2014-04-17T20:24:40+00:00

The first question is... Is the DVD a viable bootable Windows 8 installation disk? If so with the disk inserted into the DVD drive turn on the computer. Usually the bios offers to press an "F" key to enter boot menu, usually F2 or F12. If you cant discover which of if it is supported then you must enter the bios usually Delete button but sometimes one of the F keys like on dell systems it is F2 to enter setup. Once in there look for "Boot Sequence" and put the CdRom on top and save. Usually F10 but on dell it is escape and arrow over to save&exit then enter. Remember what you did because later you would want to put it back to the hard drive on top to make booting faster.
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Anonymous

2014-04-17T18:49:24+00:00

Diskpart is a cumbersome command line utility that I rarely use except for setting disk ID's Windows disk management has limitations yet if I see the layout I can get an idea of what is going on like others have posted images above. Offset is really irrelevant as long as partitions are back to back and in the right order like you show above. The goal is to get the Recovery and EFI to just under 500Mb. The MSR is probably not needed with the EFI so large. Remember the MSR is just space for the system to enlarge the EFI if needed. Get partition wizard to manipulate sizes about the only thing it wont do is set ID's on some partitions and GPT disks. As always if possible create the factory restore USB flash drive as a safety net backing up all your important data.
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