Backup files are huge
I just installed TI 2013 on a new build with a fresh install of Windows 8. After driver updates and installing my baseline apps, the system drive is using about 50Gb of space on a 320Gb drive (actually 2 320Gb drives in RAID 1). I have turned off system restore in Windows and am booting from the TI boot disk I created. A full backup, with the sector-by-sector option turned OFF, creates a backup file of 277Gb. I have deleted the file and retried 3 times with similar results. The program estimates the file size will be around 30Gb, instead it's nearly 300Gb.
I have used TI since the 2009 version and never experienced this. Am I missing something obvious or what is going on?
Thanks for any help or advice.
Make sure that there is no defragger running either while making images or after images have been made, this will result in very large files being made by True Image.
If the problem happens again, try a repair install before restarting the head scratching procedure :)
Colin, thanks for the reply but I think you misread something in my post. I'm backing up while booted from the CD when the problem occurs, there is no defragger running in that environment. As for your other suggestion, a repair install of what exactly? Again, this problem is only occurring when booted from the CD.
Ihave opened a ticket with support and am sending them reports, logs, and pictures of the issue, so if we ever get it solved I'll update this thread. Thanks.
My error, i thought you were working from within Windows.
Have you run chkdsk /r from within Windows on both disks?
True Image will revert to sector by sector if it can't read the drive properly or if there are any disk formats it doesn't recognise.
The other thing that can cause this to happen is if for some strange reason the disk/RAID controller isn't recognised by Linux.
TI is seeing the RAID as just one disk isn't it?
Ahh, no, I haven't run checkdisk on the disks in question in quite a while, it's worth a shot. However, I suspect it's more likely your second suggestion causing the problem. It would seem to me that a bad disk would cause problems whether running TI from Windows or from boot disk, but the controller...hmm. That definitely could explain why it's working properly in Windows but not from the recovery disk. Although, I'm using the Intel Z77 chipset. It's fairly new but not so new that I'd expect issues.
Yes, TI sees the RAID as a single disk from both environments. Everything looks kosher and the backup itself is successful and validates ok. It's just enormous. Thanks for the suggestions.
richj44,
Can you mount the image in question and look at it visually-- also how many partitions are included in the mount after the mount is completed.
Does the backup include any *.tib backup files?
Just barnstorming......
Grover,
I've browsed the image (using "recover files") and it "looks" exactly as it should, but I haven't tried mounting it. I'll give that a try this evening when I have some time.
Thanks!
Oops, missed the question about the .tib files. No, it doesn't. Those are always stored on the dedicated backup drive.
I mounted the latest 297Gb backup file (backup of my 67Gb system drive) when I got home. Two partitions, the regular system drive, which looks identical, when mounted, to the original drive, and the system reserve partition created automatically by Windows 8. Which again, looks identical to the original. I hate to do it, but I guess I'm going to have to compare every file and folder in the image to the original to see if I can find the discrepancy. Maybe that will tell me something.
Ugh...
Perhaps a progam like TreeSize Free could help.
Open the MyCompuer icon and from your windows explorer, use the program to open two windows side by side. Each window would ge a drive letter.
Each window would a listing of your folders and their sizes for that letter.
You could open C for real and then mounted C for example.
http://download.cnet.com/TreeSize-Free/3000-2248_4-11653027.html
Actually, Grover, I just paid attention to what I was seeing when I mounted the backup file. There are two partitions like I said - the System partition and the reserve partition - and both are identical in size with the actual drive that was backed up, when viewed in Explorer. Same size exactly, just like they should be. Yet the backup file which, when mounted, produced this, is almost 300 Gb. The system drive shows "224 GB free of 297 GB" on both the actual disk and the mounted image. The reserve partition on the actual drive doesn't show up in Explorer, but it can be viewed in Disk Manager, and it's only 240 MB. The partition on the mounted image does show in Explorer, and it's 240 MB as well.
Apparently I have a lot of empty or garbage data in the backup file? I wonder what would happen if I restored it to a spare disk.
Just an update to close out this issue. I worked with Acronis support for a couple of weeks and they were unable to resolve it. Finally I decided to replace the RAID 1 drives I was using with a single 640GB drive. Since doing so the problem has disappeared; all my backups are working properly and are the correct size. So either the drives themselves or the RAID configuration was causing something bizarre to happen when doing the backups. Kind of wish we'd been able to find the root cause but at least things are working now.