ATI tries to backup ALL of C:

Discussion in 'Acronis True Image Product Line' started by Bill Schneider, Aug 2, 2006.

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  1. Bill Schneider

    Bill Schneider Registered Member

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    Hi,

    Win98se

    Just installed v9.0. Wanted to make image of the basic setup on C: (after installing all drivers etc). About 450MB of used space (including ATI's install). C: partition is about 3.5GB. ATI insists that the image size is to be about 3.1GB. So, of course, it can't fit into where I wanted to store it (on D: partition, which has about 2.5GB of free space. No secure zone set up.

    Process starts, and proceeds to about 50-60% then quits with a 'can't write to destination'. It offers a media problem as a possible reason, but I feel it's too big an image problem.

    Is there something I am not understanding or setting up properly? I did try maximum compression but that just got me to about 70% before it failed.

    Thanks for any help.

    Bill
     
  2. jmk94903

    jmk94903 Registered Member

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    It really sounds like you do not have compression turned on, or you have not selected just the C partition when you are starting the backup. The image size should be about 300MB and there should be room for lots of images on your D partition.

    What build of TI 9.0 are you using? (Help/About will show the build number.)
     
  3. Allen L.

    Allen L. Registered Member

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    What is your statement mean as to the "basic setup on C:"? Following that you state that C: Partition is 3.5GB.

    This indicates to me you must be using a file and folder backup? When using True Image, you either image the whole disk with all partitions, or you image one partition of the disk, or now with the new file and folder backup option, you can choose the folders and files on a partition.

    Which of the above are you using? You *must not* be using "File and Folder", because you state that your C: Partition is about 3.5GB, so when ATI states 3.1GB compressed, that sounds right to me, as you must be checking the box to image the complete C partition and not just certain File and Folders.

    Allen
     
    Last edited: Aug 3, 2006
  4. Bill Schneider

    Bill Schneider Registered Member

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    John,

    Yes, I did have compression on; two tries, one with 'default' and another with 'maximum'. Same error 'can't write to destination' (tho at different percentage of completion before quiting).

    I did, I think, select the whole C: (one partition on C). ATI showed a 'created image size of 3.4GB'. That's what made me think it was creating too large an image for its target location. But, now, I think ATI lies about that size shown.

    I just ran another test on a very similar laptop, successfully. Please see my post to Allen for more details. So, the failed 'write' on my first lap must be due to some other problem.

    >> What build of TI 9.0 are you using?

    Build 2,277

    Thanks for your comments. Much appreciated.

    Bill

     
  5. Bill Schneider

    Bill Schneider Registered Member

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    Allen,

    It's obvious (I first thought anyway) that I don't understand some of ATI uses (very inexperienced using it).

    'basic setup on C:' just meant I'd freshly installed Win98se, ATI and all the special drivers this laptop needs. All that took only 450MB of the entire C's size of 3.5GB. All I wanted was a complete image of the used space. And, thought that's what ATI would do.

    No, I didn't use File and Folder since I wanted the whole (restorable) image. I entered a new filename for that image -- to be written to D: which (I thought) had plenty of room.

    >> ...you state that your C: Partition is about 3.5GB, so when ATI states 3.1GB compressed, that sounds right to me, as you must be checking the box to image the complete C partition and not just certain File and Folders.

    Yep, that's what confused me. I expected ATI to say its compressed file would be about 300-350MB -- yet it *said* 3.1GB. Like it was including the whole C drive. That seems like the wrong use of an image.

    Cut to the chase: I just ran another test of ATI on a very similar laptop (same type of hardware, except for the HD). In this case C: had about 933MB used of C's total of 3.2GB. It reported that the 'created file' would be 3.2GB! (similar to my first experience). However this time ATI ran to completion just fine. Checked TIB file and it was 694MB, what one would expect.

    Two conclusions:

    1) ATI lies (well, nicer term would be misrepresents) about the the backup file size,

    and 2) the failure to complete backup on the first system (the 'can't write to destination' report) was caused by some other problem -- H/W or ATI. [I had assumed, erroneously, the failure was due to the file being too big.]

    Thanks for the inputs. Made me run another test before I replied here. <g>.

    Bill

     
  6. Allen L.

    Allen L. Registered Member

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    Bill you should first upgrade to the latest version of ATI 9, or to at least version 9.0.0.3567. That's the version that has most of the build errors corrected that could be causing your problems. Either that version or to the latest v9.xx.3677.

    You seem to be making the image correctly to me. I don't know why, with a gross partition size of 3.5GB and only about 500MB used, the image would be as large as you report.

    Upgrade your version and then re-check. I've never heard of this kind of problem.

    Allen
     
  7. como

    como Registered Member

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    If TI cannot read the drive because of a fault on the disk, then it will produce a image "sector by sector" which results in a large image. This is sometimes corrected by running checkdisk win XP or scandisk win 98 on all your partitions.
     
  8. Bill Schneider

    Bill Schneider Registered Member

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    como,

    Excellent information. I, of course, didn't know that.

    Prior to installing OS and programs, I had run Partition Magic (to divide into two partitions). It zipped thru its tests just fine. I don't think, however, that I ran scandisk/chkdsk.

    Unfortunately, I no longer have access to that laptop (returned it to its owner), so can't play around easily any more. I was hoping to get an image of it so I could more easily restore if necessary. However.....

    I certainly will try your suggestion if I run into this again (I have a lot of older laptops, getting ready for Ebay/sell). I did just download the latest update to 9.0. I'd like to try that, too, on my friend's, but have the same access problem.

    Thanks again,

    Bill
     
  9. Acronis Support

    Acronis Support Acronis Support Staff

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    Hello Bill,

    Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

    We are very sorry for the delay with the response.

    First of all, I'd like to confirm como's statement about backed up disk\partition having some file-system errors as in fact it is the most probable reason for the resulting image archive being too large, i.e. having almost the same size as backed up disk\partition has. The point is that in case of the unsupported or corrupted file system Acronis True Image creates a raw sector-by-sector image which includes every sector of the backed up disk\partition. Please see this previous thread for further details.

    If you experience the same problem in the future we recommend that you check each partition of the backed up 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.

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

    We also recommend that you download the latest version of Acronis drivers, install it with disabled logging and see if the problem still persists.

    If the problem still persists after checking the hard drive and updating the drivers then please create Acronis Report as it is described in Acronis Help Post.

    Please also let us know the exact size of the backed up disk\partition, the exact size of the actual data this disk\partition contains, the estimated image size Acronis True Image shows.

    Then please submit a request for technical support. Provide the report.txt file and information collected in your request along with the step-by-step description of the actions taken before the problem appears and the link to this thread. We will investigate the problem and try to provide you with the solution.

    P.S. Please also note that, as Allen L. has already mentioned above, we recommend that you always use the latest build (the current one is 3677) of Acronis True Image 9.0 Home which is available for downloading in the Product Updates section of your or your customer's account at Acronis web site. To get access to updates you should create an account then log in and use your serial number to register the software. Note that you should create new Bootable Rescue CD after installing the update.

    Thank you.
    --
    Alexey Popov
     
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