Small Folder Backups are Massive

Carl, we will need more information here in order to advise you.  There is no way that the size of the backup should exceed the size of the original files unless the 1.5TB file size is the cumlative size of multiple backup images rather than the size of an initial full backup image plus some incremental or differential images?

What options have you selected for your backup of your folder of files?
What backup scheme are you using, i.e. incremental or differential schemes?
How many incremental or differential images are you creating before making a new full backup?
How many version chains (full plus incremental or differential backups) are you keeping?

When you say that the folder files have a high change rate - what does this mean in reality?
Are these document type files with multiple updates, or some other types of common files?
Are you running any regular defragmentation against these files or folder?

If you can post screen shots of the options you have selected and of the resulting backup target directory, that can help us to understand what is going on here.

It may also help if you can post a copy of the service_ log file for the task creating the backups - this will help us to understand what options are in play.  The log file is found in C:\ProgramData\Acronis\TrueImageHome\Logs - this may be hidden on some systems.

Scenario:

 - Acronis True Image 2015 installed on workstation

 - Folder to be backed up hourly resides on network file server and is accessed through a mapped drive

 - target for backup is a network NAS device that is used for archival purposes defined through a UNC path

 - I currently have two backups defined in Acronis.. one for my complete computer to a different NAS device - working fine.. the second backup is the folder in question.. this is producing the massive .tib file

 - basic options for backup - define folders to be included, - I've tried single version scheme, version chain scheme, and incremental scheme.. all of which produce the massive .tib file upon initial backup.  

 - I have made no other backups of this folder.. I am roadblocked at the very first version due to the size of the resulting file.

 - file types in question are excel spreadsheets that are edited several time per day.. often several times per hour and it is critical that they remain as current as possible.

 - no regular defragmentation is being run agains these files

the service log is attached.. it seems to reference files not found, which is untrue.  They are present and browsable.

Carl, thank you for the service log file - see the formatted output for this in the PDF document below.

One interesting thing that is shown in the log are references to multiple drive partitions for C:, G:, T: and R:

There is also reference to drive D: not being available.

Do you have any shortcuts, symbolic links or similar in the folders that you are backing up that are pointing to these referenced drives?  If so, it seems that perhaps the contents of those drives are being included in the backup, which in turn would explain why the resulting image size is so large.

Have you tried exploring the image file to look at exactly what is included?

This is part of my issue.  Why is it scanning other partitions and volumes of my computers and trying to back them up.  It should back up the folders I have specified and ONLY those folders.  

I have two concurrent backups defined.. one for my entire computer and one for the specific folder needed.  

I am unclear how to explicitly exclude these other volumes from the prebackup operations.

What's more.. neither my worstation nor the network server even have a drive 'D'.  I have no idea why the error reading drive D is even ocurring.

Carl, what do you see if you open the 1.5TB image file, that will be a more definite way of telling what exactly is being included in the backup to increase its size so much?