Windows 7 X64 "system reserved" partition not enough free space error when recovering

Normally, when you perform a disk restore (checkmarking the disk), your only restore choice becomes its destination and this is at disk level. It sounds like you are restoring multiple partitions rather than checkmarking the disk.

Try either checkmarking the disk for restore;
or checkmark and restore only the main user partition. Do not check any of the other options.

What brand computer are you referencing or how are the partitions pictured inside Windows Disk Management.

Hi Grover,
Thank you for your reply.. I understand the questions you've asked so I'd like to give you a more detailed synopsis of my machine and the proceedures I have followed in order to get to this point. The first question regarding the type of computer.. I have a custom pc that I have built using an ASUS mainboard and an AMD Phenom II X6 processor. The hardware has all been purchased within the last 3 months. The operating system is windows 7 64bit Ultimate. The drives are both seagate 2TB models that are SATA-3 compliant. I have tried running the drives in SATA-2 mode and the resulting error is still repeated. The motherboard offers features like onboard raid or AHCI connectivity and just a simple IDE configuration. I have tried using both AHCI and IDE for both disks. Either way the drives are detected just fine and the data can be read from the backup drive without flaw. As I stated previously though when the attempt to recover the data from the boot media environment is made I am presented the error that there isn't enough free space on the destination partition. The partitions that exist in the backup are identical to the partitions that are on my ususal windows environment. Meaning I have windows installed to one disk. Windows 7 of course has the system reserved partition of 100mb that it creates automatically when windows is first configured. Then there is the C: partition that is the remaining free space on the disk equaling about 1.89 TB. So my configuration for windows is 1 drive with 2 partions. This is default with any windows 7 instalation. There are no 3 party recovery partitions or out of windows media environment partitions. When I view the partitions that nonstop backup has available to recover they are exactly as the partition table should be for my environment. So I begin the process of recovery by booting off of the recovery media cd I created with acronis. The cd loads to the prompts of boot choices and I select load acronis home 2011 full version, not safe version, and not generate system report or boot to windows. The full acronis recovery enviroment loads without failures and I am presented with the tabs Home, Backup, Recover, tools etc. I choose recover my disks from the home tab. No problems at all with these first few steps.. I am then asked to choose a backup set to recover in the Archive Selection area. The software automatically recognizes the nonstop backup set that is stored on the second hard drive. I choose the non-stop backup and click next. The next option is Recovery Method and I choose to recover disk and partions rather than the files or folders option. After that I am directed to the Recovery Point selection where a calendar is available to choose a specific day to recover with a list of times that appears to the right. I choose the day and time I would like to recover to. Next I am directed to the place where in your reply I believe you are referring to. This is the only place where I am given a choice regarding drives or partions. There is a check box next to the C: drive and a list of the partitions available below. By placing a check in the box next to C: the software will by default check every partition on the drive. when I clear checks for individual partitions the check next to C: is defaulted back to clear. So I check the box next to C: and by default it chooses all the partions including mbr, 1-1 (system reserved 100 MB) and C:\(windows partion 1.8TB). I press next and I am directed to a screen entitled partion 1-1 configuration. This is where the error occurs every time. I am asked on this screen to select a destination for this restored partion entitled 1-1. I choose the unallocated space of 1.89 TB on the first disk in my computer. This space is unallocated because I used drive cleanser to remove all of the existing partitions. So immediatley after I choose the destination and click next the system pauses and then about 10 seconds pass before an error report saying there is not enough free space on the destination partion. So in an effort to rememedy this I have tried to create the empty partition of the appropriate size on the destination disk. Even after creating the identical partition and even a greater sized partition of 500MB on the destination disk I am still presented the same prompt when attempting to recover the system reserved partion or partition 1-1 as acronis has labled it. I can recover all of my C:\ partition and even the mbr. but without the system reserved partition the computer will not boot. I would like to see something like you are talking about where I can just choose and destination drive and the program will replicate the partitions from nonstop backup but I don't get any choices like that. I am automatically prompted to configure both sizes and destinations for every partition I am trying to recover. I hope this synopsis may help you determine if the fault is mine.. I pray I am only overlooking the obvious here but I don't think I am.. Anything you can do to help is greatly appreciated..
Terry

Terry,
I have not tried or used Non-stop backup so maybe somebody else can help. In the meantime, perhaps a couple of my guides can give you some ideas. Click on my signature link below and check item 3-BB, and items 3-CC & 3-DD may be of interest. You will get your best results when booted from the TI Rescue CD. The 3-Bb Compaq sound the most similar to your install.
Grover

Terry,
What about this:
- create the system reserved partition manually, offset 1024bytes, primary, NTFS, active. Do it from the Windows 7 installation DVD with diskpart (do a disk clean first, then recreate also other partitions you want).
- restore your C:\partition, MBR Track 0, Disk signature from the ATI CD
- restore also all files and folders within System Reserved to the partition or to a temporary destination and then use the Win installation dvd' s command prompt to copy all these files to the right partition
- reboot,
- if necessary, do a startup repair of your system with the Win installation DVD.

I forgot to specify that all files in the system reserved partition are hidden, protected system files. So you need to corresponding options in Windows Explorer to see them.

Hi. I am having the exact issue with my Win 7 64 bit system(Win7 Pro). I consistently get the "Not enough free space on the partition" message when the bootable media attempts to mark the System Reserve partition. I couldn't have explained the whole process better than you did. Anyway I was on the phone with higher level Acronis support for a couple of hours today and they finally decided to send me the links to build the WinPE disk with the Acronis plug in as they did with you. I created the disk and booted and I have the same interface that shows with the bootable media that I was first using that I created with TI 2011 in my programs. But, you say this WinPE disk process worked for you. It did not for me! I am getting the same results with the "Not enough free....." error. Where are you at with the whole thing at this point? Thanks.

One option you might try is to restore the partitions separately.

1. On first selection as to what is to be restored, choose the first partition as shown in Disk Management.
Do the restore. After the restore, do not reboot, but return to the selection menu and reselect the same backup file.
2. Select the second partition as shown in the Disk management.
Do the restore.. after the restore , repeat the procedure and restore each partition individually.
3. After all partitions restored, then restore the MBR/tradk0 plus checkmark the "Recover Disk Signature". This option is located on the same screen as selected the target disk.
4. Now shutdown for the first time and remove any necessary disks.
5. Reboot for the first time with only the newly restored disk attached.

Hello Daniel,
I had gone through about 3 or 4 days of trying different approaches to help True Image out with this bug and to no avail. Each of the suggestions made were attempted along with several hours of my own brute force attempts at a solution. I finally got this recovery accomplished by not relying on the boot media at all. I was able to reinstall windows 7 off of an instalation DVD. Then afterward I reinstalled the true image home 2011 in the new windows environment. Then using the recovery environment from within windows I was able to restore the data only. I don't recommend trying to restore the programs that were installed in this manner. So I spent about a week or so in my spare time restoring my machine to it's former glory..LOL Do a little hunting and gathering for the applications you'll need to reinstall before you do the windows restore and data recovery and it should be accomplished in a day or so. Let me know if you are having difficulties finding some of the applications you'll need and I may be able to track them down and upload them to a webserver for you.

Thanks Terry for responding. Believe it or not I was finally able to restore from the Non Stop to another drive using the bootable media!.First off, this is not critical for me as my main hard drive didn't crash and is running fine. I was trying to test the Non Stop backup and restore process with the CD because I recently switched from making manual TI backups to using Non Stop. I needed to see if the restore would work. I have restored from my manual backup a few times(TI 2010 and 2011 Pro Plus) in the past successfully on my own system and a few times I have done images on the fly for customers(I am a PC tech) who were having hard drive issues and these all went without a hitch.

So here is what I did that worked. I decided to first go into "Tools and Utilities" on the CD interface and "Add Disk" to create a partition on my blank 2TB Hatachi that I was intending to restore too. It was plugged into the USB dock. I decided to make a partition for the System Reserve that was causing all the trouble on the 2TB. I made this partition the same size as the entire drive that my OS was on (Win 7 Pro 64 bit). The Acronis CD Add Disk tool showed that it was 569.1 GB. Its a 640GB Western Digital drive. So it was easy to create this 569.1 GB partition on the Hatachi.

Then I went through the regular recovery process. It showed my Non Stop. I picked a data and a time ( most recent). Chose "whole disk or partition" ,I think is what they call it, as opposed to Files and Folders. Next. Partition 1-1. Choose location. I pointed to the new 569.1 GB partition on the Hatachi. The default partition size showed the size of this partition. This is where both of us were getting caught. Before I set aside this hugh partition I was picking the Hatachi (all unallocated) and the "default partition size " that Acronis chose was 95MB which is the size of the System Reserve partition on my system. This is where I would get the "Not enough free space on this partition". But using the 596.1 GB partition I had created it went through to the next step. I was hoping that if it all worked I would be able to resize this partition with a partitioning tool once I was back into Windows on the recovered drive. The next step was for the "C" partition. I chose the rest of the Hatachi(unallocated) for this location and left the "default partition size" alone. I don't remember now what it was going to use but is had plenty of room.

So this went through and next step was where to put the MBR. I put it of course on the Hatachi. I check "include Disk Signature". I think that this is important. It gave me a summary of what it was going to do. I went ahead and Proceeded and like 4 hours (or more) it completed successfully!

I took the Hatachi out of the USB dock and connected it to that SATA cable on my board that was being used for my regular drive. It booted fine and loaded the OS. It did do a "Preparing Desktop..." which I didn't like and when the desktop came up it needed to install driver for the new HD I think and wanted a reboot.

On reboot it was doing "Preparing desktop..." again and when it loaded there was a message that Windows was using a temp Profile and a note that any files I created would be destroyed after I logged off. In System Properties Windows was showing that my regular Profile status was "backup". I realized that this couldn't be good. But all my programs were there and I could access all my data. I just created a new fresh Profile and did the copy everything from my old profile except ntuser.dat and the two other files that your not supposed to copy to my new Profile, logged off and on to new Profile and everything seemed cool! I used Easues Partition Master that I have on my system and shank back the large partition I had created for the System Reserve. One interesting thing about this was that orginally Acronis was saying the the size of the System Restore partition on my system was 95MB(not all used) but after the restore in Disk Management it was showing the 596.1 GB partition for SR with 118MB used. I decided to resize it from the 596.1GB to 150MB to be a bit more than the 118MB. This worked OK.

So as a test it was doable for me. What I think is that I will likely just stick to manual TI backups instead of the Non Stop as they seem to be free of these bugs that we've discovered.