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
    2020-07-29T00:49:03+00:00

    (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.

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-07-29T02:08:41+00:00
    1. 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.

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-07-29T04:41:03+00:00

    (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.

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-07-29T14:08:42+00:00
    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.

    1. 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?!

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  5. Anonymous
    2020-07-29T16:33:24+00:00

    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>

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