Deleted backup file but can't recover disk space
I deleted a 500GB backup form my C: from the My Backups section of Acronis True Image Home 2011 but the space still shows a used in Explorer. I downloaded and ran WinDirStat and the 500 GBs show as unknown. I scheduled and ran a dskchk in windows 7 but the space is still shown as used. How can I reclaim the space?
It sounds like you deleted the listing of it inside Acronis but the real backup still exists and occupying space on the hard drive.
Try returning to the TrueImage program and that particular task. Under operation, try deleting again--even twice and TI complains.
If not successful, then use the "Browse for backups" function. Right click on the specific file and choose the delete option off the right click menu.
Or, Finally, as a last resort, opening Windows Explorer and browse to the file and use the Explorer delete function.
Tried full blown chkdsk but no joy. Can't re-delete backup, when I deleted it the first time, Acronis deleted the job from the list. The actual backup file can not be seen in Explorer.
I really hate to think about this but what if I put the PC back to the way I started, (I have software installed to accomplish this) took an image and formatted C: and reinstalled the image. Do you think the corrput file would be included in the image?
Just to clarify, is this delete from a secure zone ?
If secure zone not involved, then,.
From an elevated command prompt, try
CHKDSK X: /F (Where x is the drive letter for the storage partition involved.)
I would not rush to make any large scale adjustments at this particular point in time.
Not a securezone. Just a folder on my C:
OK ran chkdsk /x no joy but I thought of something else. Maybe the program I use to protect my PC (Rollback RX) which takes "snapshots" of the drive, is using the lost space to keep a snapshot that contains the backup file. I've asked the software company for their opinion.
Warren,
That is a very good assumption. You probably have a shadow copy of the file. Som other software that does this is Microsoft's own. Maybe running a disk clean from Windows will solve it.
Do this: make a file with the same name but in some other directory-- it can be any kind of file, a little text file, whatever, just so it has the exact same name. Next make a file backup of the that new file. Next restore that file but to a new location, with the new location being the one were the old problem file is. After the restore, delete the file. That ought to do it whether it's an Acronis or an NTFS problem.
Deleted backups still showing in ATI list? This sounds like the opposite of your case but, fwiw, let's cover the issue anyhow. Next time you start ATI, if the listing is there but you know the file is not, then right click the backup and delete it. You'll get an error message that ATI couldn't find/delete the file, but it will then have deleted the entry from it's database.
It's fixed. I deleted the one huge snapshot and re-booted and recovered 500GB of free space. Thanks for the thoughts and suggestions.