Windows 7: System Image backup fails - not enough space for Volume Shadow Copy

Had a 50gb Win 7 (x64) system image on a 66gb partition. It was a good image, because I had to use it to restore once. Decided to do a new one, so in setting up the new backup I deleted the old one first within the Win backup process. Then I ran the new one and it fails for lack of space to create the Volume Shadow Copy. The partition currently has 65gb free. Just to check, I tried on another partition with much more free space and got the same result. Where might the hang up be? Thanks,

Goto system properties and then system security. Configure it. Is it enabled? How many percent and disk space?

Would you Post a Screenshot of the Disk Management window maximized.

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Disk Mgt screenshot attached. O is the designated image backup drive and C is the system drive (the XP clone drive is a leftover, not active). Note that since posting I enlarged C drive to 65gb, but that only 53gb is actually in use currently.

Follow up: I just ran it again and it worked. Since I had tried a larger drive earlier, it's hard to believe that resizing C was the difference. My guess is that it had to do with permissions, per Kaktussoft's hint. This is a single Admin/User system, but I noticed that the Users line didn't have full permissions, so I changed that. Could that have been the difference? I'm not sure why, because it wasn't any different last time I imaged. Otherwise, I don't know.

Btw, what does "Apply these permissions to objects and/or containers within this container only" mean? Thanks,

I didn't mean permissions at all! I meant space reserved for "system restore" and shadow sets. You have only one system image backup now?

Please post output from Elevated Command Prompt
Replace X with actual drive letter. Do it for all partitions you wanna backup. And for Output partition as well. Please post output

It means the permissions are only set for objects in that container (so in that folder). So only for files and folders within that folder. So NOT for files and folders in subfolders

RE : Manage Space in System Image backup

^ I have experienced this issue before. For me, it was because my hidden "System Reserved" partition dropped to less than 50MB free. This volume seems to change automagically within Windows and when I tried to run the backup, and it was less than 50MB, I would get this error. Once it cleared space on it's own, the system backup would work again.

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,