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
    2020-08-07T04:57:01+00:00

    You are welcome. Glad to have helped. Yeah, I learned a bit from this thread too. I did create a 2nd Recovery partition so that I could try out the commands I was suggesting you do. But I'm all back to normal. I even deleted the Recycle Bin that had showed up in my original Recovery partition after reverting to it.

    (1) As I posted on page 19 with pictures, I get very quick system images with DiscWizard. The CD booted to a screen that said "Starting Acronis UEFI Loader (x64) (v.1.1.36)". It said 46.5 GB were getting imaged. All the partitions are put into a single .tib. Windows said C: was 46.2 GB of used space, so I got somewhat less than 50% compression. The .tib is about 25 GB. It isn't a sector by sector. It took 11 minutes to make & another 3 to verify. And my Windows system image backup done a day earlier took just 13 minutes to complete.

    Edit: That's on an external USB 3.0 Seagate 2TB HDD plugged into a 3.0 port. USB 2.0 can be over 10 times slower.

    I know you've got treble or quadruple my data including Partition 6, but I still think your time to make an image is excessive. But at least it isn't the 5 hours you started off with. Slance310 got you down to 2.5 hours, IIRC. I was hoping obviating a sector by sector would do the rest, but apparently it hasn't. Sorry that didn't happen.

    (2) Shift+Restart should work. I did a BING of "Shift+Restart doesn't work" & could quickly find nothing informative.

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-08-07T13:56:44+00:00

    Re making the image, its end size and time.

    I’m more used to cloning a drive than imaging it, cloning is the standard way it is done on a Mac, and when you clone, you can actually boot from the the drive you clone to. That can be very handy for various reasons, especially to use if your main drive needs serious repairs.

    But Windows standard is  imaging. I am aware there are some application out there, including Acronis, that will clone for Windows now, and my impression is that a few have come out in recent years.

    I explain because the time it takes to clone my Mac drive is probably only a little faster than it has been taking me to image the Windows laptop.  (I do have plenty more on my Mac, which has 290 GB on it. It takes me I think 3- 3.5 hours to clone that, compared to 2.5 hours for imaging the Windows laptop.) I set Acronis True Image to compress at maximum (it doesn’t talk of percentage. That seem to come out to about half the compression you are getting, about 26% compression, from about 170 GB to about 125 GB.) You not only are imaging faster, you get better compression.

    I also note, I am imaging from the laptop over a USB 2 connection, so at that speed. Are you perhaps imaging over a USB 3.0 or faster connection? That could be a factor too. (On my Mac, it seem to clone a little faster than Acronis images, but the Mac is USB 3.0.)

    The comparison between the Mac cloning and the Windows imaging makes them very similar, so suggests my imagining time is not unreasonable. However, the incredible speed you get — wow. I wish I could get that on both my machines! Like I said, it sounds more like the time for an incremental backup, but you already showed that no, you are doing a full backup.

    Was it five hours when I made the last image with the two parts with bad sectors? OK, then at least Idid gain. I could not remember it being that long, and then 3 hours when I did it with only part 6 having the bad sectors.  OK, I did shorten it more than I realized by getting rid of the bad sectors.  

    I don’t know why the difference in time now that we got rid of my bad sectors. I REALLY don’t know how you get it done so fast. Even if I were to not include part 6 in the image, my single-partition testing showed that would simply make it 2 hours and about 22 minutes instead of 2 hours and 30 minutes.

    1. Yes, that’s what I found. I did see some info about changing back to the older method of doing it via holding down the F8 key, but it also notes that that will slow startup. Starting up computers already takes too long as far as I’m concerned, I don’t want to take that slower every time I startup just so one time I need to boot to Advances startup, I can. But getting to Advanced Startup can be critical to resurrecting the computer. I learned some time back that you cannot restore to a restore point if you boot from an external disk such as the OS instal disk. It will not let you use the process to restore from a restore point unless you can navigate to the precise location of the restore point you want, rather than pick that from a list it shows, as when you do it already booted to your main drive. And who knows just where those things are stored, you need the list to select from. (I know, now you’re going to tell me where those are. BUT, will I remember that, or be able to find that location from a note I leave on my desktop — when I can’t boot my drive?) That left me stuck on time, and all I could do was a full, new install using the installer on the install drive, and doing it to save all the files and application I have on the internal drive. And then do a ton of updates. Similar to a restore point, but taking plenty more time and more steps.

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-08-07T23:54:07+00:00

    (1) Oops, that's right, mine is USB 3.0 all the way which is over 10 times quicker than USB 2.0 a quick BING reveals. So, I guess that explains that. Good thinking.  When all the arithmetic is said & done, you probably are actually getting quicker system images than me. And cloning possibly does more work than even a sector by sector (if it force-takes empty sectors), so there's that too. OK, good thinking. Sounds like your speeds are fine, now that they are under 5 hours. I don't recall what it was got you to 2.5 hours, but I think it's something Slance310 suggested at/near the midpoint of this thread.

    (2) "when you clone, you can actually boot from the the drive you clone to."

    You mean you've booted to an external drive? Have you done it about ten times? That could explain the unsightly debris I've found in your BCD, such as...!...

    Windows Boot Loader

    identifier           {49275add-50fb-4501-8b3b-7df483700c94}

    device              unknown                                       <<< Nothing to load -- where is it?

    path                  \Windows\system32\winload.efi

    description       Windows

    osdevice           unknown

    systemroot       \Windows

    nx                     OptIn

    It's harmless, but unsightly. It used to load a copy of Windows but doesn't know where it is anymore. And it never will know. You've got about 10 of them in there. I certainly wouldn't want a hundred. You may delete each this way...

    BCDEdit  /Delete  {49275add-50fb-4501-8b3b-7df483700c94}

    That deletes the entire entry -- all of the lines above. And you'll have eight more entries to go. Careful, only delete the ones that say "device    unknown", though.

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-08-08T00:07:03+00:00
    1. No, I have not booted to an external drive (other than the internal DVD drive), because I have not cloned the Windows laptop. I've done it what seems to be the preferred way for Windows, with the images. But I have taken note that there are a few, several applications out there now that will let you clone Windows, even Acronis True Image will do that now.

    Don't know about all that extra stuff. But I was using a failing hard drive until I changed it after starting this thread. I was having some issues with it, and maybe that threw up that stuff.

    That's right, I think that 5+ hours for imaging was the last image I got from the failing drive. I think that is why it was 5 hours. I THINK it had been more like three hours in the past.

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  5. Anonymous
    2020-08-08T00:48:05+00:00

    (1) My Seagate DiscWizard also does clones. I made one of Win 8.1 once, but never had occasion to use it. And certainly I never tried to boot to it while on the external HDD. I was even fearful to have it plugged in after the clone was made. That could cause big confusion during a reboot, might even cause Windows to create a sloppy dual-boot.

    (2) OK, I can see a failing HDD might also leave that kind of debris in the BCD. Windows detects the boot device has disappeared, & it puts "unknown" into its boot loader in the BCD. And, each time it again saw the HDD, it created a new boot loader entry for it instead of trying to reuse the vacated one. That probably was it, then. Good thinking.

    (3) "But getting to Advanced Startup can be critical to resurrecting the computer."

    Well, would you consider a menu item a slowdown? Here is a way to get a Safe Mode boot option each boot -- and it comes with an Advanced Startup button...

    https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/17159-add-safe-mode-boot-options-windows-10-a.html

    How to Add Safe Mode to Boot Options in Windows 10

    I did that for awhile, myself, but tired of it. It is easily undone. The button that gets to Advanced Startup is at the bottom of the boot screen & is called "Change defaults or choose other options".

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