Resolved Win 7 Pro Image Backup fails to complete.

It displays the error message not enough space to create volume shadow copy on the storage location.

Initial setup was 5 years ago & is as follows:

Win 7 Pro, 6.1.7601, Sp1 installed on an Intel 128Gb SSD as Disk 0, using the MBR format for all drives.

2 Seagate 1 Tb Barracuda drives split into (2) 500 Gb partitions each. All SATA drives.

Windows express install. Myself & default user only.

Drive stats:

Mfg.---------Log. Drive------Capacity-------Used Space-------Free Space-------% Free

Intel #0-----C:\----------------111.76 Gb-----34.52 Gb-----------77.41 Gb----------69
---------------Reserved-------27 Mb-----------24.81 Mb------------2.19 Mb----------1

Seag #1----E:\----------------465.75 Gb-----130.48 Gb----------335.28 Gb--------72
---------------F:\-----------------" " ----------------394.39 Gb----------71.36 Gb----------16

Seag #2----G:\----------------465.75 Gb------00 Gb---------------465.75 Gb--------100
----------------H:\ ---------------465.75 Gb------00 Gb---------------465.75 Gb--------100

All drives are listed as Primary partitions with a simple volume setup. (no extended partitions).
The "Reserved" volume is the active & boot partition.
The "C:\" drive only has the operating system files, firefox, third party anti-virus & hardware drivers on it.
The E:\" drive only has programs, utilities & a couple of games.
The F:\" drive is used for storage of downloads, archived data + video & as a sandbox for unzipping the downloads. Program installs are also run from this drive usually to the E:\ drive.

NOTE: I barely remember setting up the library files to forward their storage onto the F:\ drive to prevent filling up the small C:\ drive. Don't remember the name or how to undo the procedure. A gentle reminder would be greatly appreciated.

I attempted the backup myself by selecting all users, volumes "Reserved, C:\ & E:\ to be placed on the empty drive G:\. Windows reported the image size as 166 Gb to be copied into 465 Gb. Started the process & then received the failed error message a short time later.

Allowing Windows to make the choices for the image file, it selected all users, the C:\ drive & the E:\ drive to be placed on the H:\ drive. This failed also. I even tried just the contents (35 Gb) of the C:\ drive & that failed too.

From the research I have done, I understand the problem is not on the destination drive, but on the Primary System drive. The "Reserved" partition should have a minimum size of approx. 100 Mb. The smallest allowable size is 50 Mb, according to specs. (My Win 10 system has 99Mb).

Windows originally set this operating system up with a 27 Mb "Reserved partition & now it is nearly full.
Info contained in this partition consists of the Boot sequence, Master Boot Record, Master File Table & Change Journal System.

In Windows 7, the most common cause of the problem will be the System Reserved volume, which has expanded in size (internally) due to an anomaly in the Change Journal System.

This can be remedied by going into the System Reserved volume & deleting the Change Journal Entries.

So my question becomes: Will this procedure free up enough space in the undersized "Reserved" partition in my system to allow the image backup to complete its' task???

If the answer is yes, then I will describe the procedure that I will attempt to use in the next post. To make sure I am going in the right direction.

 

Problem solved.

I cloned the SSD, using the MiniTool Partition Wizard, to the spare Seagate drive. (Safer than poking around inside a critical system file).

Shrunk the front of the C :\ volume by 200 Mb. Then extended the "Reserved partition" by 200 Mb. Taking care to match the size of the original drive.
The program will warn you it has to restart the computer to finish the process & then to enter the BIOS to set the "cloned drive" as the "boot drive".

To repair the SSD, just required deleting the volume & migrating the clone back to the SSD.

After this win 7 was able to create an Image file on the Seagate drive successfully.

The wizard suggests all users & the OS systems files, yet it also includes the D:\ drive.

This occurs with either win 7 or the user making the selection when starting the image process.

The only question I have is: " Why does windows want to include the D:\ drive in the Image ???"