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

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments

270 answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2020-07-24T02:26:33+00:00

    One thing I'm wondering abotuit makign a Recovery partion. Waht is differnet abtou it that it is Recovery and Disk Manger wont let you reformat it? Ist it some sepcial format? Can I even make that format?

    I will have to look again, but I don't think I saw a way in PartitionWizardInfo to make a partitions, btu it seems there msut be in there.

    It will only change the way Acronis works if it magically eliminates the bad sectiors, which is a pretty long shot. But it did compress my disk image a good 28%. Its starting size is around 170 GB, and it ends at 125 GB. It is supposed to be even samller if it does not do it as sector by sector -- but only Acronis can compress, Windows OS imaging has no settings for that, not the one time I used it. You're starting with something like 100 GB less.

    Take your time, no rush. Copying the file off part 6 sounds safe enough. Teh redirecting better work, though -- well, I suppsoe if it didn't, it would stil point to the one on part 6 instead, unless it pointed to the moon instead. That format or watever makes a partition a Recovery partition has to be right. If a Recovery partition is handled differently as now I learn it is, then it has to be different, we can't just create any old partition.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2020-07-24T01:21:32+00:00

    (1) Install.wim in partition 6 is Gateway's recovery image. It recovers Win 8 plus Gateway's add-ons as it all were in 2012. There likely was a Gateway-enhanced WinRE.wim (recovery environment, i.e., "Choose an Option") of 2012 that went along with it. It might have had that push button we've been looking for on it.

    The WinRE.wim that is on partition 6 now came in with 2004. It doesn't have to be there, but we'll let it alone except to make a copy onto partition 5. Then, we'll set partition 5 to be the active recovery environment partition.

    (2) The Partition Wizard disk certainly can do parts of it. But I don't have that, just AOMEI Partition Assistant (which sadly I don't trust 100%). And I don't think either will make a Recovery partition. I don't want to reformat. I want to delete then recreate. May as well do it with DiskPart.

    (3) I'm hoping this procedure is a magical cure for that Acronis bellyaching too for sure. However, on top of that, it will make system image making to be far more sensible & quicker. It's absurd to include a horribly bloated Gateway Win 8 image of 2012 into each & every system image that is made of Win 10. That is why we must have partition 5 be the official one. And let partition 6 just sit there.

    OK - definitely I'll have it all tested before my next nap. Sit tight.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2020-07-23T23:06:44+00:00

    And are you sure the recovery image and the wim file don't have to be on the same partition?

    I'll double check about reformatting, I did it previously, but probably not on a Recovery partition.

    EDIT: I confirm, I can't reformat that partition out of Disk Management, looks like I can only delete it. So, I booted from my Partition Wizard disk. It looks like I can do anything with it from that, including reformatting, wiping it, or deleting. I did not actually click on the Reformat button to see, was afraid it would start to reformat rather than take me to a window to set it up. But it looked like I can do that there.

    If we do this and it magically gets rid of the "bad segments" -- which is the only reason I would bother with it -- then I'm wondering if we instead could just do it to the Push Button one, which Acronis sees simply as a Recovery partition, and leave both files there once the bad segments are gone, and delete part 5. Issue is that part 6 being labeled as Push Button, who knows what that might do to get in the way, it might need that designation for some reason.

    I see no harm in reformatting Part 5, or erasing it, other than deleting it potentially affecting Part 6 (you addrssed that already). But I'm not too hopeful it will eliminate the bad sectors. But even if it does, I'm not sure there is any point in moving the wim file to it. I can just leave it empty at that point, leave part 6 alone -- and that is safest. I don't see any advantage to the wim file being on part 5.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2020-07-23T20:48:01+00:00

    I don't know CrystalDisk.

    (1) "I can just reformat the partition"

    How? Partition 5 has no letter, so Disk Management won't allow it. Even if you put the letter on it, it's protected in Windows because it's a Recovery partition. We must deal with it with DiskPart in a Command Prompt.

    (2) "If we delete the partition, then what does that to do to part 6?"

    We're going to recreate Partition 5 immediately after deleting it. So, 6 will be 6 still. But give me a chance to test that first. In the end, we'll use ReagentC to make Partition 5 the active Recovery partition, but 6 will remain the location of the recovery image (Install.wim) for whatever that's worth.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  5. Anonymous
    2020-07-23T13:36:51+00:00

    There doesn't seem to be any point in running Crustal Disk Info, we don't know what the results mean anyway, we can't read it.

    I can just reformat the partition, and that should erase it in the process. I can even just delete it with Disk Manager, why do all that coding instead?

    If we delete the partition, then what does that to do to part 6? Woudn't that get renumbered part 5 -- and mess up the link to the file in there?

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments