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System Image Error 0x81000036

Using Backup and Restore (Windows 7), I had been unable to “Create a system image” using Windows Insider Program builds going as far back as build 18850. I am currently running Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 18963 (20H1) on a Boot Camp partition on a MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2012).

Attempting to Create a system Image would bring up the dialog box, “Where do you want to save the backup” and it would fail with another dialog box with the text:

“Windows could not find backup devices on this computer. The following information might explain why this problem occurred:

(0x81000036)

Close Windows Backup and try again.”

Windows 10 Insider Preview Create a system image error 0x81000036

I searched the Windows Insider Feedback Hub, googled the web and Microsoft forums and I didn’t find a solution until a few days ago. On the Feedback Hub, in a post with the title, “Cannot create System Image in build 18956 FIX IT!“, CJH suggested disabling Windows Sandbox and virtual machine.

After disabling Windows Sandbox (Control Panel/Programs/Turn Windows features on or off/Windows Sandbox) I was able to create a system image again. I initially disabled Hyper-V Manager but after re-enabling it, system image still worked.

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MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2012) SSD Upgrade

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2012) SSD Upgrade

In 2012, the MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2012) with a 256GB SSD sold for $2399. A speed bump to a 2.6 GHz Core i7 and a larger 512 GB SSD was $3099. That’s $700 for a modest CPU speed bump and an extra 256 GB of storage. I was always constrained for disk space on my MacBook Pro’s 256GB SSD because I use Boot Camp and rEFInd to run macOS betas and Windows 10 Insider Previews.

I knew that my MacBook Pro Retina (Mid 2012) used a proprietary storage drive connector, but until recently, I didn’t know that a standard mSATA drive could be used in it with an adapter.

I bought this SHINESTAR mSATA to A1398 Adapter and this Samsung SSD 860 EVO 1TB mSATA for about $180 and I had 1 TB of internal storage.

If you want to use the SSD drive you just removed from your Macbook as a backup drive or other external storage, the easiest solution is to just buy the $59 OWC Envoy Pro case for your SSD.

iFixit has a guide to replacing the SSD in the MacBook Pro 15″ Retina (Mid 2012). It’s a simple five minute process.

Why did I upgrade a seven year old MacBook Pro? My MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2012) was one of the first MacBook Pros with a Retina display. I bought it because of the Retina display and the quad core Core i7 (I7-3615QM), The third generation Intel Core processor, “Ivy Bridge,” has a 6MB cache on the CPU.

The Geekbench 4 (MC) score on the Everymac.com page for this computer is 10578. That Geekbench score is 30% faster than the latest 2018 MacBook Air – 7379. Even up to the Apple MacBook Pro “Core i7″ 2.8 15” Touch/Mid-2017, the Geekbench score was less than 14% faster (12069) the 2012 MBPr.

It wasn’t until the the 6 core processors debuted in the Macbook Pros Apple MacBook Pro “Core i7″ 2.2 15” Touch/2018 did the Geekbench (MC) score double – 21111.

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Macbook Keyboard Rivets

Removing a broken MacBook keyboard

TLDR: can’t remove rivets; glue the new keyboard in with a medium thickness cyanoacrylate

The spilled coffee on my MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2012) disabled only one key on the keyboard. Unfortunately, it was the power button. I confirmed that my MacBook Pro wasn’t completely dead by shorting the pads on the system board that I found on insidemylaptop.com.

The top case (which includes the keyboard and trackpad) of the MacBook Pro can be replaced, with new parts on eBay that cost about $100. I also found that the just the keyboard can be purchased on eBay for about $20.

I used iFixit’s MacBook Pro 15″ Retina Display Mid 2012 Upper Case Assembly Replacement guide to disassemble the computer, then found some YouTube videos detailing ripping out the old keyboard.

MacBook Pro Retina keyboard rivets

The problem for me was when I pulled the old keyboard away from the top case, the rivets remained in the case. I later thought that pulling on the keyboard very sharply when I removed it would have pulled the rivets out too.

There were screws included with my replacement keyboard but the now the problem was how to remove the rivets from the top case. I found various solutions that included drilling them out, using a screwdriver and hammer to pry them out and removing the rivets by pulling them out with diagonal flush side cutters. The latter seemed like the best solution, except that I didn’t have that tool.

It then occurred to me that Apple reparability scores were always very low because they glued everything together. So, I decided to glue the keyboard in using a medium cyanoacrylate glue.

Working from one side of the keyboard to the other, I used less than a drop of glue on top of each of the protruding rivets. The glue (use a medium thickness cyanoacrylate) ran down around the rivet and under the keyboard mounting plate, fastening it to the top case. I pressed down on the keyboard for a few seconds to hold it flush with the top case until the glue set.

When I put the computer back together, I felt that gluing the keyboard in worked as well as the screws. Typing on the new keyboard felt completely solid and I saved a lot of effort in not having to remove the rivets.

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MacFUSE file system is not available Error

I try to keep up with the latest Windows and macOSs by participating in the Windows Insider Preview program and the Apple Developer Program. I run both of these OSs on a Macbook Pro Retina (mid-2012). As of today, that is Windows 10 Build 16232.1000 and macOS 10.13 beta 2 (17A291m).

A lot of the time, things don’t work because I am running beta OSs with released apps.

One of the recent problems I encountered with macOS High Sierra (17A291j) was a kernel panic when I was using Paragon NTFS for Mac 15 with Dropbox (v30.3.14). I don’t know if it’s a good idea, but my Dropbox directory for both Windows and Mac is the same directory on an NTFS volume. Every time I started Dropbox, I would get a kernel panic. I opened a support ticket with Paragon Software and a few days later they sent me a new version that had the same problem.

For interoperability between the two OSs, read/write capability really helps. In the macOS (High Sierra), NTFS read/write capability is not native. I was very happy with Paragon NTFS for Mac 15 until I started getting kernel panics. On the Windows side, I haven’t found something that will read the Apple File System (APFS) in macOS 10.13.

With earlier versions of MacOS, I had used the open source NTFS-3g. When Paragon NTFS for Mac 15 stopped working in my situation with Dropbox, I decided to try the commercial version of Tuxera’s NTFS for Mac. This seemed to work ok until I installed the macOS High Sierra Developer Beta 2 Update 1 (17A291m).

On booting macOS, I would get the error message:

Aligned I/O enabled.
CBCIO enabled.
/System/Library/Filesystems/fusefs_txantfs.fs//Support/10.9/tufs/tufsfs.kext failed to load -… check the system/kernel logs for errors or try kextutil(8).
the MacFUSE file system is not available (71)

I traced this error to Gatekeeper in macOS 10.13. After I allowed the software, Tuxera NTFS for Mac started working again.

Allow software from Tuxera in macOS System Preferences Security & Privacy Setting