How to fix "Windows Backup fialed to get an exclusive lock of the EFI system partition (ESP)."

[Shadowcalen1]

I am going to move my OS to a SSD before upgrading to windows 10, but before I do I want a system image backup as I have had a few PCs quit working when refreshing/reinstalling the os. I have a 1TB external hard drive, and system image says it will take 507GB. The first time it mostly finished, but came up with a error saying something along the line of this operation could not be completed. So I removed the failed backup (which was 809MB), and tried to start afresh. However I keep getting the "Windows Backup fialed to get an exclusive lock of the EFI system partition (ESP). This may happen is using files on the ESP. Please Retry the operation. (0x8078011E) Additional Information: Access is denied. (0x80070005)"
Goggling this yields no help, as I have tried disabling my antivirus as well as running it in a clean boot environment. Any advice on this matter would greatly appreciate. Should I backup critical files and proceed and hope for the best?

 

[USAFRet]

Step 1. Don't use "Windows Backup"
Step 2. Use any of the other current imaging/cloning/backup tools.
Casper, Macruim Reflect, Easus Todo, Acronis Trueimage.

So:
For safety sake, create an image of your current drive on the 1TB external.
Then, clone (using one of the above) to the SSD
Then, Upgrade to Win 10.