I recently purchased a ASUS laptop and swapped out the original HD with an SSD. Everything is updated, and all drivers loaded. I then took the original HD and placed it into a USB external hard drive enclosure with intent to use it as a backup hard drive.
Now the hard drive still has the original "hidden" partitions intact. These include the system recovery partition. I don't know if leaving those partitions there contribute to the problem. In any case, when I plug this external hard drive into my laptop, it shows up and detects as local disk (D:). I quick formatted it before use. I could open it and copy files into it. So as far as I am concerned, this external hard drive works.
Next I tried to create a system image back up of my current system. This is Windows 8.1. I would go to System and Security -> File History -> System Image Backup. A local disk D is detected. I would go through all the steps and the OS would try to create a system image. And then when it gets to "backing up EFI system partition," it would stop and give me this error message: "There was a failure in preparing the backup image of one of the volumes in the backup set (0x807800C5). The mounted backup volume is inaccessible. Please retry the operation (0x8078004f)."
I've successfully created a system image backup on a different external hard drive, but with this external hard drive, made from the original ASUS hard drive and an external enclosure, it simply won't work.
Do you have any ideas or suggestions to make this system image backup work on the external hard drive?
I'd like to avoid deleting all the partitions on the external disc because in case for some reason I need to return the laptop for manufacturer warranty repair, I'd like to have the recovery partition available.