System Image backup fails - not enough space for Volume Shadow Copy

highstream said:

Hmmm..interesting thought. Can't the System Reserved partition be set somewhere within Windows?

A different tho related problem for me in terms of system images has to do with freeing up space - deleting unneeded files - on a partition that I want to merge with another afterward, instead of just merging the two whole, which takes many hours longer. In a partition manager I've tried Wipe and Format, but both times Win 7 wouldn't start and I had to use the system image to get back on line. That suggests to me that I'm deleting something that's throwing off the system drive (mbr?). In the screenshot earlier, there's an inactive XP clone partition whose contents that I'd like to eliminate and then merge the partition with another on that HDD (or resize the other, which is even simpler). What's the most efficient way to do this w/o wrecking havoc again? Thanks,

You wanna remove "system reserved"? that's possible.
What partitions do you wanna merge?

I wasn't thinking of removing System Reserved, figuring that it is necessary. But I notice on C drive there is that with 100mb, plus two other unallocated partitions with 128kb and 1mb that I don't know what to make of. Can't recall seeing them on my previous Win 7 SSD.

Merge J & O into O, to make more room for backup images. Actually, I've got J down to a basic logical partition, but the partition manager has it grayed out for merging and there's another partition to the left between it and O that prevents expanding O directly. I guess the solution is to combine partitions to the left and then resize and combine to the right.

You can use Partition Wizard to try and cleanup bits of unallocated. Merging O and J will require a bit of fiddling. Again Partition Wizard is the tool I would use.
The free version doesn't support "merge". I would backup the 2nd partition, delete it and resize the 1st partition into it. Also, If you only plan 4 partitions on this drive then they can be made primary again with PW. More than 4 and your HDD will go dynamic - this is bad.

Re: your initial problem this may help
Windows 7 image backup, error not enough space for shadow copy

highstream said:

J & O into O, to make more room for backup images

So you wanna delete J (can be done safely in win7)


Now using partition wizard How to Move/Resize Partition with partition manager? Partition Wizard Move/Resize Partition Video Help.

• move G to the left
• there's now unused space between G and O
• extend O so let it use the "unused space"

Take the right partition!! Drive letters in win7 are diffirent as in partition wizard. Check drive letters after starting win7. Eventually correct them.
Partition Wizard Bootable CD allows user to manage partition directly with partition manager bootable CD.
Free download Magic Partition Manager Software, partition magic alternative, free partition magic, partition magic Windows 7 and server partition software - Partition Wizard Online take the last one so "bootable CD (ISO)". Burn that ISO on CD/DVD and boot from it.

Post results please.

Wanna delete "system reserved" as well? Only possible if you don't use and don't wanna use bitlocker. I post steps if you want

Bootmgr - Move to C:\ with EasyBCD
Try to boot afterwards. As always if having trouble booting perform Startup Repair
C partition is active and booting fine? Now you can delete "system reserved" from within "disk management"

The way you go about "Merge J&O into O" to quote will depend what data you want to preserve. If you have data on G I suggest you back it up before you do anything.

If you use the EasyBCD tool you will lose your system reserved. If you don't want to lose it you can simply extend it with PW
How to Move/Resize Partition with partition manager? Partition Wizard Move/Resize Partition Video Help.
I suggest you make it 200MB

The other way to often fix your type of imaging problem is to delete USN journal files from the system reserved with the fsutil command. These are often cleared over time by the OS.

highstream said:

Thanks, G drive is the SyncBack backup of C. Unlike the system image, that backup gives me direct access to files and folders and some synchronization regularly.

With the J&O merge, I didn't need my old XP system drive (clone - J) anymore, so it could be wiped clean. But the problem wiping and/or reformatting was that Win 7 (C) wouldn't boot, meaning to get it going I had to restore the backup image we discussed earlier. So I was thinking there has to be a better way to do this. Hence, my question. Suggestions for doing that next time? Many thanks!

J was just a primary partition. Although it was active, you didn't boot from it. Could be deleted without issues (It wasn't used at all). Or didn't even contain pagefile, hibernation file etc I assume.

Did you try "startup repair" after removing J? This wil give you a clue what is wrong. I don't understand why it didn't boot. What was the error message when booting?