Partition backup

[Naik]

Hello.
I'm trying out True image.
After the program were installed, from Windows I made a partition backup; then I made the restore boot cd and, booting from it I made an incremental backup of the same partition stored before (same location as destination path, obviusly).
I wish to know how come the backup file size were incremented for the amount of more than 1 Gb... but the partition were containing the same data...

[Acronis Support]

Hello Naik,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software (http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/).

Please be aware that the incremental image created after a disk is defragmented might be considerably larger than usual. This is because the defragmentation program changes file locations on disk and incremental images reflect these changes.

If that's not the case then please check each partition of your hard drive by Windows utility:

- For Windows 9x please use Windows menu Start\Run
then enter the command "scandskw" and test all drives;

- For Windows XP please use Windows menu Start\Run, then enter the command
"chkdsk c: /r" "chkdsk d: /r" for every partition of your hard drive;

Please note that you will need to reboot your computer in order to scan the system partition.

Create new full backup and corresponding incremental image after checking the hard drive and inform me about the results.

Please also provide me with the more information on your partition layout.

What is the size of the partition that you are imaging?

What is the size of the initial full image archive?

What is the size if the new incremental image?

Please find the full version name and build number as it is shown here (http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/support/) and let me know them.

Thank you.
--
Alexey Popov

[Menorcaman]

-{ Quote: "Hello.
I'm trying out True image.
After the program were installed, from Windows I made a partition backup; then I made the restore boot cd and, booting from it I made an incremental backup of the same partition stored before (same location as destination path, obviusly).
I wish to know how come the backup file size were incremented for the amount of more than 1 Gb... but the partition were containing the same data..." }-Hello Naik,

TI creates an image by backing up the in-use sectors of your hard drive(s) only. A "thumbprint" of these in-use sectors are included in the image.

Prior to creating an incremental image, TI will compare the "thumbprint" contained in the previous image with the "thumbprint" for the proposed new image and backup those sectors that have changed. Not only will a defrag of your hard drive significantly change the thumbprint of current in-use sectors but so also will opening and closing Windows and other applications. Therefore, if you have a relatively small amount of used space on on your hard drive/partition (e.g. less than 2GB) then, in practise, there will be little difference between the size of a full image and an incremental.

Regards

[Naik]

I've verified re-doing the process again after a chkdsk task (no errors reported).
This are relative data:
Total partition size: 76.3 GB
Data in the partition: 10 GB
TI version: 8.0 (build 937)
Compression applied: normal
Maximum file size required: 4.5 GB
Image Files size after the first backup (windows mode):
File1 4.718.592 KB
File2 2.078.642 KB

Image Files size after the incremental backup (boot mode, no task esecuted between the 2 operations):
File1 4.718.592 KB
File2 2.078.642 KB
File3 49.629 KB

I was absolutely wrong about 1GB of difference, as I wrote in my first post.

Sorry, I still need some advices.
When creating an image of the partition in use by the OS hosting TI, does it better launch it from the boot media?
What do I miss uninstalling the application from Windows and using it from the boot disk only?

[Acronis Support]

Hello Naik,

You can create an image of your hard drive in Windows or booting from Bootable CD, the result will be the same. You can choose a mode that will be convenient for you.

Even if you have no operating system on your computer you will be able to boot from Acronis Bootable CD. When you boot from Acronis Bootable CD, you can run only the following wizard:

- Create Image
- Restore Image
- Clone Disk

Please note that you cannot explore your image file in rescue mode.

Thank you.
--
Irina Shirokova

[Naik]

All right.
Thank you all very much.