Why is Acronis suddenly not compressing??

Hi all... long time no speak

This may turn out to be a stupid question for which, if this is the case, I apologise in advance!

I have used Acronis true image for at least 3 years now. I got the OEM edition with my first external hard drive and have used it ever since..... it is so easy and is one of those programmes that simply "does what it says on the tin!!!"

Time taken is not as much of an issue for me as the space the image takes up so I have always used maximum compression and the software estimates the size of the eventual image.


The last image I made (9th March) was suddenly a lot bigger than usual (around 15-20GB)... 25GB. This was not a problem but a 20% increase in size was a bit of a shock considering the fact that I had not added much in the way of data.

Since then, my external drive has become more clogged (I also use it as a storage area for files such as movies and audio books) and I had decided to take advantage of the large amount of space available on the actual computers hard drive by putting back some of my archive folders of (e.g.) Audio books (around 10GB of mp3 files) and sound effects (around 1.5 GB of mp3 files) and around a gig or so of pictures.

This morning (my HDD is 250GB with 233 GB actually available by the way) the drive was 80% free (i.e. around 50GB used).

I wanted to make an image after having added the 13GB of stuff so I went through the usual.... I selected maximum compression as always and the estimated file size came up as 24GB (I am not anal about noticing such things, but the external drive is only 120GB and I like to keep the last 2 images at all times and so I am always conscious of the drive clogging up)....

I went out to town and when I came back was amazed to see that the resulting disc image is 47.7GB!!!!!!! Thats twice the size it was last time and only around 3 GB less than the actual uncompressed data!!


I can make a stab at the reason for this...... I am guessing that for the purposes of compression the Acronic estimate is based on average compression for average files... so it looks at 50GB of data and estimates that it can half the size..... but the huge amount of mp3 files would maybe be a spanner in the works since they are already significantly compressed.... Thus, since such a high percentage of the data on my hard drive is already compressed....the image is much larger than estimated...is this anywhere near correct?

However...... the fly in the ointment is that the image used to be around 15-20GB and I added 13GB..so even assuming zero further compression for that 13GB, that would only be around 33GB max!!!!


Can anyone offer me a detailed explanation??

I guess I am gonna have to stop keeping 2 images?

Please dont tell me to simply buy other software or a bigger drive.... I am really not in a position to buy anything just at the minute!! I can archive some stuff to DVD's or something in order to free more space up if I have to but I am intrigued as to the reason for the seeming lack of compression of the disc image!

Many thanks for even reading this rubbish.... many more if you can offer information!!

Cheers

Rick

 

sorry i can't help you on your question but maybe you can help me on mine since you have been a user for 3 years. i just bought this program and i'd like to know if after i make my back-up discs can i format my hard drive then recover.?

 

Hi...yes I can help you with that one!

I lost my hard drive once...PC support sent me a new one which I had to set up (I reinstalled XP and then reinstalled Acronis) and then I recovered it using an image from my external drive.

However, I believe that you will need Windows installing first before you recover so, although others who know more than I will probably tell me why I am wrong, I would recommend formatting, then reinstalling wndows, then install the Acronis software again, then use the "recover from an image" setting to leave your computer exactly how it was. The question that then arises is why format your hard drive?? When you recover it then your hard drive will be a clone of exactly how it was won't it .....so this effectively undoes any formatting??

You also get the option in Acronis of creating a bootable CD but I have never used it.


With regards to my own problem....I am about to clean up and defrag etc. my hard drive before tryin Acronis again.... I am still confused by what is happening!

 

Great, Thaks for the help, both of you.

 

Many thanks Halo
I will do as you suggest and ask acronis support.

Out of interest, I cannot see "incremental backup" as part of my version...maybe 'cos its OEM???

Cheers for now, will report back if Acronis do!!!

Rick

 

Hi all

I dont know if this is acceptable protocol...... but no doubt someone will tell me if its not!! So, here are my own findings about my question...

I have done some digging and some experimentation (since no-one appeared to know a definitive answer to my problem) and might have some info to help others!!!

a) OEM version of Acronis true image is pretty stripped and gets absolutely zero help from the company (no surprises there I admit!!)

From here on in I am only talking about the OEM version....I have no knowledge of any other.

b) When you set true image going on making a backup, the estimated size of the backup is calculated by the program and it assumes an average compression level.

c) this means that it does not (or appears not) to actually look at the data, it just looks at a bulk size and assumes a level of compressability (is that even a word???)

d) So, if the data on your hard drive is (say) 30GB then it will assume an average compression.

e) On my own drive, since I store quite a lot of highly compressed archives (Karaoke zip files, video rar archives etc.) then Acronis totally fails to estimate with any degree of accuracy the size of the backup.

f) The programme seems to actually get confused.... maximum compression was selected with a total data size of 50GB out of a 233GB HDD.... Acronis estimated the backup at 22GB...... actually came out at 53GB!!!! Thats 3GB more than the uncompressed physical size!!!!!

g) So, I have been playing around.... I copied around 20GB of data from my archived compressed formats to DVD's....... then backed up again using exactly the same settings.... estimated size of archive by Acronis 10.5GB.....archive size actually 19.3GB from a total of around 30GB!!!

h)...so, my advice to anyone using this programme (and lets bear in mind that it is a GREAT programme in my opinion!!!) is try to keep highly compressed archived data away from your backup image since it ends up expanding the image to (in some cases) larger than it is uncompressed!!!!!

In actual fact.... I have decided to buy a second external hard drive for data.... I can get a 320GB USB2 Ext. HDD from PCWorld for £58 and thus use the 120GB one purely as an image backup!!

If this is useful to just one person then I have not wasted my meagre typing ability!

Cheers for now...I do hope I have given something back to these great forums that have helped me in the past

Rick

 

Rick, yeah, Thanks a lot for all the info it helped me out a lot i also took your idea and got myself an external hard drive for storage of all my media as well this was an excellent idea and remedy for what i needed