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
    2013-12-06T02:11:36+00:00

    I followed the instructions, my system rebooted and I was able to start the image backup.  Then I had the dreaded :

    The operation failed due to a device error encountered with either the source or the destination. If the source or the destination volume is on a disk run CHKDSK /R on the source or the destination volume, and then retry the operation. (0x8078012D)

    Additional information:

    The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error. (0x8007045D)\

    I am afraid to do this.  I did it recently on a Windows 7 PC and it wouldn't boot up after the disk scan.

    Am I being too timid?  I have tried to use third party imaging programs and have had some issues with those.  Such as the image not booting after restoring and the USB emergency boot drives not working with UEFI.

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-12-05T05:13:29+00:00

    I have another suggestion, though it may not be what you want to do.  We all have our Windows 8 installation media, so installing that isn't a problem and usually doesn't take much time.  I installed Windows 8, then followed Jobongo's steps BEFORE I upgraded to Windows 8.1.  That way, if anything goes wrong, you only have to reinstall Windows 8 again and not both.  It takes me about five hours to download Windows 8.1, so it was better for me to do it this way and deal with a problem, if it occurred, before this.  That way I didn't just waste five hours and have to do it all over again.  Just an idea.  No problem did occur, so it went perfectly. 

     

    Thank you for your reply. My current recovery partition is 300 mb, of which 295 are used. So I can't back-up. When you reinstalled Windows 8 and prior to Win 8.1, how large did you make your recovery partition size?

    I agree with your Microsoft comments. It should provide a solution to all of us who are adversely affected.

    I made the partition 400MB.  I sort of altered Jobongo's steps the last time I did this to remain a little more safe.  I posted what I did and it's about six or seven posts above this one.  I just thought it would be safer to do all of the alterations to the EFI partition without having to restart, so I clicked apply after step one, restarted, then did the rest without having to restart again until the very end.  It worked fine following Jobongo's instructions the first three times I did it on the three computers, so I don't know why the last time I did it it had a problem.  Hope this helps. 

    As for Microsoft, it really surprises me that they wouldn't just admit there is a problem and suggest a fix.  They've admitted to far larger problems before.  Just look at Windows Me...LOL.  They could suggest a fix for people who have already upgraded, and they could alter the upgrade so subsequent upgrades would automatically adjust the partition size while upgrading.  I don't know the first thing about writing programs or computer code, so I have no idea how difficult it would be.  Also, because many people's computers are set up differently than the standard setup, it may not be possible to alter the setup files to work with all different kinds of setups.  Could I fit the word setup any more times into that sentence?

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-12-05T00:23:03+00:00

    I have another suggestion, though it may not be what you want to do.  We all have our Windows 8 installation media, so installing that isn't a problem and usually doesn't take much time.  I installed Windows 8, then followed Jobongo's steps BEFORE I upgraded to Windows 8.1.  That way, if anything goes wrong, you only have to reinstall Windows 8 again and not both.  It takes me about five hours to download Windows 8.1, so it was better for me to do it this way and deal with a problem, if it occurred, before this.  That way I didn't just waste five hours and have to do it all over again.  Just an idea.  No problem did occur, so it went perfectly. 

     

    Thank you for your reply. My current recovery partition is 300 mb, of which 295 are used. So I can't back-up. When you reinstalled Windows 8 and prior to Win 8.1, how large did you make your recovery partition size?

    I agree with your Microsoft comments. It should provide a solution to all of us who are adversely affected.

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-12-05T00:04:42+00:00

    Sorry if this question has already been addressed.

    Can we reformat our drives and reinstall Windows 8 and then immediately upgrade to Win 8.1 without problems? Or, does that path lead to the very same problem that we are encountering now?

    In late October, I called Microsoft and asked if they could send out a Win 8.1 disk. That way, I could reformat my hard drive and install Win 8.1 directly, bypassing Win 8.0. Microsoft indicated that the disks weren't ready yet and that I should call after Nov 15. So I called today.

    Today when I spoke with Microsoft, they are unwilling to provide a complete Win 8.1 disk. They will, however, provide a patch disk from Win 8 to Win 8.1. Since I already have Win 8 installation disk from the manufacturer and can readily download Win 8.1, I don't see any advantage to ordering the patch disk.

    If you have a retail version of Win 8.1, they will issue a replacement for a cost. However, that's not my issue.

    I look forward to your comments.

         If you reinstall Windows 8 in the normal way, with allowing it to create the partitions and such, you will run into the same problem because it will, once again, create a recovery partition that will be too small when upgraded to 8.1.  You can create the partitions yourself when installing Windows 8, so you can choose the size, although I'm not exactly sure how to do this. 

         I have another suggestion, though it may not be what you want to do.  We all have our Windows 8 installation media, so installing that isn't a problem and usually doesn't take much time.  I installed Windows 8, then followed Jobongo's steps BEFORE I upgraded to Windows 8.1.  That way, if anything goes wrong, you only have to reinstall Windows 8 again and not both.  It takes me about five hours to download Windows 8.1, so it was better for me to do it this way and deal with a problem, if it occurred, before this.  That way I didn't just waste five hours and have to do it all over again.  Just an idea.  No problem did occur, so it went perfectly. 

         One time when I was doing the Windows 8 install,  I hit the "new" button to allow Windows to create the necessary partitions, then deleted all three except for the recovery partition that causes the problem.  I then tried to extend it, but the option was greyed out.  If it would have let me, afterword I would have hit the new button again to allow Windows to recreate the other three partitions, then do the install.  If it would have worked it would have been the perfect solution when doing a reinstall. 

    HEY MICROSOFT...STILL HIDING?

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