Successfully transferred info from SSD to HDD but why the disparity in size? T

Most likely because "sector by sector" is not to be taken literally if you do your transfer with the Windows version of TI 2017 with its default setting to use Microsoft's VSS as the snapshot manager. Microsoft's VSS by default excludes some files that are not necessary and results in a transfer that is not "sector by sector".

If you want an exact sector by sector transfer then you should change the Advanced setting from "VSS" to "Acronis Snapshot", or you should do your transfer from the bootable recovery version of True Image.

There is a discussion of this in the following recent thread: https://forum.acronis.com/forum/127761. See the reply by Acronis in reply #17. And see the recommendation to Acronis in reply #25, which they should consider because this issue is confusing many people.

Sorry for the delay,

I u/g'd from build 5554 to 8061. So, then if I choose Acronis Snapshot, 92.7GB will show up on my new SSD? Or, do I also have to choose the option to include unallocated areas of the drive in the backup?

Thanks in advance,

CotS

The only reason that I can think of for choosing to include unallocated areas of the drive is if there is information in those areas that you are trying to recover via undelete utilities or other forensic tools. Normally, you would not choose this option since normally there is no information in there of interest to you.

I don't know where the 92.7 GB number came from; you didn't mention this number in your prior post.

The 92.7 came from my transfer from my 500GB SSD which was over 100 GB 190GB I think. Anyway I transferred that back to my original C drive that came with the computer, back in the day. (2011)

So, I'm beside myself as to why back on my HDD it wasn't reading the same amount of info. that was there that was on the SSD.

The big question is: what's going to happen when I transfer it back to my newer, larger SSD?

Thanks in advance,

CotS

This will depend on the method that you use to transfer data. How are you doing the transfer? Image backup and restore; file backup and restore; clone, ???

The usual method of doing this is to create an image of the partitions on your disk, or of your entire disk, and then restore that to the new target disk. When doing this, TrueImage will exclude some files by default. You can look on the "Exclusions" tab (available after setting up a backup and then clicking on the "Options" button) to see which files are excluded. You can add or delete items from this list.

The default exclusions are items that Windows does not necessarily need or which are considered unnecessary or unimportant. For example, the hibernation file and paging files are simply re-created by Windows if they are missing from the backup. You may or may not want to include temporary files; these are files intended to be deleted eventually anyway. The same goes for the contents of the recycle bin. In any event, these exclusions are up to you.

Excluding items from a backup makes the backup smaller. This may explain why your target disk contents are smaller than the source disk contents. That is, if you used backup and restore to transfer your data from one disk to another.

keep in mind that files that exist in Windows (what you see when the OS is booted) is not the same when the OS is idle (when the OS is not booted).  Windows has to load things like pagefile.sys when the OS is in use and they will not be loaded when the OS is not in use.  If you want a true sector by sector backup - take it with your recovery rescue media where 1) VSS snap shot is not used 2) OS is not active so temp files like pagefile.sys and other temp log files are not being created/used.  

As Mark mentioned, though, why bother with sector by sector unless you are needing a forensic recovery.  Sector by sector will be much slower and offer no real value for recovery for 99% of home users.  We just care that our actual data is backed up and recovered, not the fragmented, nonexistent files that we deleted long ago, but have not yet actually been overwritten by something new, are backed up and restored too.  For most of us, you should only want (or see) a sectory by sector backup if you have issues with the disk (bad/dirty sectors) and Acronis has to try and push thorugh them to complete the backup.

COTS - keep it simple, I think you've exasperated most of the process along the way - making it much more difficult for yourself in the process.  Let Acronis due what it's supposed to, fast, simple backup and recovery.  Backup everything, restore everything (full disk), but leave the default (no sector by sector) in place.  If it's needed, Acronis will revert to it automatically. 

it just seems very strange to me. Going into the process, I presumed if I backed up 300 GB, it'd restore 300GB. I'm ecstatic the process worked, and I can always use the extra room on the drive...

It's kinda sorta like if I were ask if you could change a $20. and got $25 back. Yeah, I could always use the extra $5., but I'll never know why I got it...you could guess all day long, but you'd never know.

I only wish that  the exchange re: Acronis was a 1:1 ratio.

Other than that, I'm a very happy camper. I'm just left scratching my head.

Do it offline. Take disk backup offline and restore offline and it will be nearly identical. Online backups will never be exactly the same because they don't backup those temporary session files and even then, you still have to boot the system up, whereas when you backup online the OS is already running, no? Tsnapshotting is a method to lock open windows file with vss Technology from Microsoft, nearly identical, but not quite. Plus your exclusions and vss default exclusions for things like page file.sys which won't exist  when you backup offline.

System Protection can be responsible for a large amount of data. Take a look at how it is configured on your system for the C: drive. If the maximum storage area is set high (like 30%), over time Windows will fill that area with System Restore points. When you backup, this area is excluded from the backup. In my example, that would reduce the size of the restored drive by 30%. I usually turn System Protection off so it won't waste space on me drive. I set the max storage area to 10% so that the VSS service can work properly for backups.  

By offline does Bobbo mean with the i-net disconnected from the computer?

Offline = windows not booted. You are booting with Acronis rescue media to backup and again to recover while windows is offline and not in use. Internet connectivity makes no difference for local backup or recovery in this scenario.