Trouble Making Image Backup with Acronia True Image 2016 -- apparent misread of space

Hi,

I doubt that the Storage issue you mention is related to your Acronis issue.. Acronis basically digitally photographs the partition structure on your HDD.. Any setting that might be running within Windows would have no effect on Acronis when using bootable media... It would simply image the error along with everything else..

It is not necessary to image the entire drive for it to be bootable.. If you were to look in Disk Management at the partitioning of your Windows drive.. You would normally only need the Windows partition and any partition to the left of it.. If any.. The Partition structure can vary widely based upon whether Windows was pre-installed, clean installed, or an upgrade.. Or whether you are running Legacy or UEFI Bios..

Now that I think of it, it would be helpful if you could post a snapshot\snip of your Disk Management partitioning screen.. I could better advise what may be needed.. For instance... You could image only a small partition on your drive just to see if it will work without spending 5 hours.. It may not be of any use otherwise, but would answer questions.. You could possibly isolate which partition may be causing the problem..

The problem with Windows Defrag is that it does not show or list individual files so that something unusual can be determined.. You could have 100gb of garbage files on your HDD that you would never suspect and would not be listed in the properties of the partition.. I have encountered this personally several times..

I just created a Acronis 2016 image of my Windows 10 (2004) with all updates and everything went normally... Acronis 2011 also worked normally... My current setup is using Legacy Bios though.. It is possible that I could get different results if using UEFI Bios..

If you are using UEFI Bios, I can switch over to that and check..

I am not suggesting that Acronis is providing a inaccurate file size.. at least not at the moment..

I am suggesting that Windows may be providing a inaccurate file size, making your estimates of the space needed for the image incorrect..

Post that picture of your Disk Management.. It would be quite helpful..

Re the last sentence, I think he had the problem I had when I first used True Image 2016. When you use the compression, whether no compression or any up to maximum, it gives you a size for the end image file. That size is far and away smaller than it will be. That screwed me for weeks trying to make an image when I first used this software, and not knowing why it was not fitting if it was that size. Well, the image was actually about 30 GB bigger, and I had only 5 GB less empty space on the drive for it. There was no way to know that until I finally got an image on the drive after deleting plenty of things I wanted to keep.

But that is not this problem. Even with no image file yet, the full amount of what is being imaged is about 105 GB, and the empty space on the external drive is about 165 GB. Even with no compression, it should fit easily. Gee, I should be able to even do a full clone instead. I’m ignoring the size True Image estimates it will be, that is around 75 GB — that is not what the file will be.

As it happens, I just defragged my internal drive last weekend, so that should be OK.

I will say, I have a couple bad sectors on the internal drive, but they have been there for quite a while, through a number of images, including the one just back in April. They have not created this problem before. I’m actually planning to replace the drive, but I need this image before doing so.

I don’t know what OS True Image is using. I also don’t know what WinPE is. But yes, it has always worked fine before, no issues.

I have run chkdsk C: /f /r on the drive. I would hope it fixed anything that needed fixing. I tired that yesterday, but it still had the same issue with True Image. If there is an error in the listing on the file sizes on the internal drive, I don’t know what else to do to fix that.

BTW, I have checked the size of the image backup file on the external drive now, and Properties does not list it as zero, it has the actual size, which I think if 119 GB if I recall. (Current one, I deleted about 30 GB from the drive, so it is smaller image than one on there now.)

I have no third party defrag programs.

BTW, I am doing a full disk backup, not a file backup. I think if I do a file backup, it does not include boot files? I have always done a full disk backup.

There also is some issue with that thing called Storage Spaces. Because its talking of storage, I wonder if it could be related — but this image is being made after booting to the True Image DVD, so I would hope the OS internal drive is not involved with True Image reading file sizes. You can see a bit about that issue at this link, about two-thirds the way down the page:

https://www.windowscentral.com/windows-10-may-2020-update-biggest-problems-and-complaints#confusion_problems_windows10_2004

Thanks.

Hi,

Are you using the Linux or WinPE version of the Acronis bootable media ?

It should not make a difference if it has worked previously anyway, but I suppose that if it is the WinPE based version that it might be picking up something in the installed Windows, but I doubt it..

I would think that it is more likely that there is either some type of error in the listing of your file size you are trying to image, or a problem with the external drive... Bad Sectors for instance..

There are a number of Windows files that do not list the correct file size... Some actually say 0.. A Windows System Image is a good example, but there are others..

If you check the Properties of a WindowsImageBackup folder, it will list the size as 0, even though it could actually be 100gb...

If you have any type of 3rd party Defrag programs, look for any large amount of "Excluded" space..

I have found over 100gb of files in the hidden "System Volume Information" folder.. I'm not sure how they got there, or even what the original file was as they had all been renamed with a number\letter code..

I can only guess that they were some type of corrupted file, or that they were something from the Recycle Bin that did not clear.. I have also found extra Recycle Bin folders within the Recycle Bin..

I doubt that the problem is actually with Acronis 2016 or the installed version of Windows..

I have all versions of Acronis from 2011 to present and have never seen this.. Unless I am imaging some specialty installation an\or machine, I use the bootable Linux based 2011 version for everything..

One other person I have been involved with had a similar issue as you describe, and the problem turned out to be that the file sizes being imaged were not accurate..

I've been using Acronis since Windows 10 came out originally. It has always worked fine up until now. Re this forum, I'm not at all sure the issue is with Acronis -- like I said, its always worked fine before.

I've sent Acronis a query about compatibility, but the image is made when booted from Acronis, so I don't think the Win 10 OS level would make any difference.

Is my system or files maybe somehow registering as bigger than they are, so Acronis thinks they are too big?

<Ahem> ... two things:

In this group we know about Windows 10, not Acronis software.

Does Acronis support the 2016 version of their software on Windows 10? Perhaps check with them.