Windows 7 System Image Backup on a twicked system

I just installed a twicked version of Windows 7 (xDark Deluxe v4.2 64-bit) and I am absolutely loving it. It is faster than I anything I've ever seen and no complaints until now...

I want to save a System Image as I did with the OEM version, in the Control Panel's Windows Backup and Restore, but when I click in "Create System Image, I get an alert box saying:
"The backup application could not start due to an internal error:
The service cannot be started, either because it's disabled or because it has no enabled devices associated with it.(0x80070422)."

I have searched Google and got this from support.Microsoft.com:
I. Volume Shadow Copy (VSS) - "Manual" ii. Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider (SWPRV) - "Manual" iii. Remote Procedure Call (RPCSS) - "Automatic" iv. COM+ Event System (eventsystem) - "Manual" & "Automatic" v. System Event Notification Service (sens) - "Automatic" vi. Windows Backup – “Manual”

I have setup Windows Services like this, I have rebooted my computer, made show those settings were still right, but I still get the same error.

Can someone please tell me how to fix this?

From what I can tell, xDark’s release of Windows 7 has been first updated (though it’s probably long out-of-date by now), then specifically set to disable updates to prevent de-activation. If you have an NFO file from it, you should read over to see the extensive list of modifications that have been made to it.

A quick scan indicates that you’d need to at a minimum re-enable the Windows Update and BITS services to get Windows to be able to update again and hopefully fix any errors by replacing any hacked files, but there may be other, deeper (eg registry) changes that are preventing it from working. The backup service was probably disabled as well, so you’ll have to enable and run the backup service as well (sometimes a service demands to be set to automatic, simply being set to manual and even running is not enough). For that matter, check if the backup service even exists anymore. In fact, this page recommends resetting several services to fix backup.

(On the page from the first Google result, one person even complained about there being too many things disabled.) I can’t find any point of contact with this “xDark”, and have not heard of him in “the scene”, so you may have to ask other people who have used his release.

Try running the system-file-checker: sfc /scannow.

The description for v4.3 mentions over 500 DLLs have been modified (ie, not just setting changes, but actual file hacks, which I believe violate the terms-of-use). I for one would not be comfortable using such a hacked version from an unknown source; I’d rather install a clean, reliable copy, then use a program like The Ultimate Windows Tweaker to apply a few tweaks myself. Then adjust the services as needed, as well as the startup programs and such. Finally, when I’ve got it the way I like, I would clone the drive so that if I want/need to, I can restore the whole thing, with all of my changes without having to reinstall or make them again.