Same backup, different times, grows in size?
I notice my backups increase 20GB each time I run them.
Yesterday I backup "full disk", not incremental, and the files size was 123GB, 12 hours later I run the same backup scheme and the resulting files size in now 144GB. 10 days ago it was 94GB.
Nothing has changed on the computer in the last 10 days, especially in the last 12 hours as it wan't connected to the internet during that time.
Backups are saved to 2nd HD in the system.
Any suggestions as to why this is happening
Here is the comparison of my source drive "C", and mounted backup image "S".
In the backup "S" there are "(2)", 43.2GB System Volume files, compared to the "C" source disk that only has one this size. This is the isssue, but I'm no expert on the System Volume so any insight/explanation of why there are 2 would be helpful.
Running WIN10/64bit
I backup single disk with partitions.
On backup exclusions, I currently don't exclude anything as I as felt that I need to be able to restore everything to make the restore correct again.
Can I backup with the ATI2016 normally excluded defaults and still restore an image back to a disk and run porperly?
Nice app - TreeSize, thanks!
System volume information are restore points created by Windows - these will grow based on teh size set under under "system protection". You typically don't want to go more than 20% of the total drive size. There is really no reason to backup system volume information (other than to maintain restore points in Windows), but if you do back it up, this may be an area that continues to grow based on changing files in Windows. I can't explain why you have 2 of the same one in that backup either.
Additionally, since you're removed all of the exclusions, you're also backing up to other large and unnessary files - pagefile.sys and hiberfile.sys. Pagefile is only a working virutal memory location that Windows will call upon if you become low on physical memory. Backing it up and/or restoring it has no benefit at all. Hiberfile.sys is also pointless to backup while Windows is in use - it is designated space used by the hard drive when the system goes into hibrernation, but contains no usable or necessary information when the system is active. If you backup your computer "offline" (when Windows is not in use, hiberfile.sys and apgefile.sys won't be there since they're only created while Windows is running).
I remove most of the default exclusions with the exception of those in the attachment.
Additionally, I will take an occassional, but seperate, offline backup that will grab everythign on the disk while Windows is not in use as it will grab all of the actual content of the drive when things like hiberfile.sys, pagefile.sys and swapfile.sys are not even there. Having a additional backup schemes (especially when Windows is not running so that things like malware, Windows issues, or 3rd party applications can't interfere) is a good idea - take them as often as you feel necessary or as comfortable as you feel. With malware and ransomware being so nasty, having completely offline backups on a dediated USB hard drive that is only attached for the purpose of offline backups, you might just save yourself from major trouble should your system become infected along with any backups that are attached to the system and also impacted as a result.
1. My restore points are consuming 16GB. No restore points were added during the 12 hours between the two backups, so that wasn't the increase in size.
2. I will now go back and include the exclusions as from what you presented don't do me much good backing up or restoring.
3. I have plenty of internal system storage 10TB so I'm not concerned about the backup image file sizes, I normally keep 3 or 4 image files. I also about once a month connect an off-line external USB HD and do a backup as you stated to prevent a ransomware type of system infection that would leave all connected system drives useless. Then every few months I also back up all my computers to an additional off-line eSATA HD dock just in case.....
4. It just bothers me that my back up image size increase within 12 hours with really no use of the computer Those 2, 43GB files seems to be the cause, and why are there 2 identical ones. From what I read they will be hard to delete.
One last question why does my source drive consume 125GB of space, and my backups are larger than that? I thought that they the image files are compressed and should be smaller. The source drive is a Samsung SSD 1TB, the backup drive is normally a HGST 4TB. Is this a drive cluster size issue.
Your screen shot showing the duplicated 43GB System Volume Information (restore points data) is a mystery as to why this is shown only the once on the left image but shown twice in the archive image. I have not seen such behaviour before and wonder if there were any messages reported in the service log files for the task that created that backup file? It seems almost as if a problem occurred and ATIH took a second copy of the SVI data but only the log would be able to shed more light on whether that was the case?
You can manage the size of SVI by going into the Properties for This PC (aka My Computer) then opening the System Protection page and clicking on Configure for the OS drive, then adjusting how much space this should use. See screen shots attached.
Note: if you either turn off System Protection or reduce the size to the minimum, it will prune the data held or remove it to free up the space again.
As for your last question, this is tied in to the duplicate SVI information which adds an extra 43GB plus any other data that may also have duplicated but not shown in your image. ATIH does use compression of approximately 20% but this depends on the mix of files being backed up, as certain file types are already highly compressed in their native format, i.e. JPEG, MP3 etc
What service log file should I look at? Where is it located?
I always had 50GB set for SVI. I removed 5 System Restore points consuming 16GB and backed up again and the resulting image file was the same size.
Fpor me right now is that I exclude what exclusions that ARI2016 offered me, my backup file dropped from 144GB down to 37GB .and takes aobut 3 minutes to run. Are there any ATI2016 offered exclusions that I must back up that will not get me into trouble in a restore? See attachment.
Service logs are located in C:\ProgramData\Acronis\TrueImageHome\Logs. It's easier to read through them using FTRPilot's LogViewer App (the stand-a-lone version is great and requires no installation).
System backup protection is tied to Windows VSS and can become corrupted or get out of whack at times. If you're not opposed to losing system restore points, I would disable it for C: drive, close out of system protection and then go back in and enable it again. This should get it back on track (if there is an issue). I've seen it where it even showed the C drive listed twice under system protection and that actually caused it not to work at all. Once you turn it back on, you can create a manual restore point right away. You just won't have file version history anymore, but if you have Acronis backups, this is not a big deal and these will grow again in Windows overtime too.
I would remove the chrome, opera and firefox entries if you like your favorites and bookmarks to be recoverable - I don't know why Acronis put these in by default.
If you use roaming profiles, then you probably want to remove the CSC folder from the exceptions as well as this is where offline files are stored. If you don't use a roaming profile, you can yank it out too. More info on the CSC folder here for you to decide: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/arvindsh/2015/04/19/the-strange-case-o…
Everything else can remain in the exceptions.
Yes I did turn off system protection, and then turn it back on to remove Restore Points. Backed up again and still those 2 large double SVI files.
I ran the log viewer and there were 2 logs of of about 20 that showed the attempted backups took place in less than 2 seconds.
It also looks like the 2 large double SVI files showed up in backups after the Windows 10 Anniversary update. This update is known to have some issues with booting, hangs, other flaws, etc. Maybe this update triggers something in Windows 10 to generate the 2 large double SVI files.
Right now I'm fine with the exclusions and will add back to keep what you listed in your post above.
I don't use Roaming profiles so the CSC folder will be excluded. I looked at my CSC folder and it was 2KB.
Fussybob, there have been a number of reports of issues arising from the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, and this looks to be yet another example of something quite strange happening. I would agree with Rob that this is most likely tied in to the Windows VSS which is used under the covers to create the snapshot of system files / data. There should not be duplicate copies of SVI data in the Acronis backup image and I am conflicted about whether it is best to exclude SVI (as per the default settings for exclusions) or not. Having System Restore points available has saved a lot of time for some issues I have hit in the past but then again, I keep my SVI size pretty low so that it is not more than 5GB on most systems, so would only hold a small number of restore points.
I do remove my browser folders from the exclusions as it is most annoying to restore from a backup and find that all your favourites, extensions etc have all disappeared and need to be setup again from scratch.
I saved a backup with the exclusions (removed the browser folders from exclusions). The SVI means little to me as I have 2 boot hard drives, one with Win 10, and the other Win 7. When one boots from thwe Win 7 drive the saved system restore points are automatically removed from the Win 10 drive. This is a known problem with Win 10. I flop back and forth a lot between the two OS's. My ATI backups are my bascially my system restore points if I get into a problem.
To continue.....
Restoring this backup obviously didn't include the SVI files (the 2 large double ones are now gone for obvious reasons), the OS is rebuilding the excluded files, I'm good to go................
Thanks for all the help!!!
Bob P.
Bob, glad to hear all looks to be OK, long may it stay that way.
You only learn when you have problems...........