backup size different in windows compared to boot time

Patrick, welcome to these user forums.

The key difference between backups created with the Acronis Rescue Media, and those created by the application running within Windows is down to the default Exclusions that the latter applies which are not applied in the boot media.

For example, the system page file, swap file, hibernation file, system volume information (restore point data) can easily add up to 10's of GB of extra space in the backup file if are included.

Open you Windows backup task, click on Options, then go to the Exclusions page and take a look at the defaults set there, then compare the Exclusions shown in the boot media version.  With the boot media, the user has to specify what files / folders are to be excluded.

well, I can't see those exclusions on the backup options tab:

besides, the file created size is way larger
(33gb minus 16gb equals 17gb, where could these be coming from?) and
I have deleted any restore points prior in both scenarios,
my page file is 4gb, hibernation file is around 3gb,
but it shouldn't exist in cases of reboot/shutdown,

anyway, these numbers/differences don't make much sense to me..

however, the previous successful rescue media backup was around 30gb but
that included 3 more (recovery) partitions with a total size of 11gb,
so something has gone wrong lately with boot time backup but
I can't figure out what..

well, I took another boot time backup and opened it, and inside is my whole system disk,
so TI takes a sector-by-sector backup, while running at boot time,
while it doesn't when run from windows.

what could be causing that to happen?

I'll run another chkdsk and see what happens

edit: still no problems:

Chkdsk was executed in scan mode on a volume snapshot.  

Checking file system on C:
Volume label is SYSTEM.

Stage 1: Examining basic file system structure ...
                                                                                       
  317808 file records processed.                                                         File verification completed.
                                                                                       
  3063 large file records processed.                                                                                                                           
  0 bad file records processed.                                      
Stage 2: Examining file name linkage ...
                                                                                       
  418468 index entries processed.                                                        Index verification completed.
                                                                                                                                                                                
Stage 3: Examining security descriptors ...
Security descriptor verification completed.
                                                                                       
  50331 data files processed.                                            CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
                                                                                       
  41461304 USN bytes processed.                                                            Usn Journal verification completed.

Windows has scanned the file system and found no problems.
No further action is required.

  67047423 KB total disk space.
  37443468 KB in 185278 files.
    157504 KB in 50332 indexes.
    437023 KB in use by the system.
     65536 KB occupied by the log file.
  29009428 KB available on disk.

      4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
  16761855 total allocation units on disk.
   7252357 allocation units available on disk.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Stage 1: Examining basic file system structure ...

Stage 2: Examining file name linkage ...

Stage 3: Examining security descriptors ...

Windows has scanned the file system and found no problems.
No further action is required.

so what's wrong here? I cannot understand..

Patrick, the screen shot you posted is from ATIH 2014 I assume as it is very different to what I see for ATIH 2017?

Acronis will normally only switch to doing a sector-by-sector mode backup if bad sectors or other disk errors are encountered during the backup - this can be for any of the included source partitions.  If you check the log file shown in the boot media application, this should show you what error messages are posted but you have to do this before you reboot the computer as the log is only present after the backup has run and is lost on reboot.

thanks a lot, I'll try that now

my guess is that there's something wrong with the boot sector and/or mft of the drive,as mentioned here:https://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/acronis-true-image-11-wont-comp…

acronis says: "File record corrupted" and "Forced sector-by-sector mode",

any suggestion I can fix it? windows boot normally, so I don't have to format my disk

Patrick, ok, that makes more sense so the next step is to identify exactly which partition is giving this error?  Did the log message mention a partition number?

To resolve this, you need to do a CHKDSK /F against the identified partition, but this may be a hidden/system partition, i.e. the Microsoft System Reserved or EFI partition.  If it is one of these then you will need to go into Windows Disk Management and allocate a drive letter to the hidden partition before you can attempt to run CHKDSK, but remember to remove the assigned drive letter afterwards.

Alternatively, if you have a Windows install or repair disk you can boot from, you could try doing the repair from there, or else create the Windows PE version of the Acronis Rescue Media which will give you the same option and will normally assign drive letters automatically to the hidden partitions to allow you to dothe CHKDSK.

See forum topic: File system error during cloning: 458,777 'File record corrupted for another user who encountered a similar issue with similar advice offered.

chkdsk finds nothing at all but acronis report says:

File System Error 0x70019: File record corrupted

on both my partitions,

it should be similar to this thread:

https://forum.acronis.com/forum/acronis-true-image-echo-and-older-versi…

but no solution found

seems that acronis (rescue/boot time only) faces problems when a recovery partition is deleted,

I even restored those partitions from the acronis backup but still nothing..

I run minitool partitionwizard's surface test and no errors were found

Patrick, do you see this same error when using the ATIH 2017 Rescue Media, if so, then does this occur for both the standard (linux based) and the Windows PE versions of the Rescue Media?

If you do see this same issue with both types of the 2017 Rescue Media, then I would recommend opening a Support Case directly with Acronis to see if they can provide some further help to identify and resolve the root cause of the error?

can I create a standard (linux based) media? I didn't know about that,
my laptop is running windows if that matters and I have tested with both the ATI 2014 & 2017 boot cds with
the same results

it works fine from inside windows and ATI 2014 though, so I should be using that from now on I guess..

I tried to contact support from the page: https://www.acronis.com/en-us/support/trueimage/2017/
but I'm getting an error: "An AJAX HTTP request terminated abnormally." when switching to backup from the drop-down menu

Patrick, the key point about testing the ATIH 2017 Rescue Media is that you have upto 2 years of free support (via live chat or email) with Acronis for that version, whereas your 2014 software is completely out of support.

Yes, you can create both types of Rescue Media from the installed version of ATIH 2017 by using the Acronis Bootable Rescue Media Builder tool.  If you only want the standard, linux media, then you can download an .ISO (CD) image file of this from your Acronis account downloads page and then burn this to CD media.  The Builder tool allows you to create either CD or USB media (provided the USB stick is connected before launching the tool).

What version of Windows OS are you running on this computer?

I have just tried a live support request starting from https://account.acronis.com/#/support (signed in to my Acronis account, then clicking on Support in the left column, which gave me the following panels.  Note: I didn't click on the final button to start the Live Chat session.

oh, I see, the problem is that I haven't registered yet

there's something wrong definitely:

looking again the acronis reports I found a  "bootmgr compressed" and when trying to open
recovery in boot I get:
"There is an invalid object in the Boot Configuration Data Store Error Code 0xc0000024"

I have to find windows 8.1 disc in order to run bootrec,
I'll post here if and whenever there's any update

Patrick, you can use the Microsoft Windows and Office ISO Download Tool to download a copy of the Windows 8.1 Install media (or you can also use the Windows 10 media) in order to do the boot repair actions.  These are official full copies of the install media, for which you would need a valid license to install unless doing so on an already activated system where this will be recognised by the hardware signature.

once again, thanks a ton / lot!

I found a similar tool last night somewhere,
from microsoft I think among others I downloaded
( hiren/easy recovery essentials/windows 7 repair disc/winpe ),
but wasn't able to download windows 8.1,
no luck with these tools either,
while I just need an executable I think,
bootrec.exe should be the key,
 

I'll try yours of course too later

edit: I run it at work (windows 7 installed) and that option is disabled/greyed out!
maybe I'm not allowed to download same windows version?

Patrick, I have been able to download any of the Windows ISO installers when I have used the download tool without seeing any greyed out options, but just trying it again this morning, I too see the Windows 7 option greyed out along with Office 2007, 2010 & 2011 too, so looks like they are no longer able to provide those older versions of Windows!

Just read on the downloader web site where it states:

Removal of Windows 7 and Office in Version 5.00: These downloads have been blocked by Microsoft. We're working on an update. Sending us questions on how long this will take is not gonna speed up the process!

ok, I don't care about those, I have windows 8.1,
just in case,

thanks again

ok, I managed to run bootrec but the errors I get are:

scanos & rebuildbcd : total identified windows installations 0,

while acronis report shows only my system partition with "File record corrupted" and
"invalid partition table/error loading operating system/missing operating system" (in mbr) and
"bootmgr is compressed"

automatic repair fails as well..

Patrick, I have to admit to being somewhat puzzled by this turn of events - this topic started with a question about the difference in backup sizes between the Windows Acronis backup action and the size created by the offline bootable Rescue Media application.

We established that the core issue is that the Rescue Media found "File record corrupted" and this in turn "Forced sector-by-sector mode" to be used, which results in the larger backup size.

My understanding was that you were still able to boot into Windows with no obvious errors being thrown at that point, i.e. that the above corrupt record was only reported by the Rescue Media, that CHKDSK found no errors etc.

Your latest updates would appear to suggest that you now have an unbootable system?

Have you tried to restore back one of your full disk backups, either taken from within Windows or an earlier backup from before the file corruption issue appeared?

Have you tried to open a Support Case with Acronis after registering your ATIH 2017 software?

1) no, my system boots just fine, each and every time,
it was unbootable only for one time, last night, when I decided to format my system partition,
install clean windows (which should fix my mbr and my efi partition) and then restore the acronis image to
its original location -> that deemed the system unbootable, but I managed to fix it by booting to command prompt and running bootrec /fixboot, bootrec /fixmbr, bootrec /scanos & bootrec /rebuildbcd, which worked fine

2) acronis report though still shows that errors, I cannot figure out why...

3) I don't have a full disk backup, because my data partition is always excluded from these kind of backups
(I only synchronize files in that case)

4) I haven't tried to open a case because I don't think it's an acronis issue anymore..
even if I cannot be sure that those acronis messages are 100% accurate...