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
    2020-06-20T04:09:28+00:00

    (1) I agree with Slance310, one of the partitions that Windows system image backup did not include may be the problem. Maybe it was mangled by the 2004 upgrade & causes Acronis to choke.

    (2) "push button is ... spot 5"

    Part 1:  Recovery. Win 8 Recovery Environment partition. It's likely empty.

    Part 2:  EFI System partition. Holds the boot files.

    Part 3:  MSR (Microsoft Reserved) likely is here. Can't be seen in Disk Management.

                It also isn't seen as offered by Windows system image backup, but it gets

                put into the .vhdx that is C:.

    Part 4:  Gateway (C:). The Windows partition.

    Part 5:  This normally would be your new 2004 Recovery Environment partition,

                but I'm puzzled it wasn't included in the Windows system image.

                Shift+Restart should reboot to here at the "Choose an Option" screen.

    Part 6:  Push Button Reset. I don't know what this is, but it was included in your image.

    There is a hidden partition that does not show up in Disk Management called the MSR (Microsoft Reserved). Since your 2nd Recovery partition is partition 5 (but looks like 4), the MSR must be located before that. And it is after your EFI because that got its right number of 2. It is a tiny 16 MB these days but used to be 124 MB. Normally, it is located just before (C:). Here is mine (at an Administrator Command Prompt)...

    DiskPart

    Select  Disk  0

    List  Part

    Exit

    ReagentC  /Info

    (3) "When I checked Properties of it, is said 0 for size!"

    Once you attain permanent permissions of the WindowsImageBackup folder & all the subfolders inside, the WindowsImageBackup folder will show its size in its Properties...

    (4) Yep, as Slance310 says, definitely rename the folder that is inside the WindowsImageBackup folder. Then, rename the next image you make too. This will keep them separate & distinct. And all of them will be presented by name at the time you may need to do a restore. I keep the last 3 made...

    Here is how to restore one...

    https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-update/how-to-restore-a-windows-10-system-image-to-an/e20992ca-5641-4f7c-bb09-3895d0732162

    How to restore a Windows 10 system image to an existing or larger storage device

    https://www.winhelp.us/restore-a-system-image-in-windows-7.html

    Restore a System Image Backup in Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and 10

    Note: That is an informative 3rd-party site, but I know nothing (good or bad) about any downloads or links that are there (or anywhere else).

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-06-20T19:40:21+00:00

    Slance and PCR, will get back on this, but not today, suddenly life has decided to rear it's ugly head and overload me with no warning. That is, I'm jammed up with things now that are surpises and demand my time now. Probably can look at this tomorrow.

    Yes, it does sound reasonable that oneof those twopartiions the OS did notincoude are where the bad sectors are.

    Corect meif I'm wroing, btu I believe the 300 MB one is the EFI partioins, and the push button one is the other one the OS imiaged. So, the paossible bad oneas are the 400 MB and the 802 MB ones.

    Wish Iknew what they were for. MIght be best to simply delete those partions.

    But, I think it was Slance who said the imaging software will simply include the bad sectors in the image. But, isn't a bad sector a hardware issue, not software? Deleting delting a volume becahse of bad sectors "on it" woud not delite the bad sectors becuse they are the hardware disk?

    If a bad sector is not hardware, then I don't have to consider replacing my hard drive. But I'm pretty sure it is hardware.

    I also wonder if the OS did not pick them up because it detected they had bad sectors.

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-06-20T20:46:19+00:00

    Hi,

    Bad sectors are a hardware problem.. They re basically a bad spot in the magnetic coating of the hard drove platters.. But they can cause software issues if some of the DATA is written to them before they are detected as bad..

    In a way it is best to leave bad sectors alone if they have had data written to, or around them.. They are then basically "Used" space, and for the most part ignored.. If you have bad sectors on one of your partitions, it would not hurt to delete the partition as far as the sectors are concerned as long as that area is not "Merged" into another partition..

    The "Recovery" partitions are where Windows keeps it's "Repair" media.. For instance.. When you did the System Image you were probably asked if you wanted to make a "Repair CD".. The files needed to do this are in the Recovery partition.. If you delete the partition, the creation of the Repair CD will fail as the files are missing.. The same media is available when doing a "Repair" with Installation Media, so you could live without the partition with a few minor inconveniences..

    There is normally only one Recovery partition.. You ended up with two due to the nature of how Windows was originally installed and\or later upgraded..

    Why don't you try either Imaging only those two partitions (400mb & 802mb) with Acronis, or image only the three that were imaged with Windows, and see what happens..

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-06-20T22:51:39+00:00

    OK. I hope things work out OK, take your time.

    (1) You are right, your EFI is 300 MB. And the 802 MB partition is the other one not in the image. You might do that DiskPart to see whether something else (besides the MSR) is not showing up in Disk Management, but I doubt it. I think your List Part will show just the 6 partitions I itemized above & in that order.

    (2) Here is how to do a CHKDSK on the 2 questionable ones...

    (a) Type CMDinto search, & click "Run as Administrator".

    (b) Enterthe following commands...

    DiskPart

    Select  Disk  0

    List  Part

    Select  Part  1

    Assign  Letter=X<<< Put letter X: on the Win 8 empty Recovery partition

    Select  Part  5

    Assign  Letter=R<<< Put R: on (what normally would be) the 2004 Recovery partition

    ExitBut why didn't it get selected for the image?

    CHKDSK  X:  /Scan<<< Does a scan only & reports errors

    CHKDSK  R:  /Scan

    *DIR  X:* /a  /s<<< Shows the files & folders. I expect X: to be empty.

    *DIR  R:* /a  /sDoes R: have a WinRE.wim file?

    DiskPart

    Select  Disk  0

    List  Part

    Select  Part  1

    Remove  Letter=X<<< Remove the letter X:

    Select  Part  5

    Remove  Letter=R<<< Remove the letter R:

    Exit

    Ctrl-A<<< Select all text in the window

    Ctrl-C<<< Copy text to Clipboard

    Paste the text to us here.

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  5. Anonymous
    2020-07-15T02:28:17+00:00

    Just touching bases so you guys knew I didnt just ignore you. Toomanyiting got in the way of the time I woudlneed tofocus on this. Now Ilm going to get it done once and for all. I am repalceing the hard drive wiht another one (larger too).

    The issue is a bad hard drive. And now is obviosly failing, about to quit. So, no time to test some partition imaging, I have to save things before too late.

    I spent some hours today using Acronis True Image 2016 to try to clone over the internal drive to the new drive, plugged in externally. It would not clone it. Don't know why, I have to guess the bad sectors were quickly recognized and with that it would not proceed.

    I tried plugging in my external drive with a prior Acronis image of the drive from February, and then use that image to restore to the new (second hand) drive, plugged in externally. That wasted a lot of my time, until I finally realized the issue is that Acronis will not let you image from one external drive to another external drive, it will only let you image to an internal drive (or maybe vice veraa, from an internal drive). That was so irritating. Why ever would Acronis do such a stupid thing and block external to external?

    So, tomorrow I have to open things up and trade out the old drive for the new one. Then I will do the imaging to it.

    Using the older image, rather than the newer Windows image will allow me to keep those two partitions Windows would not image -- this is why I did not want to delete that to make room for a new image, which might not have worked. Then I will upgrade again to the latest Windows 10, I have the installer. And then run updates and should be fine then. I hope. 20 times today I thought do this, do that and it should be fine, but it was not.

    Sorry I was not able to get to tested the imaging of those two partitions. It was all I could do todey to get the machine to boot, it kept going into repairs for long periods.

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