Full image backup files much larger than files on disk
I am running TI 2015 (build 6613) on my office laptop to backup the 240 GB SSD. The disk is split in two equally sized partitions of 111 GB. According to Windows Explorer, 155 GB are free -> 56 GB are occupied by files.
Until recently, I was running Win7 and my tib files were around 50-60 GB in size.
After I updated to Win10 the tib files are now 190 GB and consequently, the backup takes much longer.
I checked backup settings more than once; I am doing a "Full" backup with "Normal" compression and it's not running in sector-by-sector mode.
Any idea what could be the reason for this increase?
If you upgraded from Win7 to Win10 I suspect you have a Windows.old folder and a new recovery partition too.
Screenshots of your disk in file explorer, disk manager and your Acronis backup source would be helpful.
Thank you, Steve and Bobbo for your replies.
Meanwhile, I have been able to remove the issue for me. I noticed that obviously after the Win10 upgrade I installed the wrong version of ATIH, namely 2015 instead of 2016 which I had been using before with Win7.
With ATIH 2016 the backup process is similar to what is was before, in terms of image size and duration.
//Karsten
Thanks for the update, glad to read that your backups are back to how you want them to be.
I have the same problem, using ATIH 2015. I am trying to back up a new laptop with a few programs installed. C: is 223 GB with 175 free, so 47 GB used. But the tib file is 198 GB.
Log file and images of the backup and settings are attached. There are error codes in the logfile.
Walt, it may be defaulting to sector-by-sector if there is disk corruption. The log doesn't show this, but based on the size of the actual disk and incorporate some compression, and that looks like the size that a sector-by-sector backup would be in this case. I would run chkdsk C: /f /r on the OS disk and see if it finds errors and repairs them and then see if the backups get smaller after that.
I also note that the estimated backup in a couple of your screenshots is much more than the amount of used space (111.1GB vs 46GB according to your notes above - we can't actually see how much used space is in use on that disk in any of the screenshots though).
https://forum.acronis.com/sites/default/files/comment_attachments/2019/09/511412-171940.png
I also note some errors in your log that show that other expected backups are missing. In a single version scheme, you'll only have one at at time (well, technically two and then one will be deleted), but did you manually remove any backups in file explorer?
event id="43" level="1" module="4" code="10" time="1567646456" message="Error occurred while creating the file." line_tag="0xF35F747B3B21F8C0" hide="1" />
<event id="44" level="2" module="316" code="0" time="1567646456" message="Operation: backup" />
<event id="45" level="3" module="485" code="35" time="1567646456" message="The specified file does not exist: D:\Acronis Backups\TIM Laptop Provisioned_full_b2_s1_v1.tib." line_tag="0x4D3F22948E29F1C0" >
<event id="46" level="3" module="11" code="127" time="1567646456" message="The initial full backup version is not accessible at the moment." line_tag="0x65E40AA0B487145" hide="1" />
<event id="47" level="3" module="4" code="17" time="1567646456" message="The specified file does not exist." line_tag="0xF35F747B3B21FC06" hide="1" />
Bobbo, thanks for your reply.
Wouldn't the logfile say if it had defaulted to sector-by-sector?
Disk statistics are attached.
Yes, I deleted some backups.
I ran chkdsk as suggested. It ran on reboot and took a while, but didn't give any indication of whether errors were found, and there is no chkdsk log in the system event viewer (!). Then I started another backup. I didn't finish it, as it was clearly going to create another large file.
I tried backing up one of the small hidden partitions on the SSD, a partition with 0.1 GB of 0.6 GB in use, and that created a properly sized (50 MB) file.
Walt,
Thanks for the screenshot. Yeah, it should be much smaller if this is a disk/partition backup and not an "entire PC" backup.
As you've run a test on one of the smaller hidden partitions with success, perhaps try to test each partition on the source drive individually and see if one of them is what results in a larger backup. That might pinpoint where a disk error could be hiding.
Chkdsk only scans actively mounted partitions (C: drive). There could be corruption in the recovery partition or the bootmanager partition - you can only run chkdsk on those if you assign them a volume letter and Windows doesn't make that easy. You could assign them a letter with minitool partition wizard and then run chkdsk on them too.
Also, make sure to run chkdsk on the destination drive too - just in case.
I would think the True Image log file would show if the backup is using sector by sector. I grabbed that other log info from your system report you attached and it was in there. Have you checked the local logs with the MVP logviewer tool to see if it shows sector by sector being used?
Bobbo,
The problem is with backing up C:. I tried that partition alone and the problem occurs.
I installed a trial version of ATHI 2016 and it created a properly sized backup of the entire drive - 37 GB.
I reinstalled 2015 and it still fails.
However it can mount the backup from 2016, so I assume I could restore from it if necessary.
Since this is a precautionary backup of a laptop I won't be using myself, I'm going to declare success. I assume I would have to pay to update to 2016 or later, so I'll just drop the subject.
From my and the OP's experiences, I wonder if there is something in the latest Windows 10 installs that 2015 can't cope with but was fixed in 2016.
Interesting find - yeah, I can't remember anything major in 2015 to 2016 that would prevent a backup. However, they did change the method that the Windows PE recovery media worked (although they did not really support WinPE rescue media creation either). Our MVP rescue media builder only works with 2016 and newer as well so maybe there is something to it. And if CHKDSK /F /R C: doesn't identify issues and/or fix them, then I'm not sure either.
You could also try running SFC /Scannow on the OS to see if there are OS errors and see if it can fix them. And if it finds errors and can't fix them, then you could try dism repair
https://www.windowscentral.com/node/38864
Just possibly, there is a problem in the OS that 2015 is choking on that 2016 is handling better.
Last, and another possibility - if you try 2015 again, shut down the computer with shutdown /f /p first (to force a full shutdown) which will avoid a potential issue with a fastboot hibernation file locking the C: partition. If 2016 can handle this, but not 2015, it's not likely the case, but worth a shot.
Perhaps someone knows why my Full Image backup is twice the size of the imaged drive?
I just purchased a Seagate 18 TB USB 3.1 drive specifically for storage (Model # STKP1800402), and am in the process of making new backups of computer drives on this device.
My main working system has a WD 2 TB SSD (WDS200T2B0A - 2 TB SSD). When I made a full backup of that drive using ATI 2018. It hung at the end.
So, I rebooted and (1) attempted to delete the 1st file – it would not let me. The 18 TB drive is fully shared with full access to both Administer and Everyone security accounts.
After determining that I could not delete that file I made a second backup of the drive in the same directory on the storage device using ATI 2018.
This backup appears to have been completed correctly, HOWEVER, the file size is twice as large as the SSD from which it was made!
See screenshots and the latest Log file
Dear JCtheWizard,
Thank you for reaching out and sorry for the delay in response. As we can see in our internal systems, you have an open case for Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office but we cannot see Acronis True Image 2018 mentioned in the comment. However, we would recommend checking this article: Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office, Acronis True Image: Common backup errors | Knowledge Base in order to resolve the problem.