Trouble Making Image Backup with Acronia True Image 2016 -- apparent misread of space

I just ran the code to move the recovery partition. It shows it is moved. Here is that readout. And next I will reboot -- it looks like I'm supposed to, since you exited and then made making that the active recovery partition item 3 in your instructions. Then I will run the code to make it the active recovery partition. I did see that it rejected the code to assign letter R. Good thing we already talked about that, I did not have to worry.

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.19041.388]

(c) 2020 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>DiskPart

Microsoft DiskPart version 10.0.19041.1

Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation.

On computer: COMPUTER

DISKPART> Select  Disk  0

Disk 0 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> List  Part

  Partition ###  Type              Size     Offset

  -------------  ----------------  -------  -------

  Partition 1    Reserved           128 MB    17 KB

  Partition 2    Recovery           400 MB   129 MB

  Partition 3    System             300 MB   529 MB

  Partition 4    Primary            681 GB   829 MB

  Partition 5    Recovery           826 MB   682 GB

  Partition 6    Recovery            15 GB   682 GB

DISKPART> Select  Part  5

Partition 5 is now the selected partition.

DISKPART> Assign  Letter=R

Virtual Disk Service error:

The specified drive letter is not free to be assigned.

DISKPART> Select  Part  6

Partition 6 is now the selected partition.

DISKPART> Assign  Letter=X

DiskPart successfully assigned the drive letter or mount point.

DISKPART> List  Vol

  Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info

  ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------

  Volume 0     D   Vid          UDF    DVD-ROM     5588 MB  Healthy

  Volume 1         Recovery     NTFS   Partition    400 MB  Healthy

  Volume 2     C   Gateway      NTFS   Partition    681 GB  Healthy    Boot

  Volume 3     R   Recovery To  NTFS   Partition    826 MB  Healthy

  Volume 4     X   Push Button  NTFS   Partition     15 GB  Healthy

  Volume 5         ESP          FAT32  Partition    300 MB  Healthy    System

DISKPART> Exit

Leaving DiskPart...

C:\WINDOWS\system32>XCOPY  X:\Recovery  R:\Recovery  /E  /I  /H  /R  /K  /X

X:\Recovery\Logs\Reload.xml

X:\Recovery\WindowsRE\boot.sdi

X:\Recovery\WindowsRE\ReAgent.xml

X:\Recovery\WindowsRE\Winre.wim

4 File(s) copied

C:\WINDOWS\system32>DIR  R:\  /a  /s

 Volume in drive R is Recovery Tools

 Volume Serial Number is AEDD-8F67

 Directory of R:\

07/28/2020  09:09 AM    <DIR>          $RECYCLE.BIN

07/29/2020  09:25 AM    <DIR>          Recovery

07/28/2020  09:08 AM    <DIR>          System Volume Information

               0 File(s)              0 bytes

 Directory of R:$RECYCLE.BIN

07/28/2020  09:09 AM    <DIR>          .

07/28/2020  09:09 AM    <DIR>          ..

07/28/2020  09:09 AM    <DIR>          S-1-5-21-3825702632-3878460571-627862376-1001

               0 File(s)              0 bytes

 Directory of R:$RECYCLE.BIN\S-1-5-21-3825702632-3878460571-627862376-1001

07/28/2020  09:09 AM    <DIR>          .

07/28/2020  09:09 AM    <DIR>          ..

07/28/2020  09:09 AM               129 desktop.ini

               1 File(s)            129 bytes

 Directory of R:\Recovery

07/29/2020  09:25 AM    <DIR>          .

07/29/2020  09:25 AM    <DIR>          ..

07/29/2020  09:25 AM    <DIR>          Logs

07/29/2020  09:25 AM    <DIR>          WindowsRE

               0 File(s)              0 bytes

 Directory of R:\Recovery\Logs

07/29/2020  09:25 AM    <DIR>          .

07/29/2020  09:25 AM    <DIR>          ..

07/19/2020  12:37 PM             1,379 Reload.xml

               1 File(s)          1,379 bytes

 Directory of R:\Recovery\WindowsRE

07/29/2020  09:25 AM    <DIR>          .

07/29/2020  09:25 AM    <DIR>          ..

12/07/2019  02:08 AM         3,170,304 boot.sdi

07/19/2020  12:38 PM             1,134 ReAgent.xml

07/15/2020  05:33 PM       555,507,721 Winre.wim

               3 File(s)    558,679,159 bytes

     Total Files Listed:

               5 File(s)    558,680,667 bytes

              16 Dir(s)     289,943,552 bytes free

C:\WINDOWS\system32>DiskPart

Microsoft DiskPart version 10.0.19041.1

Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation.

On computer: COMPUTER

DISKPART> Select  Disk  0

Disk 0 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> Select  Part  5

Partition 5 is now the selected partition.

DISKPART> Remove  Letter=R

DiskPart successfully removed the drive letter or mount point.

DISKPART> Select  Part  6

Partition 6 is now the selected partition.

DISKPART> Remove  Letter=X

DiskPart successfully removed the drive letter or mount point.

DISKPART> Exit

Leaving DiskPart...

C:\WINDOWS\system32>

1. Planning to get to this later this morning.
2. You can’t tell me “do a list vol.” I don’t know what these things are. I need all the code to do it. I guess we have done code for it before, but we’re up to 14 pages now, and lots of code listed throughout, who find find something specific? :)
3. Yes, alter from what you further said, I realized it was the Recovery folder only, not the other. We will deal with the last of Part 6 separately later.

“I think one of those ReagentC commands will overwrite the WinRE.wim we copied from 6 to 5, but let's let that sleeping dog lie.” So, are you saying I might have it twice on the partition twice, or that the first one on there will be eliminated by the one being overwritten? Overwritten would generally mean the latter. Hmm, But the time you respond, I probably will have done it and so know.

4. Yes, the nest and final chapter of this. Since it worked to solve the bad sectors on part 5, I now expect it will on part 6 too. What I don’t yet know is where we will put the files from part 6 temporarily while we then delete and recreate part 6. We can worry about that later.

a) Don’t we need some code line before I put in DIR X:\ /a /s? How can I know if it is massive before I run the command?!

(1) Yes, do the above, then we'll get to Partition 6.

May as well test Acronis on Partition 5 again now that it will have its full load of files inside, but I dearly expect it will still have no complaint. I'm done with speculating what those "bad sectors" were. It could be somehow they were in the sector by sector image that was restored from the prior HDD, as Slance310 suggested. Or it could be delete/recreate wiped real ones away. But they weren't in files, they were under them.

(2) Do a "List Vol" to see whether the letters are still there or open File Explorer. It's OK to let them alone until we are all done.

(3) "OK, I can’t tell from the letters what is being copied. Is that only the wim file?"

We are XCOPYing the Recovery folder which includes WinRE.wim & a few other files first from Partition 6 to Partition 5. Later, "ReagentC /Disable" deletes that folder from Partition 6 & temporarily copies its WinRE.wim to a staging area on C:partition. So, we will XCOPY it back to Partition 6. It gets deleted from C:partition automatically. I think one of those ReagentC commands will overwrite the WinRE.wim we copied from 6 to 5, but let's let that sleeping dog lie.

All will work well afterward for you as it did for me. It got strange later when I reversed those ReagentC commands to make my original recovery partition (which had been emptied) to be the active one again. But that appears to have worked out well in the end, & you won't be doing it anyway.

(4) We'll try to have Acronis like Partition 6 the same way we made it like 5. If you copy the files to somewhere safe, we'll delete/recreate Partition 6 as a Recovery partition. Then, we'll copy the files back into it. But no ReagentC will be involved -- we want Partition 5 to remain the active one.

(a) Let me see the full contents of Partition 6 like I said: "DIR  X:\  /a  /s". We haven't done that before. But, if it's massive, leave off the "/s".

(b) Let me see your BCD: "BCDEdit  /Enum  All". Preferably, do this after you have made Partition 5 the active one. I want to see what it still has to say about Partition 6 after that. We won't want to lose it.

2. BTW, I am wondering if the bad “sectors” were empty sectors marked or something in one of the files we are moving. We will see.

OK, so you solved that recycle bin thing by using XCOPY instead of what you had used. OK. I think I left the part 5 labeled as R. Just in case, its it a problem assigning that again? Or better I check first and do or not do it accordingly?

OK, I can’t tell from the letters what is being copied. Is that only the wim file? I have to move the OS recovery file too if I want to delete partition 6 and recreate it, in order to get rid of the bad sectors on it. Let’s get rid of them all once and for all. We can’t just recover that partition from my external backup because it will have the bad sectors. So we have to move the file and then move it back.

So, how do we also move that now? And do we first have to enlarge that partition form

C, to will that happen automatically and from C? Maybe some extra letters in the XCOPY line? We will move it back after we fix that partition.

Looking at the code to ReagentC, I guess you really dome C, the C partition? Aren’t we moving it from part 6 to part 5? How did C get involved? Just making sure before proceeding. (But I won’t proceed until we address moving the second file.)

OK, I see you say get this stuff done, and then we can do part 6, moving the file, deleting and recreating, and moving file back. OK, will do this first. It could get too complicated and messy trying to do it all at once.

I have not used Acronis to backup files. But it does give the option for a file backup or full disk backup. I have never looked in the file backup setup. I know I can do a partition, but whether I can select a specific file from it or must take all files, I don’t know. Are you suggesting backing up part 6, then deleting and recreating, and then restoring the file only back? I’m less sure about restoring an individual file, leaving that partition behind, move only the file. I’ll boot from it tomorrow and see. We do not want to bring over the backed up partition, that will have the bad sectors.

I believe we already, above, have the list of what is in part 6 — you had me run some code and it is in there somewhere.  That’s how you identified the wim file and how you determined the Gateway stuff is in the recovery OS, not a separate file. That’s the only reason I’m keeping the Win 8 recovery OS.

(1) I am overjoyed all is well thus far. It all looks great to me. Good that you did the reboot afterward. I wasn't sure, either, Acronis would be satisfied. It was just a hope that delete/recreate would go deep enough into the works to make a difference. Must be it woke a sleeping giant in the HDD firmware to set things right. It was when you got to the SET ID command that the partition became a recovery partition. But as yet it's empty.

(2) Let's go ahead & put the Recovery folder into it. XCOPY will definitely not remove files from Partition 6. It will just make a copy into Partition 5.

DiskPart                                    <<< Enter DiskPart

Select  Disk  0                           <<< Select the HDD

List  Part                                   <<< Show the partitions

Select  Part  5                           <<< Select the new & improved Recovery partition

Assign  Letter=R                      <<< Give it letter R

Select  Part  6                          <<< Select that Push Button Partition

Assign  Letter=X                      <<< Give it letter X

List  Vol                                    <<< Show the letters

Exit                                          <<< Exit DiskPart

XCOPY  X:\Recovery  R:\Recovery  /E  /I  /H  /R  /K  /X     <<< Copy Recovery folder from Partition 6 to 5

DIR  R:\  /a  /s                                                                    <<< Show what's on Partition 5

DiskPart

Select  Disk  0

Select  Part  5

Remove  Letter=R

Select  Part  6

Remove  Letter=X

Exit

(3) Let's make Partition 5 to be the active Recovery partition. But /Disable will delete the contents of the Recovery folder on Partition 6. So, we'll copy it back afterward...

DiskPart

Select  Disk  0

Select  Part  5

Assign  Letter=R                <<< Put R: back onto Partition 5

Select  Part  6

Assign  Letter=X                <<< Put X: on Partition 6

Exit

ReagentC  /Info                 <<< Shows Partition 6 is both the RE location & the RE image location

ReagentC  /Disable           <<< Turns off the RE location, moves WinRE.wim out of 6

ReagentC  /SetREImage  /Path  R:\Recovery\WindowsRE  /Target  C:\Windows      <<< Set RE loc. to P. 5

ReagentC  /Enable            <<< Turn it back on

ReagentC  /Info                 <<< Shows P. 5 is the RE location & P. 6 remains the recovery image loc.

XCOPY  R:\Recovery  X:\Recovery  /E  /I  /H  /R  /K  /X     <<< Copy Recovery folder from Partition 5 to 6

DIR  X:\Recovery  /a  /s                                                     <<< Show Partition 6's Recovery folder

DiskPart

Select  Disk  0

Select  Part  5

Remove  Letter=R           <<< Remove letter from Partition 5

Select  Part  6

Remove  Letter=X

Exit

That should do it. We'll discuss Partition 6 afterward. At least it is out of the way of a Windows system image now. Can you use Acronis to backup files instead of disks or partitions? Or we can use XCOPY to copy all of that push button partition's files somewhere safe. Then we can delete/recreate it & copy them back -- pretty much like we've already done with just the Recovery folder.

To see everything that is on Partition 6, put letter X on it, then "DIR  X:\  /a  /s" should do it. Post it, if not prohibitively massive.