How to remove 64 Gb of Acronis temp files (ITZAMLOCK and DAT files)?
I've been running ATI 2015 since April without problems, and ATI 2014 for about a year before that, without problems. ATI Build 6525 on Windows 7. I have a version chain scheme backup in place which backs up my C: SSD once a day to a NAS drive.
I recently discovered that Acronis seems to have created
In summary, ATI seems to have created several thousand DAT and IZAMLOCK files in c:\Users\Me\Appdata\Temp, consuming 64 Gbytes.
This is now causing me a problem because it is filling up my SSD and leaving me short of disk space.
I tried cleaning temp files using Disk Clean-up, but it did not remove all these files.
I have cautiously moved all these files to another location to see if I could safely delete them.
However I do seem to have broken something, because now when I start Acronis the main backup scheme shows a big red X between the source and the destination, and when I click it I get the message
"The specified file does not exist:
\\The path to my NAS backup folders\EMILY_C_drive_2015-07-04_0715_55_full_b11_s1_v2-.tib."
An hour of Googling forums has not produced much insight except to validate that Acronis is the app creating these files.
Any advice on how to proceed?
Leaving the files alone is not an option, I don't have disk space.
Thanks
Fred,
I have an interest in this issue. It seems to affect a small percentage of users with no clear answer as to why this occurs. I have a question for you about your response. I am confident the steps you outlined do indeed eliminate these offending files however, I would like to know if you can confirm that once you do this the creation and accumulation of these files stop. I have read elsewhere that deleting the files does not necessarily stop them from reoccurring. In such cases users did not delete the files as you have suggested and I am thinking this way should do it.
Looking forward to your reply.
Hallo Enchantech
Diese Dateien werden während des Dateibackup erstellt. Ich Bereinigung meine Temp-Ordner in kurzen Abständen.
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The files are created during filebackup. I cleanup my temp folders in short intervals.
Hello G.,
Thanks for the link, I had not seen that one. At this point I was able to determine what these files where and the how and why they are created. The question is that for some users these files, rather than being deleted after a backup is run, remain in the temp folder and continue to grow until they overtake available space on the source drive. I have yet to read a why reason for this to occur nor have I seen a solution to it.
I personally think that what occurs is most likely a corruption in the metadata files that are associated with these temp files which in turn causes them to not be deleted from the temp folder. I have theorized that a flush of the shadow copy files could correct this problem which is what the end result is by the solution offered by Fred. The only downside to this that I am aware of is that in doing this any Windows created restore points will become unusable after performing the suggested solution. Not the end of the world with that but should be considered when going the suggested solution route and the creation of a new restore point should be made after following the suggested solution as sometimes it is a bit easier to use the restore point option rather than a full backup recovery.
So if Fred can confirm that the solution actually stops these files from accumulating in the temp folder and the deletion action designed into the application becomes functional again then we would have the answer. It would be wise however in my opinion to recommend a restore point creation after applying the solution, not absolutely necessary but a good idea all the same.
I am afraid I cannot confirm anything but I did notice that I don't seem to be accumulating any more izamlock files. I managed to fry my ATI install last week and had to redownload from the support site. This wiped out the scripts I had so I recreated them and everything seems to be working.
I do't have a problem recreating a restore point after zapping them all if it gets me back my dead space. A Windows Update will do that for you as well, so there should be at least one every month if you always have updates like I do.
Fred,
Thanks for the post. Sounds like the procedure worked for you, can you say how much time passed before your unfortunate incident that caused you to have to reinstall and when you used disk cleanup on your system drive?
Normally these files build quickly when a user has scheduled backups which sounds like you did.
The procedure you outlined is suppose to remove all but the most recent restore point on your system. My experience with restore points has been that they are not 100% reliable and often any given one might not work. I would think good practice would be to create a restore point immediately prior to the cleanup, then run the cleanup and when complete create another restore point. After you have confidence that the first restore point is not needed then that one can be deleted.
Thanks to all for comments and suggestions. This is what I have done:
- First took a complete full disk backup of C:, in case I broke anything with my existing backup scheme by removing the files. I also made a new Windows restore point just in case
- Removed the offending files using cleanmgr as Fred suggested. I didn't need to get into removing restore points: the tmp files were picked out in cleanmgr's first pass scan. This reduced c:\Users\Me\AppData\Local\Temp from 1736 File(s) occuping 56 Gbytes to 242 File(s) occupying 6 Mb, so I met my main goal of avoiding a disk full crisis. Curiously though, many of the remaining files are .ITZAMLOCK files (example file name VDGK5CAJ~DemonData.swalFile.dat~.itzamlock. But they are all size 0 bytes. The .DAT and .CVR files which were much larger have now all gone.
- When I went back into ATI, I found that my existing backup scheme was now broken: as in my original post, a big red X appeared between source and destination where normally there is a green tick.
- I've therefore now set up a brand new backup scheme. So far I have run it once, and I now have 247 files instead of 242 in the temp folder. But I can't say for sure that the five new files are ATI related.
I'll run the backup a few more times and let you know whether the temp files are still being created or not.
Thanks again for the help.