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
    2013-10-24T06:07:37+00:00

    If you are going to use the third option, I'd rather just have to reinstall windows 8 than take all of the time to download and install 8.1 only to have to reinstall both. 

    By the way, no where I told to reinstall both !!

    At the heart of any Disaster Recovery Strategy sits " Rehearsal "

    Testing your backups is the key to your backup strategy.  What you understood as reinstall & reinstall is meanly to rehears & test your backups. 

    Without that, backups you take are plain useless.

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-10-24T05:49:50+00:00

    As I said before,

    As for Microsoft acknowledgment of the problem .. can't comment on that.  And out fairness - not in defense of Microsoft - We tend to take Windows upgrade for granted, and most of the issues that we are currently facing is due to the lack of prober understanding of new features and their underlying requirements.  This was any eye opening to me of how much different Windows 8 from the previous versions underneath.

    Back to your reply,

    There are many reasons why one will take the extra effort to follow a Fresh install:

    1. Windows 8.1 have a fresh & solid recovery option which worth taking the extra effort to install on a clean sheet.
    2. New builds.
    3. Not all PCs Firmware & Hardware created equally.
    4. Not all PCs Booting from a single Disk.  Some, are equipped with Disk Arrays that are not Resizing & Shrinking friendly.
    5. Traces of previous installation issues could come back.

    Lastly, I came to this thread not to seek a solutions as my problem was sorted out by me much earlier.  I came to share with other my option that some users with new builds could benefit from.

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-10-24T05:30:37+00:00

    I suppose you could do the third one.  But, instead of wasting all of that time adjusting partitions and reinstalling windows 8, then windows 8.1, then reinstalling all of your apps and updates and other things, you could just use the steps Jobongo listed and be done in about 1/50th of the time.  Hours and hours versus ten or twelve minutes and no reinstallation of anything.  And really, it's not going go put the error to rest as people aren't going to even know that they have the problem until they already have 8.1 installed.  Then they will search the problem.  The suggested solution will work, but for most of us the steps Jobongo suggested will cut out hours of reinstallations and will work just fine. 

    What Microsoft should do is when you go to download the 8.1 update from the Windows Store, there should be a notice that appears explaining the problem and fix before you actually do the download and installation.  That way you can fix the problem before you go through the trouble of installing 8.1, only to find out afterward that it was all for naught and you have to basically format the disk and start all over.  If you are going to use the third option, I'd rather just have to reinstall windows 8 than take all of the time to download and install 8.1 only to have to reinstall both. 

    But again, why go through all of this.  Just read Jobongo's instructions and you will be done in ten or fifteen minutes, maybe less.  I've done it on all three of my computers that I upgraded to 8.1 and which the system image backup would not work on, and now all three work as they should.  I have saved system images from all three now.  On one I didn't even have to move anything at all, I was just able to extend the 350mb partition to 400 because of where it was on the disk.  That one took thirty seconds. 

    If they know there is a problem, they should warn people before it happens.

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-10-24T04:55:31+00:00

    To all facing this issue with their installed Windows 8 & then upgraded to 8.1

    Facts you need to know about the Error (0x80780119)

    -          This link provides Microsoft's view on the error : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2851998/en-us

    -          There are more than 3 workarounds that can address this issue based on communities contributions.

    -          This error is not “only” associated with Windows 8.1

    The 3 workarounds – that I came across – to address this issue.

    -          Working with USN journal that is occupying a lot of space out of some of your PC’s partitions.

    -          Utilizing 3^rd^ party partition tools for shrinking primary partition and later providing resultant unallocated space to partition in question.

    -          Starting with a fresh installation of OS –ie Window 8 – and prior to that manually partitioning the disk.

    And since I had no success in doing the first & second workarounds satisfactorily, in this reply am focusing on the Fresh Installation of OS route.

    Understanding Your Partition Structure

    It’s essential that you understand how your disk partitions are constructed.  Please, refer to the link for detailed info.

    Hard Drives and Partitions Overview

    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh825122.aspx

    For the remainder of this reply I’ll go over how the - Windows Default - (uEFI/GPT) can be setup to avoid this error.

    In my case the culprit partition was “ Windows RE”. 

    By default Windows 8 creates it with 300mb of disk space and load it with approx. 255mb of data.  When upgraded to Windows 8.1, the installation added some more data to it and the partition ended up with 285mb which caused my image backup to fail.

    So, my plan was to recreate this partition with 995 mb and put this error to rest. 

    if you wish to read further on Disk partitioning under Windows 8 go to following link.  Some good info. right there: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh825172.aspx

    Creating the Partitions on a Clean Disk:

    1. Run Microsoft Windows 8 installation
    2. When you reach the target drive selection Press Shift + F10 to invoke command prompt.
    3. Type diskpart and use the below commands. 

    Note:  The "clean" command will erase everything on the disk – ie. Disk 0 - make sure you safeguard your data.

    list disk

    select disk 0

    clean

    convert gpt

    ++Remark++ We are now creating the (Windows RE partition)

    create partition primary size=995

    format quick fs=ntfs label="Windows RE tools"

    set id="de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac"

    gpt attributes=0x8000000000000001

    ++Remark++ We are now creating the (System partition)

    create partition efi size=100

    format quick fs=fat32 label="System"

    ++Remark++ We are now creating the (Microsoft Reserved Partition)

    create partition msr size=128

    ++Remark++ We are now creating the (Windows Partition), notice, we didn’t specify any size as by default it will utilize the remaining unallocated space. If you wish to set a lesser size you can at this point.

    create partition primary

    ++Remark++ to verify type the following commands

    list volume

    ++Remark++ Or

    Select disk 0

    List partition

    exit

    Now, on your Windows 8 drive selection box, refresh and then select the Windows primary partition you’ve just created.

    Your installation will proceed, and if installation goes as it should, I would recommend the following:

    1. Update Windows
    2. Take an Image Backup. Search “Windows 7 File Recovery” > Create System Image
    3. Create Repair Disk.
    4. Test your backup by Restoring it to the same machine or a VM if you wish.

    If all good

    1. Install your Apps. & any further OS updates.
    2. Take an Image Backup. Search “Windows 7 File Recovery” > Create System Image

    08. Again, Restore & Test.

    If all good.

    1. Download Windows 8.1 update and apply.
    2. Create Recovery Drive  (USB only) – File History > Recovery. (This is Important as Windows 8.1 can only be restored using it’s own recovery drive – Windows 8 Repair disk will not work with it).
    3. Take Image Backup & Test Restore

    The above is done to the best of my knowledge - Tried on my PC, Tested & Runs perfectly, and kindly excuse my English as it's not my fist language. 

    Good Luck All.

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