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
    2014-05-01T13:10:40+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.

    Does anyone know if Microsoft has a Win 8.1 Pro ISO that will produce partition sizes that will support secure boot and system imaging on a bare UEFI SSD?

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-04-27T01:37:16+00:00

    Your problem is the 350Mb has no free space. Use partition wizard and shrink the front of c:\ by 99Mb and the stretch the 350Mb to 499Mb using the new unallocated space in front of c:\ and you will be good to go. I avoid this problem on legacy MBR systems by on the new install I let windows create the partitions when I format. Then delete all but the first, then stretch the first to the desired size and install to it. Later I change the partition ID to data 0x07 NTFS. this makes bitlocker not work is the only draw back.

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-04-27T00:21:08+00:00

    By fresh install I mean that I downloaded the Windows 8 installation software from Microsoft,

    • created a Windows 8 installation USB stick.
    • Booted to the USB stick, deleted all partitions from the harddisk.
    • Then let Windows 8 install with all the default options(win8 install created necessary partitions).
    • logged in with my windows live account, applied necessary updates required before 8.1 installation.
    • installed 8.1 from the windows store.
    • applied windows updates that were pending
    • install hp touch pad, wireless button and card reader drivers.
    • then tried to create a system image.

    Screen shot of disk management

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-04-24T13:33:45+00:00

    Hi,

    i tried a clean installaton of "Windows 8.1 with update 1" ISO Image on a clean UEFI Machine.

    The machine is a Hyper-V Gen.2 on a Windows 2012 R2 host.

    The Disk Layout is

    I could create a Windows system recovery Image to a local (second) disk and i could create a Network Image without any Problems...

    I tested this with Windows 2012 R2 Update 1 Images today.

    With a ISO of "Windows 2012 R2 with update 1" the backup works fine, even with such a small Recovery Partition of 300MB.

    BUT most of my Problems are with Windows 2012 R2 Systems.

    It seems that the ISO files for Windows 8.1 and Windows 2012 R2 WITHOUT the update included have some Problems.

    Jürgen

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