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

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments
Answer accepted by question author
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.

Was this answer helpful?

10+ people found this answer helpful.
0 comments

778 additional answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2014-07-03T20:47:25+00:00

    Hi Saltgrass, happy to see your confirmation.

    2 days ago, I had to revert my system back to 8.0 and re-upgraded to 8.1 the 2nd time due to the issue of 'Checking for Updates forever' after the 1st 8.1 upgrade. The 2nd 8.1 upgrade resolved my issue, and it also confirmed the System Image backup/recovery is working good.

    It looks like MS has been trying to resolve the issue in the background quietly.

    I'm happy that I have held off the upgrade till now. Hope MS will push out an update to those who adopted 8.1 earlier. Then we could rest this issue.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2014-07-03T14:01:29+00:00

    It looks like you are correct.  I just did an update to 8.1 and it is now using a Recovery folder on the OS partition instead of creating a separate partition...  Looks like it is back to the way Windows 7 handled the Recovery options......

    The system backup is functioning because it is not backing up the original Recovery Tools Partition.

    This appears to have changed within the last 4 to 5 weeks, since I did an update on May 25 and the extra 450 MB partition was installed...

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2014-06-30T17:02:47+00:00

    Your Welcome.  I'm pasting information I posted on page 55 for those that come along and need it so it is fresher in this thread.

    Just remember as a solid guideline that ANY partition on ANY drive which is included in the image backup must have this free space for success on either MBR or GPT/GUID systems.

    volume shadow creation during the imaging process.

    volumes 499mb or less require 50mb of free space.

    Volumes 500mb to 999mb require 320mb of free space

    volumes 1000mb (1gb) and larger require 1000mb (1gb) of free space.

    Windows Volume Id's

    Basic Data -  EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7

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

    UEFI/EFI (EFI System) - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B

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

    A little info on the MSR Partition from Microsoft...

    The Microsoft Reserved Partition, or MSR, is a partition on a data storage device that is labelled with Globally Unique Identifier (GUID) equal to E3C9E316-0B5C-4DB8-817D-F92DF00215AE. The containing storage device has to use the new GUID Partition Table (GPT) format, not the traditional master boot record (MBR) partition table format.

    GPT disks do not allow hidden sectors. MSR is used to reserve space ahead of time for software components which will later allocate space by reducing the size of the MSR and creating a component specific partition. For example the conversion of a basic disk to a dynamic disk requires space for holding the dynamic disk database.

    MSR does not contain any meaningful data itself.

    Microsoft requires an MSR on every GPT disk, and recommends it to be created as the disk is initially partitioned. It should be located after the EFI System Partition (ESP) and any OEM service partitions, but it must be located before any primary partitions of bootable windows operating systems. Initial size of MSR is 32 MB on disks smaller than 16 GB, or 128 MiB (134,217,728 bytes) on other disks.

    The MSR partition is not visible within Microsoft Windows Disk Management GUI-control utility but it is listed with Microsoft command line utility (diskpart.exe).

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2014-06-30T14:47:43+00:00

    Thank you so much Jobongo for sharing this GUID to set up recovery partition. Really I could set my wrongly set up EFI partition back to recovery partition and system image backup is now working perfectly.

    Earlier I extended two recovery partitions by 50 MB each by taking space from C drive. However that time I did not had this GUID to re-set partitions to recovery partitions. And I just followed GUID code you had give for EFI partition. 

    Any way thanks all of you (HarryTapp and Saltgrass too) for replying to my query. Thanks so much.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments