Resolved Windows Backup's "Create a system image" fails

I'm using Windows 7 (Home Premium, 64-bit). For the past week or so I have been unable to create a Windows system image (via Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Backup and Restore\Create a system image). Prior to that I could and did. The reason given for the failure in short is that there is insufficient space. Here is the error message in full:

>>> "There is not enough disk space to create the volume shadow copy on the storage location. Make sure that, for all volumes to be backup up, the minimum required disk space for shadow copy creation is available. This applies to both the backup storage destination and volumes included in the backup. Minimum requirement: For volumes less than 500 megabytes, the minimum is 50 megabytes of free space. For volumes more than 500 megabytes, the minimum is 320 megabytes of free space. Recommended: At least 1 gigabyte of free disk space on each volume if volume size is more than 1 gigabyte. (0x80780119) "<<<

The storage location I'm using is an external USB HD (Drive G) of 500 GB in size, of which 333 GB are free. The size of the combined HDs (C, D and E) that I want to image is 128 GB. I tried wiping out all of my previous backups from the USB HD, just in case there were remnants of a failed image that was interfering, but this made no difference.

Attached is a screenshot of the USB drive's contents (from XYplorer, which shows folder sizes) after my most recent attempt at a complete backup, including files and an image. It can be seen that the file backup has been completed, but there is obviously no evidence of an image backup.

Can anyone help me figure out what has gone wrong? Thanks.

Frank D

 

Also attached is a screenshot of the Backup window.

 

Arie,

You said, "So you'll have to check the volumes you are trying to backup, not just the destination drive." I'm sorry but I don't understand what you are pointing out. I've already determined that the combined C, D and E drives take up a total of 128 GB of space, and the free space on the G drive is 333 GB, or over twice that. Figuring in compression, I calculate that the resulting image backup should occupy only 65-70 GB on the G drive, so the free space should be much more than sufficient. What am I missing?

Frank

P.S. As I said, I was able to do this operation previously -- with less free space on the G drive -- but about 5 days ago it began failing with no apparent change to what I had been doing. So why now?

 

Arie,

Attached is a screenshot of my computer's hard drives, showing their size and free space. In brief,

C: 159 GB free of 287 GB total size = 128 GB used space
D: 1.2 GB free of 10.4 GB total size = 9.2 GB used space
E: 31.7 MB free of 99.9 MB total size = 68.2 MB used space

My impression is that a backup should only image the contents (or used space) of the HD, not its entire size. Am I wrong, and is the message (and are you) saying that Windows Backup uses the entire size of the whole HD as its basis for an image?

Frank

 

Arie,

I used Acronis very successfully for over two years, but was let down by it earlier this year when I suffered a meltdown of my C drive (a sudden degradation to the point where it wouldn't boot under any conditions) and it totally failed to restore from a full system image at the point when I absolutely needed it. That was my reason for switching to Windows Backup -- it's built in to the OS. I didn't want to experiment with another fancy third party backup program only to have it fail when needed. (Something like a parachute that works in tests, but fails in practice.)

OK, I think I see now what you are saying: that each HD that I want to image must have "ample free space ", and that drive D obviously does not. So I will try to run an image backup without drive D in it.

Frank

 

Look in Disk Management. How much free space is there in the System Reserved Partition?

I had this problem a year ago. The System Reserved Partition needed to be larger. I had to use Partition Wizard Bootable CD.

 

Arie,

No joy. First I eliminated drive D from the backup. When that didn't work I eliminated both drives D and E, and when that failed, drive C. Sounds ridiculous, but I figured that a "system image" has to include drive C. Again, failure. As you can see from the attached image of the "Set up backup" dialog box, if you want to include a system image it's either ALL drives or no system image. Next I unchecked everything in the "Set up backup" dialog box including "Include a system image of the drives required to run," just as a test. It failed also. In short, Windows Backup does not work at all! There's no rational explanation for this, and there's no other option available.

It looks like I'll have to try Acronis again. Crossing my fingers.

Frank

Flatiron:

I can't find any reference to a System Reserved Partition. Please see the attached screenshot of my Computer Management/Disk Management window.

Frank

 

sometimes for unknown reasons, acronis will fail to restore!
Thats why its best to keep 3 backups, son, father, grandfather. So
if the son fails, try the father, etc.

clif

system image - I'd try doing a Chkdsk on "C" and the external making sure
they are in good order. Then if a space problem, defrag all disk to maximize
space.

If all else fails, try to do it onto DVD's and if the program starts working
correctly then the program is good and its something with the disk. At
least you know the program is good.

 

Yours is called System. 100 MB size.
A screenshot of my Disk Management when I was having a problem. It needs to be 40% free space or better.


After


Just in case, my old thread
Solved Remove System Reserved Partition+Partition Wizard - Windows 7 Forums

windows 7 Image backup fail error 0x80780119 - Microsoft Community

 

Clif,

In my case, I couldn't even run the Acronis program, either from the computer or from the restore disc! So this would not have saved me.

I did a chkdsk and am now re-running the Windows Backup.

Frank

Flatiron,

Thanks, I'll give it a try.

Frank

 

After a day of trying everything and failing, at last a Windows Backup succeeded. Unfortunately, it does not include a system image. See the attached screenshot of my "Set up backup" window. You will see that only a file backup of the C drive has been made.

I don't know if anyone can tell me how, or if, this would work if I had to restore Windows? Would the Windows 7 install DVD or the Recovery CD find this backup sufficient to get me back up and running with all my programs intact, or would it just restore my files and dump my programs on the hard drive as non-working dummies. In other words, would I have to reinstall all my programs to get them back in working order, or would they work as-is?

I still wonder why the image backup function started failing less than a week ago. Before that I had used it for about six months with no problems.

Until I can find an answer to these questions, I'll try expanding the D drive partition and see if that works, and if that fails I'll have to reinstall Acronis.

Thanks!

Frank

 

OK, I did the drive D expansion (by ~50%) and ran the full Windows Backup with image. It failed. Now I'll try Arie's and Flatiron's suggestion of expanding drive E and give it another go.

Frank

 

Remember that the new size of the 'System Reserved' partition should not exceed 500MB. Which is E on yours.

windows 7 Image backup fail error 0x80780119 - Microsoft Community

My old thread
Solved Remove System Reserved Partition+Partition Wizard - Windows 7 Forums

 

Update: In checking drive E's size, I see that it's only 99.9 MB. As far as I can see that should not be causing the problem, and even if it is, I don't want to go any further with it. That a "flyspeck" such as this can bring a Microsoft OS-related program to its knees is hard to believe.

At this point, I don't want to mess with the sizes of my HD's partitions just to accommodate a cranky, bare-bones backup program. If a third party were making it available and it didn't work simply and every time, it would be laughed off the stage. Yes, it did work for me for a while, but now it doesn't, and it doesn't provide any advice or information on what the problem is or how it can be fixed. As of now I'm finished with Windows Backup.

I've run sfc /scannow and it shows: "Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them. Details are included in the CBS.Log windir\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For example C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log ". I tried to attach a copy of this file, but its size (2 MB) is way over this BBS's limit of 250Kb. I can make it available if anyone wants to look at it.

I'm going back to using Acronis.

I'll mark this topic resolved.

Thank you all for your advice. I appreciate your help.

Frank D

 

I'm not trying to talk you into resizing your E(MBR)partition, but just curious about how mush free space and % free is in it?
By default it is 100 MB total.

You can see that in Disk Management.

 

Flatiron,

I posted it in #6, above. It's E: 31.7 MB free of 99.9 MB / 68.2 MB used space.

My difficulty is this: The E partition is ahead (at the left) of the C partition, not at the right, as the D partition was, so I figure I might have to do some moving, and I'm afraid of meddling with my HD for such a trivial reason. For me, this is pushing a concept too far. But I appreciate your advice.

Frank