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

I've just been doing a little looking around for alternatives to Microsoft's built in system image backup.  It turns out that Macrium Reflect Free is highly touted and seems to work very well.  It's here... http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx .  I'm going to download it and give it a try with my laptop to see if it works and how well it works.  Supposedly it quite user friendly and, as he name implies, free.  I've used it for cloning before and it worked perfectly, but I didn't know that it also did disk images.

  4 - The most-important thing that ANY computer user can learn to do, is to "keep one's DATA completely seperate from your Operating System"; store it on a "different partition" of your Hard Disk (and of course ALWAYS have all of "those" Files copied onto an "External Hard Disk"... Flash Media and DVDs/CDs are NOT reliable storage mediums). Learning how to do this on one's own computer setup is MORE important than any of the workarounds that will ever be posted here.

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I keep my data backed up in other places and I'm not worried about losing that.  What I AM worried about it the fact that I have spent 2 months installing and configuring about 50 applications on my computer (not an exaggeration) and I ABSOLUTELY DO NOT want to go through all that pain again if my hard drive crashes!

Data is easy to restore.  Applications and their configurations are PAINFUL to restore -- especially without a full disk backup.

Here's the problem.  They may be doing just exactly what you are talking about, and if so, they are taking a HUGE gamble.  You know, as well as I do, that you can change things, improve things, alter things, whatever, but if you do too much of it at any one time, you are going to start alienating your core customers, the ones who have been loyal throughout the years, and if you do that, it may come back to bite you.  And you CAN'T change or completely dump things that people are used to and come to expect in a product without having massive repercussions. 

     They got lucky with Windows 8.  Vast changes, both inside and out, and they almost ticked so many people off that it backfired.  Again, they got lucky, as enough of us said, "Okay, we'll give it a chance."  In the end, we stuck around, and it worked for them, but it won't be this way if they continue with drastic changes. 

     Again, if they continue to go this way, it could irreparably harm them.  Look what almost happened with Apple in the 80s and 90s.  Too much change and you can kill a company and their product.  I hope they come to their senses.   

Another things that will come back to bite Microsoft?  Ignoring their customer's posts on their own website.  Windows has/had a great name.  Don't tarnish it by ignoring your core. 

On a related side note.  There are new smartphones and tablets and this and that coming out every day, but there are millions of us that still love our notebooks and laptops and even our huge old desktops.  This won't change anytime soon.  You can't fit a GTX 680 in a smartphone.  It would be one ugly smartphone.

Hello all...have some little tidbits to throw in gathered from my own experience, but bear with me as am very tired after having read through all of this thread (i.e. - if experienced Pros spot some errors, let me know). First, a general insight: 'that big Company' has been under-going enormous change, trying to jump-ahead of the 'A----' competition; my understanding is that a 3rd-Party Consultant has been directing the 'change process' (behind the scenes). Abandoning legacy Tools (System Image aka W7 Recovery.exe) and Firmware (B.I.O.S.) are just the start! Y'all ain't seen nothing yet.

 Has anyone posting here investigated what has happened to MS Office? Not actually 'installed' on one's HDD 'as-in-that-Legacy-past'...now Virtualization items get installed without so much as a 'by-your-leave' first...and we get to use Office in that virtual box, IF we are paid-up and confirmed License holders (try using 'your' Word program, while not connected to the www for 2 weeks out in the wilderness, and see what happens). *Anyone remember the "Genuine Advantage" nonsense.

 The reason we are being 'herded' toward an era of "No installation Media" / "No Legacy Backup capability" / "UEFI internals completely inaccessible" / "Mystery MSR Partitions" / Etc / Etc ....is that

'that Big Company' is moving to become a Leasor of "apps" to a Legion of F-c-b-o-  consumers who will throw-away Hardware at a whim (i.e.- any useability issue), and buy that new shiny Gadget.

  MFGs also no longer care about 'Legacy'/real Support; they want to get on to the next 'Hot' Device.

Partners of 'that Big Company' know which way the wind is blowing at their Supplier. The only real

Incident Support Tickets these days are for Corporate customers who purchase in-bulk or purchase high margin Servers; especially with that Golden Support Contract. And really, on this Continent, who is going to enforce any 'Standards of Conduct' or 'Warranty Fullfillment? [ All EULAs essentially tell you you have no remedys, and we own everything you think you 'purchased', anyway...]

 Everyone here is connected to the www through an ISP, but how many of you know that the rest of the World and the bigger Corporations have moved to IPv6 from IPv4....eight years ago...but here we are all still stuck using IPv4 with NAT nonsense (check the Details of your connection). Companies simply refused to Upgrade their existing equipment, and the FCC nor any other Agency pushed 'em to.

 OK...that is ENOUgh of the 'background' stuff, eh? [And i'm certain it is more than enough to stir up some folks, err 'those Big Companys'.] If not too late, let me try to get back "On-Topic".

 1 - Partitioning tools are great! Successful use requires some trial-and-error, with a big helping of the 'ol Read-The-Manual. Many of these Tools very own web-pages (well...that IS where Manuals are now; Legacy Printed pages are history, folks)... will Warn users to "Perform one Operation when changing

ntfs partitions, then reboot to your Windows O.S. and use it's Tools to check-and-Fix the Filesystem".

 Experienced Users know that means the painfully time-wasting but often necessary "three Restarts" of

any Windows O.S...because once a DirtyBit gets set, it will not be fully cleared until 3 complete Restarts

of Windows (yeah; Aggh!)... in some cases; you do not want to be one of those.

 Some of the better GNU/Linux tools like GParted or clonezilla will NOT want to work with any ntfs partition, until it has zero/none/nada such items in the MFT ($BadClus is another Legacy beauty). The point being: since "Windows" has-to use any Partitions which you are 'monkeying around with', one should always  chkdsk /F  after EVERY change. [Many 3rd-Party Tools are coded to

be 'compliant-with' Microsoft FIlesystem bits-and-pieces...but some of those are (necessarily) Proprietary, with little Official/solid information for the Tool-creators to go on...even with extensive trial-and-error-Testing of their products, the smarter creators Warn us to do as stated above.]

 For Windows 8 and 8.1 Users, one semi-convenient method of running these required Checkdisk

operations is to boot the PC to a "WinRE" Disc or USB-Flash-Device, prepared ahead-of-time. The

CLI window allows running these Filesystem checks without having to do any 'Scheduled at Restart'

nonsense... and allows one to watch the full Results too. [When UEFI-machine Windows creates these

'Repair Disc' Media (DVD, for example), it automatically adds the correct/required 'secret' UEFI boot

codes and items which allow one to boot 'em up as valid UEFI objects, especially on TPM equipped

PCs (an entire other subject).

 2 - One has to realize / remember that most newer-than-2010 PCs are intentionally designed to LOCK OUT any non-Official-Windows O.S., whether they still have Legacy BIOS/MBR arrangements, or UEFI only, or UEFI with TPM chips. And this is "a good thing". [There, i said it.] WHY? 98 percent of the Computer users in this Country will have had NO idea whether their old Computer(s) had been under the control of Foreign Hackers in either a small or big way, and used in massive Combinations with other such partially or fully Hijacked computers, to attack Military /Government / Corporate PCs. [How

many of you even do the simple task of Monitoring your packets In and Out?]

 3 - Another 'New' era implementation done on-purpose by all the Majors, is this very "space" here:

so-called 'Support' via the "Community", of users of their Products. I mean, WHY would ANY company hire actual Programmers and Systems Engineers to field support 'Issues'...if they can get Users to take part in Supporting their Products "FOR FREE!"???  The point is: spend our time helping each other, and do not waste it 'asking that Big Company' to take notice of our complaints; they ain't gonna. Their people who still have jobs in this Country, are busy thinking up the next new thing; NO-ONE gets a Bonus (or a 'real' paycheck) anymore for "Customer Support". That is SO old school...

 4 - The most-important thing that ANY computer user can learn to do, is to "keep one's DATA completely seperate from your Operating System"; store it on a "different partition" of your Hard Disk (and of course ALWAYS have all of "those" Files copied onto an "External Hard Disk"... Flash Media and DVDs/CDs are NOT reliable storage mediums). Learning how to do this on one's own computer setup is MORE important than any of the workarounds that will ever be posted here.

 5 - Experienced Users have 'looked-under-the-covers' of their Windows OS, while it is running, and KNOW that there are literally "hundreds" of seperate little or big pieces of code competing with each other for limited CPU and Memory resources. Throw in the pieces from the PC MFG, and from the

individual Hardware Devices...and we realize it is amazing that the entire ballet runs at-all(!), never mind repeatedly. Those who have looked into the internal processes of Windows8/8.1 will see bunches of new stuff running in the background, keeping the O.S. healthy and cleaning out old/temp junk thrown off by poorly-written code. It is actually a very-good OS. [OK...i can hear that chorus of "if only MS hadn't done so-and-so with so-and-so", or "why oh why did they layer all that Immersive junk on top of such a good OS?"... [see above].                  >Comments?<