Acronis Version 10 and Vista's SP1

I installed Vista's SP1 today on a Dell Inspiron - it has Acronis TI 10 on it. Before the SP1 a "full disk" backup image was 34GB - after SP1 the full disk backup is 17GB. What happened to about 17GB? I verified the backup and everything looks fine. I installed SP1 on a Acer yesterday that is running TI 11 and the backup both "before and after" the SP1 install were the same.

I'm not sure what to think right now.... if my backup "good."

Any feedback on this would be appreciated...

Sandy

 

Unless you're having problems with Vista, I would stay away from SP1 until at least 6 months.

The install probably cleaned out a lot of unnecessary files including restore points.

 

Hello my friend!

SP1 has been around for awhile and they think it's ready. Now, I know your view on Microsoft updates... you are a "bold" man you are! I have access to high speed internet right now - and that is going to change for me. Thus I wanted to do it this month. (I'm going to be rolling with Sprint Mobile Broadband)...

I noticed it said, Compression Normal. I always use Compression None. I don't know how that default option "changed." Maybe that is it. I am waiting... I'm running another backup now.

I'll let you know... that's for the advice!

Sandy

 

Sandy:

When I installed SP1 today, my shadow copy storage on the system drive was 3 GB and extended back about 8 days.

SP1 made so many changes to the files on the system partition that it completely overflowed the available 6 GB of shadow copy storage, resulting in the deletion of all but the most recent restore point. After SP1 finished installing the shadow copy storage space was only 300 MB and there was only one restore point; the one done immediately before SP1.

So the same thing probably happened to you. After deletion of all but the most recent restore point you were left with a considerably smaller backup image. Don't worry - the space will fill up again in a week or two and then you'll be back to larger image files again.

SP1 has fixed several of the little Vista problems so I consider it to have been worthwhile so far. Still evaluating...

 

It came back 24GB (with no compression)... now a loss of 10GB which may be what you indicated - restore points, etc. Certainly easier to accept than a loss of 17GB.

Sandy

 

Thanks for sharing Kolo!

I am doing SP1 on my Dell XPS right now... it will be interesting to see the "before and afer" backup GB's when I am finished.


Sandy

 

That doesn't seem unreasonable if you have been using the system for a while and have not run any cleanup program. Restore Points, Internet temp files, other temp files, and possibly SP1 deletes all the uninstall files for the Vista updates installed before SP1 could add up to 10GB without much trouble. The swap file may also have been resized downward by the update as well.

It's an interesting thing to watch for.

 

Here's another one...

So I installed SP1 with out incident until I decided to take a look at a previous backup. I only back up my folders vs. a image and I wanted to make sure all of my documents were there. I can no longer explore a backup .ti folder either by clicking on it, or by access it through the program itself.

Any thoughts?

PK

 

As Howie would tell the contestants on Deal Or No Deal, "The Banker says he admires your guts".

But I'm willing to wait to see what happens down the road.

 

I can't duplicate this problem. Exploring .tib backup images works fine for me post-SP1 with TI 10 (build 4942).

Are you using the same version? Perhaps you could try reinstalling TI.

 

Same version and tried a new install, still no go...

 

I now have SP1 installed on my Dell XPS 1530. I redid my entire disk backup (that computer is using TI 11) and my backup went from 58GB to 36GB. A loss of 22GB. Now, that's staggering! Wow! I checked my compression this time before I did it - both times it was "None."

Basically both the Dell's lost a lot of GB's after SP1. The Acer was basically the same. Every time I test my computers - the Acer comes out with flying colors. Every time (it boots and loads EVERY Acronis product I throw at it. Not matter what "ISO" it is.) It never does anything unexplainable or "weird." I should have bought another Acer - and not went with Dell. The Dell's annoy me. Not that anybody cares - I'm just pontificating for no good reason... going to wash my hair now and shut up.

Sandy

 

Ok, so the darndest thing....

Somehow during the conversion or what ever to SP1, it (whoever it is in my computer is...sorry attempt at humor) changed the file association. So, I changed it to windows explorer and there it all is again. I can see my backup again....

 

I'm not an Acronis user.....but It's 11:15 PM and I just got my system back running after making the mistake pf trying to install VISTA SP1 at about 4:00 PM this afternoon.
Huge mistake !
It just sent my system into unbootable space, with no clue as to where it was or how to recover. I ended up restoring a disk image. Be careful !

 

Did you do it from your "Automatic Update." You want it "offered" from there - Microsoft won't give it to you there if it sees there are problems. Only 2 of my Vistas were "ready" and had it offered from there. I had to update drivers for my fingerprint reader and my Sigmatel Audio before my Dell XPS would give to me from "Automatic Update."

Sorry you had trouble... but I bet you're glad you had an "image" to restore back from!


Sandy

 

Yes, I downloaded from Auto Update

Even luckier that I wasn't depending on an Acronis image....but that is another story.

 

Why is that then? Don't you trust ATI?

But I, someone who has every reason not to trust ATI, installed SP1 yesterday morning and everything is absolutely fine with it.

 

I'm contending that all of the size reduction comes from the deletion of restore points and shadow copy files.

I had wanted to follow up on this with some definitive numbers. Right before installing SP1, I cleaned up the temp files on my disk and created an image. I mounted that image and determined that right before installing SP1, my 40 GB Vista partition had 73,000 files occupying 19.5 GB.

After the SP1 installation finished I checked again and found the Vista partition to be 86,000 files occupying 17.1 GB.

Now I know that 3 GB of the pre-SP1 image consisted of restore points and shadow copy files that got deleted during the SP1 install, so the starting point was (19.5 - 3)GB, or 16.5 GB. After SP1 the used space in the partition is 17.1 GB. Therefore, SP1 required 0.6 GB of additional space on the partition.

I looked at the list of installed updates post-SP1 and the list is quite long and includes all of the updates installed over the last year, so SP1 did not delete any of the prior updates and probably did not delete any of the uninstall files for these updates.

So my conclusion is that installing SP1 resulted in a system partition that grew in size by 0.6 GB for the additional SP1 files, and then shrunk in size by the amount of the shadow copy file storage pre-SP1. By default, Vista reserves 15% of the system partition to store shadow copy files, and their deletion is the main reason for the reduction in the size of Sandy's backup image, in my opinion. For example, if her Vista partition was 60 GB then 15% of 60 GB is 9 GB reserved for shadow copy files. If this area had been filled and was then deleted while installing SP1, the image file (with no compression) would shrink by 9 GB post-SP1.

Sandy - how large are the C: partitions on your Dell machines? (Not how full but how large). If you multiply those sizes by 15% does this come close to explaining the reduction in size of your post-SP1 images?

 

Yes, I would say that it does. The Dell Inspiron has a C: partition of 220GB. The Dell XPS has a C: partition of 173GB.

220GB X 15% is 33GB
173GB X 15% is 25GB

That would explain these "very large" losses for backup after SP1.

I do run CCleaner (not the registry part) and have Norton 360 which also "cleans" and does disk defrag - so I don't think I had/have a bunch of "junk" around.

Thanks for sharing this... it makes me feel better about it. Last night I was just blown away and wondering if something was literally "wrong."

Sandy

 

Anybody notice the new "Wilders Security Forums" Spring look (the heading at the top of the page) - flowers and a bee. Nice touch!

Sandy

 

Sandy,
Yes, they change it with the seasons or holidays.

Glad to see all your backups are being successful.

 

Ahhh ... but that's only half the story, right Grover.