Windows 7 Backup fails with 0x8100033.

Quick note: I have been having problems with the Windows 7 Backup program creating a system image. It always fails with 0x81000033 error, and a quick search on the Internet reveals that other people are having the same problem too.

The most common theory is that the hidden System Reserved partition installed by default with Win7 has too much “data” in it, causing the Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service to fault out because it does not have enough working space on that volume.

Sneha, the Microsoft representative in this thread on social.technet.microsoft.com believes the problem is due to the USN journal setting for the partition being changed by third-party software, eating up space on the hidden volume and causing Backup to fail. Backup requires

The last post by Sneha in this thread was only 19 hours ago and unfortunately he doesn’t have a solution other than to turn off the system image option in Backup. This is an unacceptable solution.

Hopefully, Sneha will return with a definitive solution on how to fix this. As of now, I still have no good backup solution, but I will try to reinstall Rebit on my new external hard drive, since I could never get it to work with my old HD.

Side-note: If Sneha’s theory is correct, could Rebit have changed the journaling settings for the System Reserved partition? I have been able to perform a system image backup successfully with Windows Backup *once*, and this was before I installed Rebit. Hmmm…

EDIT: I found this solution on the web. I haven’t tried it myself, but it seems reasonable. Just make sure to backup your system first before messing around with the System Reserved partition:

Thread Title w7x64rc backup fails with error code 0x81000019
Started by: david.wells

Reply: A Workaround Without Repartitioning:

When trying to make a system image of Windows 7, I got error 0x80780119.  After searching this thread (plus others), I found my 100 MB System Reserved partition had grown a large USN journal.  I assigned it a drive letter.

Fsutil usn queryjournal F:

Then I ran this command to clear and disable the USN journal on my System Reserved partition:

fsutil usn deletejournal /N /D F:

This freed 48 MB.  The USN journal on my System Reserved partition remained disabled after a reboot, which I verified by re-running the query.  Subsequently, I was able to make a system image without error.

Look here for details on FSUtil: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc788042(WS.10).aspx

Mancer, MCITP-EA