Cannot Restore XP System (C:) Drive from valid Backup - Says lack of Space

Do the recovery form the recovery CD, not from Windows. Remember that the recovery CD will show up drive letters (to select where the backup is, and to select where to restore to) that may be different from the ones Windows shows you. Look carefully at the drive labels.

Pat, I appreciate the suggestion to proceed with my fall-back option of restoring in Stand-Alone mode. However, I really would like to generate some confidence in this new release of ATI, such as Restoring a partition in a routine manner, using the Windows version of this release.

I have used ATI v9.0 for so many years because it truly works RELIABLY without all the bells and whistles. I did purchase an upgrade to ATI 2009 v10 back in 2008, but had such hassles with Differential backups I uninstalled it and reverted back to ATI v9.0. I mean to find out if this new 2012 release works properly or not. Of course, it does not generate confidence when there is no reference in the KB to a "program error msg" as shown in the attachment,

So, Pat, I am willing to try the stand-alone Restore (in ATI native mode) if a Support Technician is willing to investigate / resolve the cause of my present windows-based problem. Otherwise, I will continue to not trust ATIH 2012 backups, and will likely end up taking duplicate backups with my v.90 software.

Andrew,
According to your screen captures, the backup you are trying to restore is 67.4 GB in size so it is very close to the 73.8 actual partition size. You may have the same error message even when you try with the bootable CD. You won't know until you try. Was there a time when drive C partition size was larger then the 73.8 now?

If you want official help from Acronis personnel, you need to fill out a support request--as you acknowledged in your forum sign on agreement. Pat L and others responding are volunteers trying to assist you with your issues. Neither Pat nor myself speak for or represent Acronis.

When restoring the system partition, the recommended method is to use the bootable media method. The reason is is the recommended and preferred method is that Windows is out of the picture during the restore so Windows does not obstruct the restore in any way.

Yes, it is possible to restore the system partition from within Windows but even then, Acronis reboots into Linux for the restore and a lot is depending upon open files created from within Windows that the reboot is all done properly. A much safer and more successful method for restoring the system partition has proven to be when booted from the bootable media. It may not be your preferred method but restoring from the bootable media is a more successful method of achieving a successful restore.

Good luck.

Hi Grover

I appreciate your feedback and perspective, and your interpretation of my problem - relating to the available space on my System partition (C: Drive). However, I am extremely doubtful about the accuracy of the Restore Disk | Source & Destination display, as reflected in attached 5-2-2012 File2 backup image? Its stated Recovery size of 67.4 Gb seems to be way, way too excessive. (This is a virgin system with barely 25 GB of space utilized)

Please note that my attachment, displaying 5-5-2012 File1 backup image made 3 days later, shows Space utilization of just 28 Gb!

Moreover, the TIB file size of this problematic backup is just 9Gb, as shown in the attached Explorer display. I cannot see how this 9Gb backup can expand to 67Gb upon Restore. When I performed a Mount on this backup, it created a 12Gb disk, as reflected in the attached Disk Properties display of the Mounted drive.

Unfortunately, I cannot see where Acronis produces a post-backup audit trail, giving statistics about the completed backup. I would have expected stats about: duration, percentage compression, size of partition just backed up, files filtered from backup process, etc. Such an Audit Trail would help me resolve this Restore problem once - I would imagine. What would you suggest I do to have this Restore-file=size examined and verified?

Andrew C

Additional attachments

Hi Andrew,
You do have a mystery. There is no such audit trail that I am aware of--none certainly is published. The issue could be a mis-statement of free space which would normally be correctable by a chkdsk repair.

I am interpreting that you have a 250GB disk split into two partitions with NO non-lettered hidden partitions.
OS (C:) Local Disk          73.8 GB (Total Size)    41.5 GB (Free Space)
Data (D:) Local Disk     158.0 GB (Total Size)    69.1 GB (Free Space)

The only backup which will be bootable is the partition or disk backup. While the files backup could be useful as an overcopy, etc, they do not contain what you need for booting.

There are probably numerous solutions. I am no technician and not on site.

One possible solution would be to use use a free partitioning tool and do two procedures
1. reduce the size of the 158gb partition from the front so some free space exists at the front of the 158 partition.
2. consume the free space between partitions by enlarging the space at the end of the 73gb partition. Maybe a 10GB increase in size to 83gb would suffice.

Then you can use TI to attempt to restore the 67gb backup from within Windows or the CD.
If it restores and boots, then I would turn off (disable temporarily) the Windows System Restore and then run a
CHKDSK C: /R on the disk and then look at the free space settings which should be correct.
Turn the System store back to enable.

Later, you could reset the partition size if you wish.

Others may have other solutions.
Good luck.

PS: Another possible solution but less desirable due to the deletion of the all partitions.
1. Do a complete partition backup of your Data partition. so you can recreate if necessary.,
2. Boot from the CD and use the "Add new disk" option to delete all partition so all space becomes unallocated.
3. From the CD, Restore the System partition using the 67gb backup.
4. Restore the new backup of the Data partition using the newly created partition backup.
5. Check both partitions for disk errors.

Hi Grover

I appreciate all your advice and suggestions. Because my system is barely used (hence I referred to it as a virgin system) I don't believe there are any HD problems. I will check again anyway. However, I did scan my system drive at the outset - in February - when I installed A) Glary Utilities and B) when I had to reinstall Acronis Disk Director v10 after it seemed to prevent the activation of ATIH2012. (There should be a lengthy support record for my software as I stumbled across several installation glitches when I tried use the software.)

As for redistributing space before attempting this restore, I feel this negates the purpose of relying on this software. I never had to do this before with v.90!

In my view, a restore of the system, 3 days after taking a backup, should be absolutely straight forward. And, if I have to do such a restore in an emergency, using ATIH in stand-alone mode due to system corruption, then I SHOULD NOT have to be worrying about redistributing free disk space before I can attempt the Restore. Otherwise, this redistribution effort means that ATIH is only as effective and reliable as the stand-alone disk management tools I have on hand???

You are correct in your interpretation of my HDD capacity and the labelling of partitions. Attach is an Ms Disk Manager display. At this stage, after completing the disk scan, I am just going to perform an Acronis stand-alone Restore. Although your suggestions are valuable, they don't engender in me any confidence in the RELIABILITY of ATIH2012. I shall just have to experiment, seeing that I do have some earlier backups to fall back on (although these will require a lot of re-installation of software tools afterwards to get back to my current configuration.)

I will keep you posted, and maybe you can advise me on what kind of problem report I should submit to Tech Support?

Andrew.C

Andrew wrote:

In my view, a restore of the system, 3 days after taking a backup, should be absolutely straight forward. And, if I have to do such a restore in an emergency, using ATIH in stand-alone mode due to system corruption, then I SHOULD NOT have to be worrying about redistributing free disk space before I can attempt the Restore.

We agree completely. Normally, that is exactly what TI will allow to happen. A very straight forward restore.
In this situation, the size of the backup (67gb) is presenting a problem in its restoration to a 73gb size target partition.. If you have other smaller size partition backups (not file backups), you will normally find the restore to be very easy.

Along the left margin is a support link on how to get support. On restore issues, Acronis is more than willing help but I do not speak for Acronis.

If you have access to another blank disk, you could do the restore and perhaps find the cause of your enlarged backup size.

Did you try to do the restore when booted from the bootable media CD? This was the original suggestion by Pat L in response to your first post. When restoring a system partition, the recommended method is to use the bootable meda CD.

Hi Grover,

I am very appreciative of your responses; every time I reply to you in this forum I'm aware I'm taking you away from handling maybe more "general-to the community" problems. Nevertheless, you pose me questions to which I feel bound to respond.

Before updating you, may I just clarify a point you have made, namely: "In this situation, the size of the backup (67gb) is presenting a problem in its restoration to a 73gb size target partition."  I believe I have clearly shown that this ATIH2012 backup is NOT 67gb, and that the Restore function/step which displayed this figure is WRONG; i.e.

- The 5/2/12 backup file size is only 9Gb.  How does this expand to 67gb of backed-up data?
- (The file is probably this small because I specified exclusion of *.avi, *.wmv and *. mkv files.)
- The subsequent backup of 5/5/12, only 3 days later, is only 21Gb in size. 
- When I successfully restored it today, this latter backup expanded to just 28Gb of data.
- You may also recall that, when I Mounted the 5/2/12 backup, it created a virtual drive of just 12Gb of data.
- I also stated that I have not had time, in 2 months, to fill the Drive C: beyond 25Gb to create a backup of 67Gb.

Accordingly, your suggestion that: "If you have access to another blank disk, you could do the restore and perhaps find the cause of your enlarged backup size." In view of my feedback above, I believe the problem lies with the Restore process and how it displays the contents of a TIB backup file.

========================

Following on to your prompting that I try a stand-alone Restore [booting from an Acronis System CD], I have the following feedback:

A. I was able to perform the Restore of 5/2/12, and was able to boot my System (Drive C:) into Windows User Login screen.  However, I was NOT ABLE to Login as the Keyboard would not enter any characters.  (My Mouse worked fine.) As a result I could not enter my Login Password, and thus I could not access Windows.  Effectively, this 5/2/12  Acronis Backup could not be restored properly.

B. To test further, I rebooted into Windows Boot "Setup" using F12 on my Dell.  This showed my Keyboard was functioning correctly at Boot time.  I also entered CMOS and verified I could change settings via the Keyboard.

C.  I then attempted to Restore this 5/2/12 backup once again, but ensured I activated the MBR Restore option.  No success.  I experienced the same problem as above (in A.) where the disabled keyboard prevented me logging on.

D.  I then attempted to Restore this 5/2/12 backup yet again (3rd time), but ensured I activated the Disk Signature Restore option.  Yet again I faced the same problem as above (in A.), where the disabled keyboard prevented me logging on.

E.  Lastly, I tried Restoring the later backup of 5/5/12.  Surprisingly, it was successful, with an enabled keyboard that allowed me to Login and bring up my XP system fully.

So, here I am with one System backup which fails to Restore properly, and a 2nd backup which does restore properly.  However, it is the first backup I need to have Restore correctly.  It is the one I was relying upon to recover my system if my subsequent system updates corrupted something - which they did.  (When I noticed the corruption with certainty 3 days later, I made another backup before I attempted any troubleshooting.   As my attempts to fix the corruption failed, I now want to reinstate my system prior to the updates.  But Acronis seems to have created a BAD Backup,  and the Backup routine has not produced an audit-trail with any stats related to that backup.

Clearly, I need to post this problem/s to Tech Support in the hope they can fix my problem, or the underlying cause of:

F.  The Bad Backup, which now seemingly does not restore correctly;
G. The Faulty Restore routine which Displays incorrect information about the contents of TIB files.