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Starting from Acronis 2021 some Restore points are being deleted time to time

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Starting from Acronis 2021, I noticed that some Restore points are being deleted time to time

It was not so important to me to save old Restore points, but I was very annoyed, that I could not understand why, this was happening.

One day I decided to search for Volsnap messages in Windows Events log file, and found some with ID 95. It was exactly what I needed!

Looking on the message time, I realized, that the only event at this time was Acronis backup start time. To be sure it is a case, I have changed backup start time from 20:30 to 20:40. The next time Restore points have been deleted was at new Acronis backup start time 

I’m sure it began to happen after Acronis upgrade, because I have searched for ID 95 events and they began to appear a couple of days after upgrade. Never before!

Definitely, I do not know why it happens. Also, I do not know, what has to be a total size of all Restore points it to occur – it does not happen during every backup!

Attachment Size
Volsnap Event ID 95 for Acronis.docx 308.74 KB
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Valery,

The deletion of Restore points is a function of Windows System Protection.  Windows allocates roughly 15% of free disk space for Restore point retention.  When that space becomes near full then Windows removes the oldest point(s). 

When Acronis performs a backup is creates a snapshot using the Windows VSS service.  This VSS service is also responsible for Restore point creation.  So VSS looks to see if sufficient space is available for the Acronis requested backup task to complete and if the answer to that is no then VSS removes Restore point(s) to make sufficient space.

Hi,

I know all this stuff, thank you. Also regarding VSS services.

But, as I wrote in the attached document, it happens when only a small part of allocated 17% (80 GB) of system disk  are used:

    VSSresize.bat

    cd C:\Windows\system32

    vssadmin resize shadowstorage /for=C: /on=C: /maxsize=80GB

    exit

Anyway, I tried to change Registry parameter (to be on the safe side) as follows, but it did not help:

Registry parameter HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SystemRestore\cfg changed 15%->25% (percent in hexadecimal f->19) & Reboot

 

Any suggestion?

Valery

P.S. I have changed nothing after I have upgraded Acronis from 2020 to 2021

       

Valery,

I have not looked at this in ATI 2021 but I did some research into ATI 2019, which I'm running on my main PC.

I found that for File/Folder backups, ATI would change the maximum storage from what you had set to 100% first and then restore it after the backup. I also found that if the backup involved more than one drive, it did not restore all the drives correctly. In my case, it always left my C: drive at 100%. So I ended up running a post-command to set it back to 10% as I wanted.

Take a look into the VSS Requestor logs. You will find some ShadowStorageManagement entries which can give you more detail about what is happening during the run. Also, you could run vssadmin list shadowstorage repeatedly during the backup to see how the storage size is changing.

Thank you, Bruno

After backup, vssadmin list shadowstorage shows that allocated  shadow storage returns to its previous value (80GB). So, for me no need to post command.

On the other hand, in VSS logfile I see [VssRequestor][T] ShadowStorageManagement::ResizeStorage: max space: 85899345920, what is more than 80GB, I have set. I'm not sure this is a problem, but I set temporary to be 150GB

C:\Windows\system32>vssadmin list shadowstorage
vssadmin 1.1 - Volume Shadow Copy Service administrative command-line tool
(C) Copyright 2001-2013 Microsoft Corp.

Shadow Copy Storage association
   For volume: (C:)\\?\Volume{56188053-eb3a-4d8d-85e4-98c73eb1f047}\
   Shadow Copy Storage volume: (C:)\\?\Volume{56188053-eb3a-4d8d-85e4-98c73eb1f047}\
   Used Shadow Copy Storage space: 15.4 GB (3%)
   Allocated Shadow Copy Storage space: 31.9 GB (6%)
   Maximum Shadow Copy Storage space: 150 GB (32%)

I'll see what will happen tomorrow, but, as I wrote, deleting one or more Restore points does not happen during every Acronis backup. So, if it will not occur tomorrow, I will continue next day(s).

I also will use your suggestion to run vssadmin list shadowstorage repeatedly during the backup to see how the storage size is changing.

But, as I mentioned, all this mess did not happen under Acronis 2020. 

My opinion is, that it must not happen at all, because it is not Acronis backup who manages my Restore points, but rather me via Windows 10, by means of allocating enough disk space for system protection (Restore points)

:-)

Have a nice weekend.

Valery

 

Hi, Bruno

I did a lot of tests and my final result is - this is a bug and I cannot fix it with known System parameters. May be there are some other Registry parameters I do not know, it is possible :-)

Attached find final results and associated VSS log file.

 

Regards,

Valery

Attachment Size
590332-295627.docx 184.33 KB
590332-295629.log 39.98 KB

Valery, I've done some searching but not coming up with a good answer.

This issue has been reported for years. I don't believe it's an issue with Acronis, but rather with the way VSS works. It's just that Acronis is taking snapshots so that's when the MS code comes into play and deletes old restore points.

Why did it just start with the latest release? I suspect it may be related to some other system changes that occurred around the same time. Windows updates happen often. Or, perhaps a change in one of your backup tasks?

After looking around for the last hour into various reports over the past many years, I didn't see people finding a satisfactory fix.

Bruno,

Thank you very much for your investigation. As I wrote, this bug does not bother me, but rather annoy me.

I have scheduled my personal task to create Restore point every Saturday morning, but till now it has never been deleted by discussed "bug". Sometimes I need to go back to a later Restore point, but still there remains enough.

Regarding the bug itself. Working whole my life with computers, I don't believe in chance!

As I wrote, I have searched for Event ID 95 a year back and found a first one some time after Acronis upgrade. On the other hand, as you wrote, during this time there were some automatic Windows 10 updates.

So, let us decide that it is Microsoft bug (they have a lot of junk within their system, we all know it!), to make it easier to Acronis :-) 

One more time, thank you for a help.

Regards,

Valery