[CRITICAL ISSUE] Complete failure in backup
TI Build 5634, Windows 10.
In short: Backup of 6 GB File History data results in almost 300 GB written by TI.
I use Windows File History to catch every change on my data drive. This is done every 10 minutes or so and the saved data is written to a separate drive, which is an SSD of 100 GB net. For those unfamiliar with File History, this is somewhat like Acronis Nonstop Backup, with the major difference that it is really working. This drive (R:\) holds some 6,2 GB of File History data (-> see picture r1).
To add some security, i.e. to overcome problems with failed builds / failing restores and the like, I use two programs to backup my drives on alternating days. One is TI, the other is O&O Diskimage. They do not differ too much, with Acronis tending to be somewhat quicker and compressing tighter, while Diskimage so far proves to be more reliable. With drive R: however (6,2 GB of data), they differed quite a lot in that Diskimage's backup is around 5,5 GB while TI uses almost 57 GB. Now, File History seems to do a lot of tricky things and probably works kind of incrementally or storing pointers into changed parts of a data file. Diskimage seemed to have understood that while TI obviously tended to "expand" the data it found. Of course, 57 GB out of 6,2 GB is not acceptable. So I changed the setting for this backup to (used) sectors (-> see picture r2) assuming that while TI does not seem to interpret the source correctly but may still do fine with just backing up sectors.
The result however was shocking: TI managed to backup 6,2 GB of data into 296 GB or triple the size of the entire source drive (-> see picture r3 w/ comparison to Diskimage).
So I have a question for you, Your image r1.jpg shows 16 drives and devices. Am I to take it that you have 16 individual drives attached or installed in this machine? It would help if you describe your configuration. Screenshots are great but they suggest a complex configuration so unless we know what that is it will be impossible to offer any meaningful suggestions/solutions.
#BS#,
Selecting the check box next to "Back up sector-by-sector" tells True Image to back up all sectors including the ones without data.
https://kb.acronis.com/content/1543
With the 2015 and 2016's default entire pc backup, it is very easy to accidently include additional partitions or disks in a backup. True Image automatically checks the boxes next to the system partitions when selecting disk and partition backup. Try right clicking the archive and select mount. The mount wizard will then list the partitions in the backup to assign drive letters to. If there is more than one partition listed that would explain the large size prior to selecting "Backup sector-by-sector."
Enchantech,
individual drives on this machine: 3 SSD, 2 HDD, 1 USB (-Stick, Windows Recovery), 1 (USB-) DVD. All SSD are one partition drives (among them drive R:), HDD drives contain one to many partitions. System is Z97 chip set with 4790K (water cooled), 32 GB RAM, Nvidia 970 graphics, 4k monitor, Windows 10 pro 64. HDD are WD 3 TB Red drives. No RAID or Storage Space, all drives on Z97 chip set SATA ports.
So much for the environment, although I do not see what that would matter here. TI does an extremely lousy job here, another program proves that they can do better.
Joey,
only one partition on that SSD. As I mentioned, already the non-sector-by-sector backup by TI consumed the tenfold of what the competitor consumed. The second half of your answer I did not really understand. As you see (my picture r2) I did NOT tell TI to back up unallocated space. And again, there is only one partition on that drive.
#BS#,
You do not indicate if you are or have previous experience with the True Image app so briefly the app works in the following fashion. The user sets up a backup which the application remembers as a task. In the 2015/2016 product the default task is that of what the app calls and Entire PC Backup. This name can be confusing as it must be taken in the literal sense so on a machine with multiple drives such as yours this Entire PC backup is in fact a task that will create a backup of all attached hard disks attached to the machine.
To create a backup task of a single drive in a multi drive system it is necessary to first click on the image in the GUI that says Entire PC which will cause that image to change so that the user can choose disk/partition, or folder/file backup options. On multi disk machines the disk/partition option must be chosen which allows the user to specify which drive or drives they wish to backup.
Might your problem be that in not knowing this you in fact did an Entire PC backup so the app backed up all of your drives?
Enchantech,
I'm using TI at least since version 7 which dates back to 2003. I am in IT for 36 years now, although for the most part in the mainframe sector. Anyway, the "normal" setup to backup that very drive R produced 57 GB. Switching to sectors will surely not make TI get beyond that drive. And also, to backup the entire machine we'd be talking some 2.5 TB here.
All that's not hitting the point. TI is obviously completely helpless when it comes to data structures that go beyond that simple scheme of bread and butter. I mean, for me the answer is quite simple. There's some that can and some that can't. TI can (could?) do quite a lot, that's why I am using it for more than 12 years. When it comes to File History backups however, TI is definitely out of the game. That's why I use more than one software. I am dealing with serveral machines here and I neither have the time nor nerves to play around with tests, restarts or staring at log files.
Easy there fella! Not trying to insult your intelligence, just trying to understand what it is you are doing and what your hardware is.
So now we have at least established that you have a machine with 5 drives 2 of which have a good number of partitions. That's fine. I am glad that you have used TI for a lot of years so you know your way around. That's good as well. Please understand that it is necessary that we establish all this with users whom post to the Forum as making assumptions well, lets say that creates new problems!
If I understand what you are saying correctly is that the TI app has issue with backing up Windows File History backups. Is that correct?
I would be surprised if doing that was even contemplated in development of the application so your probably right the app is not up to the task you asked it to do. Of course if my assumption above is incorrect then possibly there is some other problem going on here. If so I would be at a loss to say what it might be as I cannot remember ever seeing a user question posted like yours. There have been some dating back a long way with the application creating massive amounts of temp files but I don't think that is the case here, or is it? Have you attempted to explore the created backup to see what the contents are?
#BS#
If you don't mind humoring me, will you right click the backup archive containing your drive R and select mount in the context menu like in the screenshot below. This will definitively tell us what was included in the backup task.
Based on the size of your backup when using sector-by-sector, I suspect that that your 237GB system drive was included in the backup task.
Well, Enchantech there' s no way in hell that I even would consider to explore a 300 GB backup obviously full of bull shit. Just think of it. I mean I have quite some resources here but still I would have a hard time in providing both space and time in restoring that amount of data just to find out what I already know. It's not my job to get Acronis' bananas ripe. This is what you have a development team for, quality assurance and all that stuff. I really appreciate the work and effort that you and others do, and that's why I absolutely did not misunderstand your comments, not at all. Also I do not find the appropriate words to express my utmost disgust about the meteoric appearance of some Acronis guys here, answering the easy questions and then disappearing into the shades. This is an Acronis forum. This would be an opportunity for every well managed support team. This could mean a real world source for quality assurance testing. This could provide for the experience of gravity that some programmers seem to lack. None of this I see here being understood by Acronis. This being said by someone who spent half his life in development.
Did not ask you to restore the backup rather, explore it like Joey asks. Looks like your mind is already made up though so guess it really doesn't matter anyway!
Joey, very good proposal indeed! At least a near hit.
See picture -> r8 for a backup on drive R (File History) that is non-sectors, and picture -> r9 for the one on drive R with sectors selected. For drive C (System), which according to your assumption positively IS included and drive R (File History) the free space differs slightly, as these backups were some days apart of each other.
A normal backup of drive C (System) results in some 48 GB being written, while drive R (File History) should max at 6 GB. Makes 54 GB which comes quite near to the 57 GB that are written in a "normal" TI backup of drive R, i.e. writing non-sectors.
Now with the "sectors" backup of drive R (File History), considering the used space, you would come up at about 110 GB (roughly 100 on C, 10 on R) if there were no compression at all. That still does not come near to the 300 GB that this backup produced.
So, again - great hint, although I absolutely have no clue on why the heck drive C got included at all. And there's still the question what causes 300 GB to be written.
#BS#,
Did you look at the other two screenshots that I posted?
By default if you do a disk or partition backup True Image only backs up the used sectors on the selected disks or partitions. When you selected "Backup sector-by-sector," this told True Image to include the unused sectors in the partitions that were backed up. So the 237GB system and the 100GB drive R would be 337GB sector-by-sector without compression. With compression it resulted in your 296GB backup file. True Image automatically selected your system disk when you created the task for drive R. This selection may have been hidden from your view by the 16 drives and the scroll bar.
I would just create a new backup task and make sure the system drive is unchecked and sector-by-sector is unchecked before starting the backup. This should result the expected sized backup. Look closely at the estimated backup size before proceeding with the backup.
The check box for unallocated space refers to space on the disk that does not contain a partition. For instance if your 100GB drive R was the only partition located on a 120GB disk. That check box would have added 20GB without compression to the backup archive.
Thanks again, Joey! I'm signing off now, but I will dive back into this tomorrow and get back on your hints and proposals.