File Sizes - 2016 TI reports differing size from original

A FYI - I don't use 2016, but do have 2015.  My understanding is that "normal" = Normal Compression.

Just got Acronis 2016 and did my first backup, the file size came out at over 400 gigs but the data on my drive is only 60 gigs.  How can I backup only the data and not the whole disk?

Did you perform a disk backup, a partition backup, or an Entire PC backup?

An Entire PC backup will backup all internal disks in the machine thus Entire PC.

An Disk backup will backup only the disk selected.

An Partition backup will backup only the partition selected.

If you wish to only backup a number of files or folders then you need to select a Files and Folders backup.

When doing any of the backups above do not select the Option Sector by Sector as that will override your settings and create an entire disk backup of all sectors of the disk including empty space.

With respect to those giving helpful advice and sharing their knowledge:

The common thread throughout from those questioning is

Is it normal for Acronis to show a significant difference between the size of the occupied space as shown on the windows PC when displaying the properties of that disk? For a simple example (and this is a "what if"situation)

"I have a physical disk c: on my latop of 500Gb properties show it has 200Gb space available. i.e. 300Gb data and programmes.

When one goes to do a full PC backup gthe Acronis screen shows a backup of 170Gb and when after the backup one looks at the target disk via File explorer (say) the disk shows the space occupied by the backup is 300 Gb

Why the discrepancies and why the vast difference between projected time and actual tim taken for the backup.

Simple question - all (I think) the various forum contributors want is the answer to the question "why are the differentsizes of the same back up given?

Weeshus,

I really can't say why the discrepencies.  In the 6 years I've been using Acronis, every restore I've ever done has been reliable.  I imagine that the discprencies in size relate to compression, not displaying hidden files in the directory tree, etc.  Plus, the backup, will not backup the excluded files in .appdata, hibernation files, paging files, and other types of cached files that exist in Windows unless you remove those default exclusions.  The best file size you can go with is what Windows (or your Mac) show the file size to actually be once the backup is complete since that is the finalized size of the backup.  The content within it, will be a different story based on the compression used (normal is still compression) and what file exclusions were set in the backup settings (there are several exclusions in the default settings already).

I don't say this next part to be mean or condescending in any way... 

What I see based upon all of these forum requests though is that no one ever seems to actually test their backups and attempt to restore them to see what the outcome will be.  Yes, that can be a pain and a bit lengthy, but if your data is important enough to backup, it should be important enought to test a recovery from time to time.  There is absoultely no way to fully rely on any backup and recovery solution, regardless of what the application reports to you, unless you have done a recovery verification.  Most people will never do this until they actually need to recover data though, in which case they will find that their backup is bad, does not contain all of their data, etc because they setup the wrong kind of backup, the backup was bad to begin with, their backup medium has somehow failed, etc.   It is a long process to restore (depending on how much data has been backed up).  It can be expensive if it requires an additional drive (or more) to restore the data to to test... in some cases, it may require several drives or another RAID/NAS type device if that's where the original data resided.  After all, you don't want to test a restore back to your original data location if that's the only device you have to use.

My suggestion, for your own peace of mind, would be to attempt to recover your data to another drive and verify the results to see what the results look like.  If it is an OS drive, take out the original drive, restore to the new one and see if it still boots up and all of your important data is still in tact.  If it's just data, no need to take out the original drive, but still go over it compare the overall size of the restoration to the original data and look for size comparison issues (treesize, foldersize, and other free applications are good for a quick glance... there are other software that will do actual filecomparisons too beyond just the size).

As for the discrepency in time estimated to complete - it's an estimation at best.  This is a problem with other backup software I use too.  The speed of file transfers (reads and writes) fluctuate on all disks - especially overtime the longer backups or restores take.  All computers have bottlenecks based upon the hard drives, system bus, memory, etc.  Heck, even when I copy files locally in Windows, I can see the transfer rate go from 150MB down to 20MB and anywhere inbetween depending on they type of files being copied and written and whatever else is going on int the background on the machine (especially if Antivirus is actively scanning your storage medium as the files are being written to it)

Dear Bobbo_3C0X1,

Firstly thank you so much for your comprehensive reply. I do not feel that you have been mean or condescending in any way whatsoever. To cut to the chase - I agree with your comments and advices that people should check up and validate their back-ups. I do and indeed the first paragraps in my initial post contained the following information:

PC Disk configuration with data sizes =Drive C: 332 Gig / Data Drive E: 173 Gig / Data Drive H 66.9 MB  All 3 drives on 1 physical Disk.Total Data to back up = approx 505 Gig.

Backup completed with the following results: Acronis gives backup size as 189 Gig viz: Entire PC (computer name)_full_b1_s1_v1.tib 198,219,930 Kb

The backup tree in Acronis TI 2016 displays as  189G on the opening page and then in the tree (>recover files scroll through recovery tree)

C: 332 Gig      E: 173 Gig      H: 66.9 MB ie an exact match to what was on my PC

Why the apparant compression?? I did not select it. I used default which is "normal"

Why is the progress time dsplayed at the bottom of the screen duting backup so WILDLY INNACCURATE -  by as much as a factor of 10

I do in fact test from time to time the validity of my back-ups, whcih prompted my initial post

Simply put My PC said Drive C: 332 Gig / Data Drive E: 173 Gig / Data Drive H 66.9 MB 

My restored files said Drive C: 332 Gig / Data Drive E: 173 Gig / Data Drive H 66.9 MB

The bit in the middle (the Acronis screen just before you actually start the process) said Total Backup 189G

I accept your point about speed to a degree but feel the margin of error is too great to allow for inclusion - as we may say in the North "If you've got now to say - say nowt" Leave the time estimation out

Regards Weeshus

Glad the restore size matches the original size - that's the best confirmation!

As for the reported size being 189GB, my best guess is that is the total compressed size of all data between C, E and H that is actually used on each disk; since, unless you do a bit by bit backup, unused space will not be included.  The other differences - Acronis does use compression - even if you take the default (normal) - it will not compress only if you take compression off completely.

"Why the apparant compression?? I did not select it. I used default which is "normal""

From the user's manual:

4.3.19 Performance of backup operation Compression level You can choose the compression level for a backup:

 None - the data will be copied without any compression, which may significantly increase the backup file size.

 Normal - the recommended data compression level (set by default).

 High - higher backup file compression level, takes more time to create a backup.

 Maximum - maximum backup compression, but takes a long time to create a backup.

Also, again, the default settings have specific exclusions (temp files, hybernation files, etc).  Although they are not getting backed up, they may (and I'm not really sure) be part of the calculated backup size for all data on the disk, but just being skipped over when the disk is being copied because of the exclusions.

I don't think the Acronis estimated time has ever been very accurate - I take it with a grain of salt because their are a lot of possibilities that can make the time fluctuate.  Data bursts occur when large files are read and written and they slow way down when there are very small files read/written (4K transfer rate).  I can say that times do very for me too, and depending upon the type of external media I use, it seems to go faster when backing up with offline recovery media than through Windows directly... most likley because there are no competing resources and no Antivirus scanning files in real time.  I really don't have an answer for you though that would pinpoint an exact issue.

Well, thank you very much. Your helpful reply was clear, concise and answered all my questions.

Again - thanks very much for your help and for the time and effort your have invested in your 2 posts

Kind regards

Weeshus