I am getting this error in Windows 11 Professional when I try to create a system image for backup: Volumes larger than 16777216 megabytes cannot be protected 0x807800B4

Question

I got a new HP Envy PC with Windows 11 Professional on it and I am trying to create a system image to use as backup, should I need a full blown restore for some reason. I have 64 gig of Ram and a 4 TB NVMe SSD. I have reinstalled all my old software now and want to make a safe backup image of the drive, but I have run into an issue because the drive is as large as it is apparently. When I try to create a system image backup in Windows 11, I receive the error message "Volumes larger than 16777216 megabytes cannot be protected 0x807800B4". Now, this is using Control Panel and the old "Windows 7" method for doing this, because I don't find any other way in the new Windows 11, which I find totally surprising. I suppose I could partition my drive off into 4 separate 1 TB partitions, but you'd think with all the new Windows 11 hype that the software would have caught up to the hardware. I'd just as soon stayed with my old Windows 10 PC, except it was over 12 years old and the gpu croaked on it, so I figured I'd jump out on the bleeding edge again. Apparently I did! Any Microsoft recommendations for handling this new problem? PS...I think Windows 10 is great. I hope Windows 11 will be as good, or better.

Answer 1

Hi, This could be a limit on the number of clusters with a 4KB cluster size on a volume. Please try formatting the volume with a larger cluster size which is also known as allocation unit size to see if the issue persists.

https://serverfault.com/questions/669397/windows-server-backup-error-volumes-larger-than-16-7tb-cannot-be-protected

Best Regards,

Ian Xue

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