Same files backed up in different drives show vast difference in size
I am running Acronis True Image Home 2011, Build 6597 to back up 3 Microsoft Access Databases to 2 different USB disk drives, both are Seagate drives. One is a 250 GB Seagate FreeAgent Desktop USB device and the other is a 740 GB Seagate Portable USB device. When I backup these files I get a major difference in the size of the backup. On the FreeAgent drive the space used shows 35.67 MB; on the Portable drive it shows using only 9.71 GB. The 9.71 GB should be the valid size. I have checked and double checked to verify that the same and only the same files are being backed up. I verify which files are being backed up via the Acronis Explore and restore tab. Can anyone shed some light on this? This is my first post here so hope I am in the correct forum.
Any help will be greatly appreciated..................Ralph
Are both drives formatted the same FAT32 or NTFS?
Sorry for such a late reply. I have 2 separate backups of the same files but backing up to different drives. I have deleted the files recreated the backups, verified both were identical; compression 0, single version. First run both were smaller but same size, that was good. Ran a second time and again the expansion drive was 3 times larger, not so good. I have given up using Acronis for backing up these small but important files and just doing a drag/drop via Windows Explorer. I still use Acronis for full pack backups but feel less confident of their validity. Incidentally, validations were run after each backup coming back clean.
Thanks for taking a look............Ralph
Hello and sorry for such a late reply. Both drives are NTFS. Please check my reply to Pat.
Thanks for looking............Ralph
I don't have many ideas. This is weird. If you are running the backups one right after the other, you might have a conflict with accessing the Volume Shadow Service, if the file is open.
So when you double click on the smaller archive, it has the same files in there as the bigger archive? And when you restore these files they all end up having different sizes from the same files in the other archive? Or only a couple of files differ?
Hello Pat, thanks for your input. Yes, it is weird. When I click on the smaller sized backup it shows the same files being backed up. That is why I gave up and went to a drag and drop. I am a little concerned that Acronis may be a bit flaky and not sure it can be trusted for full pack restores. I have read good and bad but due to my experiences with these 2 small backups it sure gives me a not too confident attitude. I just updated to the Home edition 2011 so I will keep looking to see if any other problems occur and are reported in this forum. Seems like the backup validation would flag some kind of problem. Computer software arrrghh!!!!!!!!!!
Best Regards..................Ralph
Validation doesn't tell you anything about the content of the backup, just that the internal checksums in the image are passing and that the integrity of the overall backup is preserved.
If this happen again, double click on the backups and drag and drop the files (files from one backup in one folder, and files from the other backup in the other folder). Then compare the size of the files/folders. This can give us some hint at what is going on.
Good Morning Pat,
This morning I started up Acronis to compare the sizes of the files/folders as you suggested. When it started I got the message that there was a new update, so I downloaded and installed it, build 6696. I then ran the backups again and Lo and Behold the sizes are almost identical; Expansion drive 19.98 GB and the FreeAgent drive 19.99 GB. I am hoping someone in Acronis was tuning in and made a correction although no mention of what this update does, improve or fixing a bug. Since my drag/drop is stored in a different folder via Acronis I will keep running both backups until I am satisified that things appear normal. Still, a little uneasy about it's reliability. Ooops, forgot to respond to your suggestion, you may have missed it in a previous post, when drag/dropping files sizes are the same.
Thanks again Pat................Ralph