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

Anonymous

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.

initiate the system image backup

both volumes to be backed up

error message due to insufficient space on the system partition for shadow copy.

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.

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Anonymous

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.

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.
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.
Delete the 100MB EFI System Partition after the Recovery Partition.

After this is done, you will see 100MB unallocated space after the Recovery Partition.

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.
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

Open a cmd prompt with administrator privileges. Press Start Key, Type cmd, right click, select run as administrator.
Type diskpart to start windows command line disk manager.
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
Select that disk by typing the command "select disk" and the disk number.
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.
Once you have determined the partition number, type "select partition " and your partition number
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.
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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778 additional answers

Anonymous

2013-12-18T15:44:36+00:00

That is why I am so thankful for this thread.

I would like to say a quick thanks to all that have contributed to this thread, i am glad we have been able to help some people with their issues, ive kind of taken a step back from it all to a certain degree as i spent too much of my time messing around with configurations etc to get things to work, now i have my system almost 100% perfect. 8.1 is quite good and i personally like it but the system image backup error is a huge boo boo for Microsoft...
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Anonymous

2013-12-18T14:49:20+00:00

What kind of error are you getting when trying to create the USB recovery drive? There are various problems that are common when trying to create a USB recovery drive. I can't do it on two of my three computers. I can create the recovery drive itself, but not include the recovery partition. It is greyed out, and I have tried every fix out there. The desktop I am on right now can create the drive without any problems, but my laptop and notebook cannot.

Again, what is the error message you receive when trying to create the USB recovery drive?

Actually, I tried again last night, and this time it worked! I didn't do anything different as far as I am aware, other than to try the fix mentioned on here which I replied to on the previous page, something about restarting the back up service. It made no difference when trying to do the back up, but may have done something for the recovery drive!

Good to hear. I'm glad that finally worked for you. They are nice and easy to make and use. If you have a recovery partition from the manufacturer it's even better because you can use that as recovery media, whereas if you create a recovery partition using Windows' built in program, it only includes what's on Windows, not everything that your computer originally came with. The recovery partition on my Acer Aspire was corrupted so I couldn't use it. I am not willing to purchase recovery media from them for $44.95 either, but most of what was on it can be downloaded anyway, and the rest is nothing more than bloatware. I got the computer free through the Emachines class action suit, which is why I couldn't get the recovery media for free when it came with a corrupted recovery partition. I can't complain about a free computer. Such is life. But again, glad it worked for you.

I had a greyed out recovery partition option. I found a way to un grey the option and thought everything was fine. But when I needed that USB drive windows recovery program couldn't find that recovery partition thati worked so hard to create.

It is always a good idea to have more than one back up for restorations. I thought I had two or three and none worked when I needed them. That is why I am so thankful for this thread.
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Anonymous

2013-12-18T10:06:30+00:00

What kind of error are you getting when trying to create the USB recovery drive? There are various problems that are common when trying to create a USB recovery drive. I can't do it on two of my three computers. I can create the recovery drive itself, but not include the recovery partition. It is greyed out, and I have tried every fix out there. The desktop I am on right now can create the drive without any problems, but my laptop and notebook cannot.

Again, what is the error message you receive when trying to create the USB recovery drive?

Actually, I tried again last night, and this time it worked! I didn't do anything different as far as I am aware, other than to try the fix mentioned on here which I replied to on the previous page, something about restarting the back up service. It made no difference when trying to do the back up, but may have done something for the recovery drive!

Good to hear. I'm glad that finally worked for you. They are nice and easy to make and use. If you have a recovery partition from the manufacturer it's even better because you can use that as recovery media, whereas if you create a recovery partition using Windows' built in program, it only includes what's on Windows, not everything that your computer originally came with. The recovery partition on my Acer Aspire was corrupted so I couldn't use it. I am not willing to purchase recovery media from them for $44.95 either, but most of what was on it can be downloaded anyway, and the rest is nothing more than bloatware. I got the computer free through the Emachines class action suit, which is why I couldn't get the recovery media for free when it came with a corrupted recovery partition. I can't complain about a free computer. Such is life. But again, glad it worked for you.
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Anonymous

2013-12-18T08:58:22+00:00

What kind of error are you getting when trying to create the USB recovery drive? There are various problems that are common when trying to create a USB recovery drive. I can't do it on two of my three computers. I can create the recovery drive itself, but not include the recovery partition. It is greyed out, and I have tried every fix out there. The desktop I am on right now can create the drive without any problems, but my laptop and notebook cannot.

Again, what is the error message you receive when trying to create the USB recovery drive?

Actually, I tried again last night, and this time it worked! I didn't do anything different as far as I am aware, other than to try the fix mentioned on here which I replied to on the previous page, something about restarting the back up service. It made no difference when trying to do the back up, but may have done something for the recovery drive!
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