Backup image much smaller than original !

Hello,

I am using the trial version of Acronis True Image 11.0 and have only a couple of days left in the evaluation.

I want to backup only Windows and my installed programs, so I made a backup image of my C:\ drive.

The physical drive is close to 17Gb with 15.2Gb of data in it.

The .tib backup file is just 9.2Gb. I used default options for the backup (no additional compression). I am amazed by the size reduction: 15.2Gb of data fitting inside a 9.2Gb archive ! ! !

Do you think that all my data is here, including all values in the registry setting? How is it achievable to have such a good compression? I am amazed (or missing something).

 

ppis,

How much RAM do you have?

 

It is a fairly recent PC (bought 2 years ago), increased memory to 2gigs. How specifically can I check the RAM? Anyway, the PC is recent enough for its performance not to be an issue.

 

On standard settings this would make your pagefile and hibernation file (if present) equal to 5 GB. These aren't backed up so a 9 GB .tib backup sounds high.

 

Your page file will not be included in the image, just a placeholder. The same applies to any hibernation files.

The size of your RAM will determine the size of your page file. I forget the exact formula but it could be 2.5 times the RAM if it has not been set manually.

Xpilot

 

Apart from pagefile and any hibernation files being omitted, you said no additional compression. Did that mean that Normal compression was enabled? If so, it would not be unreasonable at all to get the numbers you did. With Windows and the apps only there are lots of files that can be compressed. Partitons with lots of jpg, mpg, zip, etc files don't because the files are already compressed.

As us experienced users tell all new users, the only way to know if your backup will do you any good if your drive fails is to do a test restore to a spare HD. If you don't want to do that then ensure you can Validate an archive using the TI rescue CD. The rescue environment is Linux so the fact things work in Windows does not mean they necessarily will in the Linux environment. You don't want to find that out when you really need to do a restore.

 

Yes, default compression level is set to "Normal".

My hiberfil.sys file is 2.1GB
My pagefile.sys file is 1.6 GB

So the rest of my files is 11.3GB, so dropping to an archive of 9.2GB seems normal. Thanks.


Just a quick question about making a test restore to a spare drive.
My archive is on a USB drive. Is it possible to restore the C:\ partition to the spare external drive? How can I test the spare drive? Is it possible to boot from Windows located on the spare external drive?

 

It doesn't matter much where the tib file is. The way to test a restoration of a sys partition is to swap in a spare drive where your sys drive is now, restore to that drive and then see if it boots. You can swap the drives back again after the test.

 

I have a laptop and cannot swap drives, because the external drive was purchased with its own enclosure, and I do not want to break the enclosure, I am not even sure if it is possible to remove the enclosure, extract the 2.5" drive.

Is there no way to boot windows from the spare drive being connected to a USB port of the laptop, without having to remove the internal laptop HDD?

 

Windows cannot boot from USB devices. That's by design.

 

I am having the exact opposite results. My C: drive is 17 GB and the backup file is 28GB. I used the default compression level. What did I miss in the setup?

 

rkalin:

How large is the C: drive? Is it 28 GB by chance?

 

No, it is 97GB with 17GB used and 80GB free. I also tried backing up a second drive of 298GB with 106GB of data and the backup file was over 100GB.

 

My original guess, if you would have said that the image file was the same size as the partition, was going to be that TI did a "Sector by sector" backup (that's one of the options in TI 11). Otherwise, another cause of this behavior is if you have either bad sectors or corruption in the partition. If TI detects that the partition is "dirty" it will do a sector by sector backup and then the final image file will be the same size as the partition.

It may be worth ruling this out as the cause, however. From a command prompt in Windows type chkdsk /r and then reboot the PC. Chkdsk will run and it will attempt to correct any file system errors and check for bad sectors. This operation may take a long time to complete. Afterwards, make a new image and see if the file size is now reasonable.

Are you including only the C: partition in the backup? Or was the entire disk checked, which will include all partitions on the disk? (You may have hidden diagnostic and/or recovery partitions). Did you make a "My Computer" type of backup (partition image) instead of a files & folders type of backup?

 

I only included the "C" partition with 17 GB of data. I edited the task changing the name of the backup file and the destination and this time it created a backup file of 12.8GB for the a 17GB of data. I don't know what I did wrong with the first try but it works now. Thanks for the help.