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Failure to fully back up disk

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Over the past week TI 2013 has suddenly started to behave strangely , when programmed for a full back up of my hard drive it reports that it has backed up and validated the disk , the size of
the back up is reported as being 65.6 GB on three attempts .
Previous full back ups report a size of 393.68 GB so clearly something is wrong , the content of the disk is 498 GB . Compression selected as Normal in each case .
I have tried the following :-
1). download to three different destination disks .
2). I have downloaded TI 2013 again and re installed with the same result .
3).Inspecting the back up some folders appear to have no content e.g My Documents

I am wondering if it is only backing up one account for some reason e.g. Public
Or possibly doing incremental back up even though Full is selected .

My System is 32 bit W7 Pro 1x 1TB master , 1x2TB slave , 3xUSB backups

I would be grateful for any suggestions .

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Donald,

Would you clarify, are you making a complete disk image or files and folders backup?

Are these a full plus incrementals or just full image/backups?

Which USB drive are your saving the tib files on?

Colin,
Thank you for your interest , to answer your question this phenomena has occurred on disk image back up attempts

both " stand alone full bk up image " and also attempted " incremental disk image " where of course the first file should

be a full back up .

With regard to the drives it has occurred using 1)a 2TB internal SATA drive 2 ) A Samsung Story external USB drive

3) A Westinghouse external USB3 drive 4) An Astone ESATA drive all of these drives have been in use for Acronis back

ups without difficulty for the past three years , obviously only one at a time is connected , however in an attempt to

trouble shoot I have tried them all in turn .

In frustration and desperation I have fallen back on Macrium Free which is working without a hitch .

Thank you for your interest .

Don R (:-)

Does the reported size of the images match what Windows Explorer says they are?

A 410 GB drive (used space) using normal compression results in a full image of about 80 - 100 GB in size - these figures are from my PC which includes some compressed files that will not have been compressed much further. Your current image sizes could be in the ball park if the contents of your drive are able to be compressed more than mine.

I would say your initial image size is the one that seems strange.

If you explore or mount these images does everything seem to be there?

Colin ,
Thank you for your patience , to answer your question ,

1). yes the size reported in W Explorer matches that in Acronis

2 ) I have found that if I explore the "My Documents" folder in recent back ups it is consistently empty ,

this was a major cause of concern for me . However I find as a result of your suggestions that if I go to the

Library Documents folder they all seem to be there. ( Whew !)

3 ).I have used Acronis versions since inception and I do not recall this being the case previously .

4 ) The aspect I find difficult to understand and that gives rise to some anxiety is that going back over

four earlier full backups they report the size around 390 Gb for the 1Tb drive and I know that I have been able to

restore satisfactorily from these back ups . Could there be such a major difference in compression in the 2013 version ?

In each case Normal compression has been used . My sincere thanks for your assistance . Don R

It seems unlikely that there could be that order of magnitude difference in compression ability.

The blank or empty file when viewing via Windows Explorer is a permissions problem.

What happens when you mount an image? We are definitely talking about complete disk images, as a complete disk backup up using Files and Fodlers can't be mounted.

Has this problem occurred after either a Windows or some other software update?

Is the PC under control of a company IT department, where an upgrade or group policy could have been enacted without your knowledge?

Colin ,
Apologies for my tardy response , I have been kept very busy with other problems , as you suggested I have mounted one

of my test images ( 64.7 GB reported ) and as far as I can tell all seems to be in order I am particularly relieved to find

My Documents apparently all there .

The computer is a stand alone home office , not networked , in trouble shooting I removed

a couple of programmes that I thought might interfere with drive access , but this made no difference .

I realise it may not be meaningful but a Full Macrium B up with normal settings reports a size of 403 GB final size .

I am wondering if there was a change in size reporting between versions i.e. did 2012 version report the size that was

backed up rather than the final back up size in the 2013 programme ?

In any event many thanks for your advice and assistance , and patience .

Sincerely Don R (:-)