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
    2013-12-19T04:44:10+00:00

    I may have found a different solution then the ones I've seen in this thread so far.  I ran into this problem with my recovery partition after updating one of my machines to 8.1, which has a total size of 300MB.  I had 23MB of space left on the partition, causing my Server 2012 Essentials client backup to fail.  This also caused a File History System Image Backup to fail.  On the recovery partition, the Winre.wim file was 253MB, the only file with substantial size. 

    Here is the solution I came up with:

    1. Install the Windows ADK 8.1.
    2. Assign a drive letter (in my example, s), to the recovery partition.
    3. In explorer, go to view section of the action pane.  Click options.
    4. Under the view tab of folder options, change the option to show hidden files, as well as uncheck the box to hide protected operating system files.
    5. Open command prompt as administrator
    6. Run the following command:

    C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.1\Assessment and Deployment Kit\Deployment Tools\amd64\DISM\ImageX.exe /export s:\Recovery\WindowsRE\winre.wim 1 c:\winre.wim 7. Confirm that your new wim file is smaller than the old one.  If it isn't, this solution won't help you. 8. In explorer, right click on the S:\Recovery folder and go to properties.  Go to the security tab, and click on advanced.  Click the continue button, and then add your user to have read/write permissions. 9. If you want a backup, copy your old winre.wim from S:\Recovery\WindowsRE to somewhere else. 10. Permanently delete the old winre.wim from the S drive (don't let it go to the recycle bin, though it shouldn't fit anyway). 11. Copy over your new winre.wim file. 12. Change your settings back to how you want them.  I'd recommend hiding the protected OS files and removing the drive letter when you're done.  You can also hide hidden files again, but some people prefer to have them on.

    The reason that /export shrinks the wim file is because when items are deleted from a wim file, the total size does not decrease.  Kind of like when you delete a file from a hard drive, the data is still there, just the references to it are deleted.  The /export command causes a new wim file to be created, without the old data that is no longer referenced. 

    ImageX.exe argument details:

    1. The first argument /export flag causes a new wim file to be created.
    2. The second argument is the path to the winre.wim on your recovery partition.
    3. The third argument specifies which image within the wim file to use.  There is only 1 in the winre.wim.
    4. The fourth argument is the location to create the new image.  This can be anywhere, so long as you remember where it is.

    Image backups are now succeeding, and so far, I've had no issues.  These are both the server initiated backups and the standard image backups.  No resizing partitions needed.  I've restored a backup, and it seems to work fine.  This has worked on both my laptop (the two partition scenario), and my desktop (the four partition scenario).  Recovery tools still seem to work fine, and the Windows System Image Manager (installed by the ADK), and confirmed that the contents of the original and new wim files are the same.

    Edit: Added a few more details and confirmed that the backup restored fine.  Re-added a portion of the post that seemed to have disappeared somewhere.

    Edit 2: Reformatted the post to a list format, making it easier to read.

    I installed the ADK 8.1, choosing the deployment tools, and everything installed fine.  I assigned the letter S to the Recovery partition using Diskpart.  I changed the options to show hidden files and not hide protected OS files.  I opened the command prompt as an administrator.  Now comes the problem.  I simply copied and pasted the following file into the command prompt. 

    C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.1\Assessment and Deployment Kit\Deployment Tools\amd64\DISM\ImageX.exe /export s:\Recovery\WindowsRE\winre.wim 1 c:\winre.wim

    It gave me the message 'C:Program' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file. 

    What did I do wrong?  I haven't gone to any of the other steps and as soon as I got this message I stopped.  I did notice, though, that further down page 35, you had answered the following question I had asked..

    "Is ImageX.exe /export s:\Recovery\WindowsRE\winre the only command you have to type in the command prompt?"

    You answered, "The ImageX.exe /export s:\Recovery\WindowsRE\winre.wim 1 c:\winre.wim is the only command I had to type in command prompt on my laptop."

    The original post giving the instructions has been edited since I asked this question, as I had copied and pasted the command when asking the question, and it now starts with the C:\Program Files that I used in the command prompt. 

    Should I have used the original? 

     ImageX.exe /export s:\Recovery\WindowsRE\winre.wim 1 c:\winre.wim

    I don't want to just go ahead and use  ImageX.exe /export s:\Recovery\WindowsRE\winre.wim 1 c:\winre.wim as I don't know if it's what I should do, and I certainly don't want to mess anything up. 

    One other question.  When I get this sorted out, how is it that I compare the new wim file to the old wim file, with regard to size, that is? 

    Aslo, when I go to the security tab, then advanced on the S:Recovery folder, there is no continue button.  And what are the steps to adding my user to have read/write permissions?  Would my user be the Administrator?  I got as far as being in the Advanced Security Settings for Recovery.  I see Permissions, Auditing, and Effective Access.  I the box, I see Administrators, System, Authenticated Users and Users.  Only the first two have full control under access. 

    I know it's not meant to be, and if I had a bit more knowledge and didn't have to ask all of these questions it wouldn't be, but this is nearly becoming more complicated and is making more nervous than just adjusting the partitions.  I still want to go through with it, though, as once I've done it, it will be easier if I have to do it again, as I won't have to ask all these questions again. 

    Once again, sorry for all of the questions, and thanks a million for the help.

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-12-19T00:06:17+00:00

    Just like to say first off that I'm not too used to forums and this is not in reply to anyone in particular but hopefully will help someone.

    This has been a real pain, like many I updated from win7 to 8 to 8.1

    Backed up 7 and 8 without problem but 8.1 was no go.

    At some point my recovery partition had been deleted but it would have been a win7 so not bothered, I had also split my C: partition to create a D: so that left reserved 350mb with 19mb free C: and D:

    I then created a custom image following MSFT instructions

     mkdir C:\RefreshImage

    recimg -CreateImage C:\RefreshImage

    This created a Customrefresh.wim file but could still not create  a USB Recovery.

    Using info found on the net  I then made a WIN81-RECOVERY directory on C:

    Copied CustomRefresh.wim  into this directory and renamed it INSTALL.WIM.

    Using the command  

    REAGENTC /SetOSImage /Path C:\Win81-Recovery\INSTALL.WIM /Index 1

    registerd the file and I was now able to make the recovery stick and copy the recovery partition.

    Unfortunately was still unable to create a system image backup so tried giving the reserved partition a Letter Q: and used the command

    fsutil usn deletejournal /N /D Q:

    This freed 1MB which was not enough, so I then Downloaded the free version of AOMEI Partition Assistant Pro ,turned off my virus checker and allocated 100MB free mem from C: to Reserved.

    ( I should have unticked protection on the C: drive before doing this as I was left with a C: folder marked as missing but once I unticked it, it went away.

    I was then able to make a backup image onto my internal drive and the option to backup to DVD also appears to work.

    Comparing the 8.1 image to an 8 that I already have on the drive all looks good.

    My ability to create a usb stick was nocked out again but using REAGENTC sorted it.

    Hopefully this will help some.

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-12-18T20:20:49+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... 

    I've given up on waiting for MS to do something.....like reply to this thread! So, as I haven't got the technical knowledge to mess with partitions I'm going to look at third party options. At least then I'll have a back up should I ever need one.

    It really does astonish me that MS went ahead with this update without making sure that something as vital as the back up facility was working. Thanks to this thread I at least know what the problem is.

           I just finished updating my Acer Aspire with the HDD to 8.1 from 8, and I can say that they are definitely actively changing the installation files as time goes on, so they can fix this problem, for sure.  There were a couple of extra steps that weren't there a few weeks ago.  I had done the upgrade four times prior to this.  Once on my desktop, once on my Dell Laptop, and twice on my Acer Aspire with the SSD, now a third time with the Acer, but the first time with the HDD that came with it.  I haven't messed with the system image backup yet, but I am going to later tonight. 

           I am going to try KevinIsrael's method this time, which replaces the wim file in the recovery partition with a newly created wim file, which should be smaller, as it won't have all of the old info like the existing one does.  This may free up enough space on the partition to be able to create the volume shadow copy. I used Jobongo's method all of the other times, and it worked perfectly.  I am just going to see how this alternative works.  This new method, if it works, will negate having to mess with the partitions, which works, but in the end could cause some people's factory installed recovery partition to become unusable because the partitions are no longer in the order that they were.  Some systems are VERY touchy.  If the recovery partition is no longer the #4 partition in the order like it originally was, for example, when you go to access it using the particular manufacturers recovery program, it may say something like "System partitions no longer in correct order", or something like that.  I had that happen on my Acer, which is why I want to try the new method.  I had originally thought that the recovery partition was corrupted, but I did some further reading last night and found out it might be because no longer had the partitions in the order that it did.  Perhaps it was looking for #4 partition, which it originally was, but now it is #3 in the order on the disk.  For this to happen for most people is unlikely, but anything is possible.

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-12-18T16:22:07+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... 

    I've given up on waiting for MS to do something.....like reply to this thread! So, as I haven't got the technical knowledge to mess with partitions I'm going to look at third party options. At least then I'll have a back up should I ever need one.

    It really does astonish me that MS went ahead with this update without making sure that something as vital as the back up facility was working. Thanks to this thread I at least know what the problem is.

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