Acronis True Image 2018 consumes 4GB of disk space every time it runs
Over the last few months I noticed that the free space on my C: drive gets reduced by about 4GB per week for about 3 weeks and then it gets freed-up. Nothing I do during these weeks frees the space. At first I thought that it might be windows that's downloading potential updates but that was not the case. This sort of behavior seemed a bit strange, so today I noticed that this occurred after I started Acronis True Image to backup by C: drive.
I am running the latest version of Acronis True Image 2018 - Update 4 - Build 12510, on Windows 10 Pro Version 1803 (OS Build 17314.254).
Does anyone have any idea about this behavior?
Thanks,
George


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Hi Steve,
Thanks for your help. I downloaded, installed and ran TreeSize Free. I noticed that the System Volume Information folder was using about 11.4 GB of the C: drive. I then went to the System Protection section (Control Panel\System and Security\System) System Properties and noticed that I had for the C: drive the System Protection was enabled (ON). Then clicked on the "Configure ..." button and noticed that the Max Usage was set to the entire size of the C Partition. I must admit that I do not remember when/whether I had set that. Regardless, I deleted all the restore points and it freed over 11 GB of space (I changed the Max Usage to 10% of the Partition Size, even though I doubt that I will use the Windows Restore feature because I use Acronis True Image for backup and restore).
What I find interesting though (and that is what confused me regarding the loss of space on the C: drive) is that when I tried to free up space using the "Disk Cleanup" feature of windows, even though I selected to cleanup the "System Restore and Shadow Copies" as well, the space was not being freed. I wonder if this is a windows bug (or rather "feature").
All said. now I know where to look at next time.
George
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George, thanks for the update, glad that TreeSize Free helped identify where the space was going. System Protection tends to be turned off by default by Microsoft these days so a little strange that yours was set to such a large volume. ATI uses the System Volume Information folder storage space was creating / storing snapshot data when making backups, so this would add to that space usage too.
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Hi Steve,
Thanks for the information. I have a question (excuse the ignorance). What does ATI do when System Protection is turned off for the C: drive and one tries to back it up?
TIA
George
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George, System Protection, whether turned on or off, does not affect the ability of ATI to backup your drive C:
When using the normal backup settings, ATI will store snapshot data in the same System Volume Information folders as used by System Protection.
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