Discrepency in Backup Size

Suddenly Attachments appeared.  I will complete the screeenshots.

Fred, thanks for posting the above and sharing some of the interaction from your previous locked post.

When I have encountered the delay / wait with such as 26MB processed, this has been because ATIH has just completed backing up an initial smaller hidden partition and has now invoked the Microsoft VSS service to create a snapshot for the next much larger partition, i.e. your Windows OS partition, and the wait is for this process to be completed.

You can test this for yourself by creating several individual backup tasks, one for each of the partitions that are being included in your main 'Entire PC' backup, where you will see that the smaller partitions will be completed very quickly but the significantly larger OS partition will exhibit the long wait time again.

Thanks for your informative and encouraging reply.  I was previously told to use "Entire PC."  Now I have beeen told to use "Disks and Partitions," so I will run this backup tonight for comparison.

Fred

Fred, cross-referenced to post: 126613: Backup Size Incorrectly Reported in the ATIH 2017 Forum.

Ran Disks and Partitions (Full Partitions) successfully, 1TB (Local Disk 1.04TB) backed up in 4 hours (start of Validation).  Much faster than Entire PC backup.

Now, dare I tend once again to my wife's computer, where the reported backup size is less than 50% of the used Local Disk size?  This was part of my initial query regarding backup size on both computers?  Never could get a logical explanation or fix, but you seem to be a great possibility.  Any suggestions about the huge discerpency in my wife's backup?

Fred, the best approach with your wife's computer will be to make a fresh set of backups based on Disks & Partitions and not using Entire PC.  If you create a new backup task and point this to a new folder on your external backup drive, then this will give you a clearer picture of what the backup size should look like.  This assumes that you have the free space to do this as otherwise you may need to do some housekeeping for old backups first.

The screenshots of my wife's Acronis True Image 2016 show the results of her fresh, new Disks and Partitions (full Partitions) Backup.

I had hoped that the 2016 update was going to correct the size discrepency, since a missing relevant dll has been discorvered in True Image 2016, slated to be fixed in 2917.  No Luck.  The backup size is less than half the necessary backup.  The backups are failing in accuracy

Hope the pictures tell the whole story regarding the erro, and reveal enough to show clearly whaata has to be fixed.

Bt Conmparison, the backup of my 1.04TB Local Disk is 1.0TB This is consistent and reasonalbe.

What's wrong on my wife's computer running Acronis T rue Image 2016?

Fred, I am not sure that I see a problem based on your latest three screen shots.  What I see is that your wife's source drive has a maximum of 125.3GB of used data to potentially be backed up as per your 1st image showing the partitions selected and their sizes.

Next, I see that Acronis is showing a backup size of 40.7GB for this same backup task which is confirmed by the actual size of the backup of 40.6GB shown by the file properties in Windows Explorer.

What I cannot see from these images is what has been excluded from your backups via the Exclusions tab in the task configuration and the size that such exclusions may add up to, plus I cannot see what types of documents make up the bulk of the data in the initial 125.3GB of used data and how much this can be compressed.

If you can post the task log for the backup task that created the 40.6GB backup file in your images, that would help fill in some of the missing information.  Logs are held in C:\ProgramData\Acronis\TrueImageHome\Logs folder where you are looking for a service_ log file name with the date/time stamp of 31/10 at 3:24 per your images.

Fred, the smaller size may not be a concern...

1) What are in your exclusions on the exclusisions tab.  I would recommend any related to Browsesrs (chrome, Firefox, etc) as you want those to be backed up so you can restore your favorites down the road.

However, the other exclusions which include Acronis .tib files, recycle bin, pagefile, hiberfile.sys, swapfile.sys and System volume information can account for a lot of storage space on an active OS drive, that really have no bearing on a restore.   

What is the size of your page file, hibernation file, temp directory, recycle bin, etc?

2) Acronis uses compression by default.  this is not disk compression and is good for backups as it saves space and makes the process go faster.  It's kind of like using 7zip or Winzip, but in a proprietary Acronis True Image Backup (.TIB) format.  If you remove all exclusions and run a full backup, chances are that your resulting backup will be roughly 20-30 smaller, but will include a munch of wasted backup space for also backing up hiberfile.sys, pagefile.sys, etc. 

3) They type of data in a backup will determine the compression.  Pictures, videos, music are already highly compressed.  If your 1TB drive has mostly these types of files, the backup size will be closer to the size of the original data on the disk.  Also, chances are, the default filters don't exclude anything on your data drive either since most of the default exclusions are directed towards tempoary Windows OS files like recylebin, hibernation files, pagefiles, temp folders, etc. 

Here are screenshots relevant to my wife's computer. I hope these help to explain the huge discrepancy in backup size.

Fred Paul Merrett

Unfortunately, they don't.  The one thing that would a little here is to show the properties of the C: drive itself and how much space is currently being used.  Then, here's what I'd do...

Download one of these free tools - mindgems folder size or treesize free and install.  These are file/folder compare utilities and are free.

Once insalled, navigate to your backup file and right click >> acronis >>> mount and assign a drive letter. 

Once the backup is mounted as a drive letter, open your newly downloaded file view software by right clicking and run as administrator.  Point it to the root of your c: drive and scan it.

Open a second instance of the software by right clicking and run as administrator and do the same thing but point it to the mount letter of your backup.  

After scanning, both side by side, look and see where there are large file differences and then investigate.  Look for large files like hiberfile.sys, pagefile.sys and see if they are on one but not both (shouldnt' be in the backup).  Then look at system volume information which should not be in the backup eitherr, but could be quite large on the actual system.  Other folders like recycle bin or temp directories in user profiles may have  a big difference as temp files will not backup either.

My wife's Local Disk menu and properties, showing the used space that is only partially backed up by Acronis Full Disk and Partitions process.

Fred

OK, she does have 117Gb in use, but again, Acronis will not backup many types of files that are only active when the computer is actively running the OS.  Files are filtered out by default such as Recycle.bin, Hiberfile.sys, pagefile.sys, any directory or file that has TEMP in the name, system volume information which stores Windows restore points... these all get filtered out by default when taking a backup while Windows OS is running.  They can take up  lot of space on the C: drive when Windows is actively running, but are absolutely not needed for a successful restore of Windows so Acronis filters them out by default.  There are other filters in your filters tab of the advanced menu too - take a look at all of those and remove any you don't want (I would recommend removing those for your browser settings) and leave only the ones shown in my example attachment below. 

You seem to be more hung up on the size than saving space, so go in and delete all of the filters from the advanced tab and immmediately and run the backup to commit the changes and run a new backup.

Better yet, create a new backup task and do this first to ensure the backup is a FULL backup and not an incremental or differential (not sure how your existing backup task is setup).  The resulting full backup will still be compressed so will be about 20-30% smaller than the size of the C: drive as shown by Windows while it is in use.  However, it will be larger than what you're seeing now.  Really though, it's a waste of space to backup things like the hibernation and pagefile and you should not be fixated on these types of files that do appear on the C: drived when the system is actively running Windows, but have no bearing on a restore.  

That said, if you want a true disk image - 1 for 1, take an image offline using your bootable recovery media.  That will not include hibernation or pagefiles, but will include other things like temp files, etc.

Attached please find the screenshot showing that total exclusions were selected (as previously reported) and have always been excluded (filtered out) from the backups.

I always run single version backups on either "Entire PC," or better still, "Disk and Partitions (Full Partition)." No Compression.

The only reason I am "hung up on size" is the fact that it is highly unlikely that 117 GB of data can be reduced to 40 GB with NO COMPRESSION, and taking into consideration the relatively small portion of excluded files.  My other hang up is not being able to understand what you have not been able to explain and correct so far, in all theese months, so that I can know to trust my Acronis backup to be accurate.

Fred

Fred, I see exactly the items I've referenced before in your exclusions which means those large files would not be in your backups and would reduce the resulting size... plus again, compression is used in backups too.  

Nothing appears to be wrong to me.  I've offered all the help I can.  

Fred, please download a copy of the TreeSize Free utility program then use this to show a breakdown of the files / folders by size for your wife's computer, this will show you exactly how big some of the excluded files actually are.

#1 - I'm a volunteer.  I am regular customer like you, Fred and don't work for Acronis or get paid for helping here.  I do get a license and get to help test software at times, but I have no real affiiliation to Acronis as a product other than the help I provide here in the forum which has earned me a Volunteer MVP badge.    I do this to help folks and have given this one a good run, I'm providing you with my spare time to help and am not getting the reciprocating feedback needed to help you out.

#2

Thanks Steve!  That's what I said earlier too :) - I recommended both treesize free and mindgems folder size to help, but have not received any input back on what they show so it's a guessing game as , so far, no pictures provided show any file/folder sizes (only the size of the C: drive in use and the size of the backup file - neither of which provide any clues to the differences.  The system volume information can grow to the size of the entire disk if system protection is set to a large percentage, which Windows has been known to change somehow so if this is 40-50Gb right now, that could account for most of the difference by itself.  Otherwise, it could be a combination of it, recycle bin, temp fodlers, pagefiles, etc. 

It is extremely possible that there are enough files being excluded to make this size change that are just fine, but so far, we have no way of knowing based on what has been provided

FYI... to view all files/folders in treesize, you sneed to ensure that the option to "show hidden files and folders" is ENABLED and the "hide protected operating system files (recommended)" is temporarily enabled in Windows File Explorer. 

#3

On a side note, Fred, you're saying you have disabled compression in your backup job?  Because it is ENABLED by DEFAULT so unless you turned compression off, it is on. I'm not sure why you'd want to disable compression for bakcups - all backup software uses compression by default as it is reliable and makes backup faster, and saves space. 

Please don't feel unappreciated!!!!  I have been responding to suggestions as fast as possible.  Believe me! I'm tired of this slow process myself.  If all the little bits of information and suggestions could have been presented all at once, this would have been done sooner.  Part of the problem seems to be that different people are giving bits of the solution and it takes awhile for the whole picture to be understood.

Having said as much, thanks to the person (Steve?) who sent TreeSize.  Finally, this is starting to make sense.

I am currently running a Disks and Partitions backup having adjusted mainly the System Volume Information.  Won't know the results until tomorrow.

Hope I can soon be out of your way.

Fred Paul Merrett

Thanks for TreeSize.  This made everything clear and satisfactory. Local Disk:   80.8GB

                                                                                                 Exclusions:  25.3GB - System Volume Information

                                                                                                                     5.8GB - pagefile.sys

                                                                                                                     2.9GB - hiberfil.sys

                                                                                                                     5.7GB - Recycle Bin

                                                                                                                 - 41.1GB 

                                                                                           External Backup 40.9GB

                                                                                            Acronis Backup 40.9GB

Finally an answer that makes sense and puts me at ease.  Thanks for helping me through this.  Your only reward is being rid of me.  Thanks again!!!

Fred, thanks for the update / feedback - glad to hear that you are now clear about what is happening with regards to the backup size and what is being excluded etc.  They say that we never stop learning (until we are dead)!

Fred,

It's all sorted out now and that's the main thing.  It's tough to provide support strictly through forum posts - I get it.  You persevered and got to the bottom of things and no fault in that.  I'm the same way.  Glad all is resolved now and hope your backups serve you well.