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

Anonymous
2020-06-18T23:54:58+00:00

I have been trying for days now to make a backup image of my internal Windows 10 hard drive, fully updated to current Windows 10 level May 2020. I have been using Acronis True Image 2016, as I always do. I have been backing up to an external, USB2 connected hard drive with 160 GB of free space on it (a 320 GB hard drive), the same drive I normally backup to. This is a Gateway laptop, NE56R from 2012, which shipped with Windows 8.

I have been trying to backup all partitions, including the C, and recovery partitions (including the Push Button one, which is about 15 GB) and whatever others are there. In total, they are about 109 GB. So I ought to have plenty enough free space.

I have checked all partitions to back up with True Image. It runs the whole backup, takes a good five hours. At the end, it throws up amessage saying ther eis not enough space for the image.

I have never had this problem before. The machine is booted from the True Image disk, so that should rule out some issue wiht my Widows 10 OS. I am doing a full disk backup, and I am even using Maximum Compression, which is what I always use, so I should need something lessthatn 109 GB of free space. and Ihave 160 GB of free space on the external drive.

I have a backup of Win 10 I made in April, shortly before the new OS level cam out on the drive -- I always keep two, just because. I deleted the older of the two on there, so now have only the one. I certainly don't want to delete the one on there, and still have this problem but no backup at all. But Ihave more free space than shudbe needed.

The external drive has been used only for backups since I started using it brand new, and I make a backup once or twice a year -- and I have been using it no more than four years. So, the external drive has very little, hardly any actual use on it, it is not far from brand new.

I read something this morning about a real problem found in the new Win 10 update, something to do with Storage Space, that is some sort of function in the OS now. I don't know what that is, or what it does. But the story said if your drive is not showing as RAW, then it should be OK, not affected. I checked Disk Management, and none of my volumes nor the external drive are marked as RAW. So, that should mean that issue is not the case here.

I have done enough backups in the past four years using the Acronis True Image 2016 software. It has always worked fine, and actually with less free space (I had another item on the drive too, but have deleted it. I also have deleterd about 32 GB of stuff from my C drive in an attempt to make this backup fit, but to no avail -- that is, my last two backups were actually larger than this one, and they fit fine.)

So, why do I keep getting the message about not enough space? I should have way more than enough.

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Windows update

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  1. Anonymous
    2020-06-20T03:00:10+00:00

    Then that must be it, as I had figured original size was 120 GB with all the partitions, and 32.6% adds about 39GB, making total of 159GB, and I had only 160 GB space -- but it need some space to put files while making the image.

    But the issue is it did a sector-by-sector imaging, because of what we learned from the Acronis forum, when it runs into bad sectors, it often will switch to sector-by-sector.

    That must be it. Althohg I have to guess that the maximum compression didn't compress very much, not enough to have enough space.

    I just got a small disaster here, thanks to a tech guy who came over to switch my Internet service, and now I have to fix everything he broke! :)

    Will try to get back in morning, to say all fine, nothing new, or to respond to what I need to or should, but to fill you in so you can know any details, and know that much more.

    Thanks a lot. That 33.6% you figured is major help, as it goes so neatly with what I learned at the Acronis forum, it must be the issue. Hey, at least this time the issues did not take well more than a month, like when you were so amazing about four uears ago, when I was very early on Windows. I learned a lot, and from what I learned, I have been able to advance some on my own.

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-06-20T01:36:00+00:00

    Hi,

    I tried both Acronis methods using the default compression..

    The original size of the imaged files on my C:\ drive was 58.5gb which includes the HiberFil, PageFile, and SwapFile, which were about 30gb total..

    Standard...                2 minutes 17 seconds  @ 18.4gb...

    Sector by Sector...    6 minutes 10 seconds  @ 24.4gb...

    I calculated that the sector by sector image is 32.6% larger than the standard... This would be the finished compressed image size, not the initial size of your internal drive..

    So... a Standard 100gb image would be about 133gb using Sector by Sector..

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-06-20T01:05:29+00:00

    Hi,

    That sounds pretty much normal for the Windows System Image Backup..

    What will happen if\when you make more images is that the folder in the WindowsImageBackup folder will either get overwritten or converted into a type of Incremental backup.. Don't worry about the various files.. That is normal... Windows just does things differently.. Now you understand my point about some Windows System files showing 0 bytes even though they can actually be 100gb or more in size, and how that can mess up an estimate of a possible image size..

    When I use the System Image, I rename the folder inside the WindowsImageBackup folder, which normally is named with at least part of the computer name... That way I can save another image without the first one being modified\deleted..

    You can not change the name of the WindowsImageBackup folder or the image inside will not be recognized.. The WindowsImageBackup folder must also be on the ROOT of the drive to be recognized..

    You will need either a bootable "Repair CD" or Installation Media to Restore the image..

    I don't know that the Acronis "Sector by Sector" mode is a lot larger.. It definitely takes longer though..

    It seems that Windows is ignoring or compensating for whatever problem is messing up Acronis...

    I am wondering if one of the partitions that the Windows System Imaging is not including might be the source of the error in Acronis...

    I will do a normal image and a Sector by Sector image and see what happens time and size wise and post back later..

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-06-20T00:17:37+00:00

    Well, I just finshed the imaging via the Win 10 OS imaging function. Now I have more questions, I'm not sure if it worked or not. I've never done a backup with anything but Acronis, and that gives a file in its own format, a .tib format.

    The Windows backup image looks like a regular folder, not an image. When I checked Properties of it, is said 0 for size! I tried to open it, it said I did not have permission, and gave the option to Continue and I would get permission, which I did. I came to another folder, same thing, and got in that one. In there seems to be the image, checking properties of it indicates about 110 GB (why did checking the original folder indicate nothing in it?), and 110 GB is about the right size.

    So, if you have done imaging via the OS imaging function, is the final product supposed to look like a folder? And another folder in it and then the apparent image? I am surprised to see it look like that, but what I found two folders into it is the right size at about 110 GB.

    Meanwhile, over at Acroinis in the forum, I was just told that:

    Check that your logs do not indicate that ATI is switching to using 'sector-by-sector' mode for the backup, as that will give a much larger backup image up to the size of the original disk drive or partition.  This mode is used if bad sectors are encountered.

    I've alrady mentioned I do have some bad sectors. But that is not really new, they have been there for quite some time, and my backups have worked fine. Acronis catches them, and puts up a question of whether to contiue with the imaging, and an optiion to ignore all and continue. I choose to ignore and contune for all, since nothing can be done about them.

    So, from what the post says at the Acronis forum, that might be making the size quite a bit larger, although I don't know that he means 50 GB larger, about 40% larger.

    I do see the option to do a sector by sector backup with Acronis, and it does warn that can create a notably larger final file.

    BTW, the Windows backup was much faster than the Acronis one. I didn't really time it but it was 2.5 - 3 hours, I think, not 5 hours. But I had no option to pick all five volumns, I got only the three I already mentioned. The two others can't be repsonsible for the difference in time, they are too small for that.

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  5. Anonymous
    2020-06-19T23:26:31+00:00

    Hi,

    For the Hidden Files and etc., go to Control Panel.. Select "View"... Small Icons.. and click the Folder Options or File Explorer Options shortcut.. The name has recently changed.. Select the "View" tab and you will see the options..

    You might try some of the smaller partitions by themselves with Acronis... just to see if you get any errors without the 5 hour wait..

    I think the only way Acronis could be miscalculating the size of the external drive is if there is a problem with the external drive..

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