Solved Hello people, I have several questions(Back up related)

[Questions]

Alright, my computer broke recently and I finally understood the time backups can save, I'm sort of inexperience but have some basic/high level understanding of the system, so I need some assistance from the kind experts here!

Question 1:

If you create a disk image and back up your harddisk, which has a size of 1TB, can the image be backed up to a harddisk of 1.5TB without side-effects?

What's actually going on when you restore a disc image?
What happens with the empty space as old partitions only uses the size you've set?

Question 2:

Although I've read that creating a disc image is like a 100% clone of your hard disk entirely, is this true?

Question 3:

If I've used tools such as those disc alignment/advance format tools on my harddrive, will this affect the backup in anyway should I restore a disc image to a hardrdrive that doesn't support advance format?



These questions are really hard to google so I decided to ask them here, I'm really grateful for any amount of support I'll get!

 

[kado897]

Hi Questions and welcome to Seven Forums.

To answer your questions.

1. Yes proveided there is sufficient free space on the 1.5 TB HDD. An image will normally take between 50-60% of the size of the data you are backing up. That is the used data not the size of the disk. The restore will return your disk to the state it was when you took the image.

2. It is not truly a clone as it doesn't normally back up unused storage but in effect it is a clone of all the data that is on your drive.

3. You don't need to worry about that. The image is just a file or files that contain enough information to put everything back the way it was when you do a restore.

 

[Questions]

Alright, thanks for the assistance!

Right after you answered me, I bravely plugged in the docking station and attempted to created a disc image, only be to greeted by an error along the lines of:

There is not enough space to create the volume shadow copy... etc

The harddisk in the docking station has 1 partition of 1.5TB, none of which is used, is this error talking about space that isn't partitioned instead?

 

[kado897]

I think we have seen this problem before. I don't think it refers to the space on your external HDD but to the space on one of the partitions on your internal drive.

Could you post a screen shot of your disk management screen. Type disk management into the start menu search box and select the entry Create and format disk partitions. Maximize the display and follow this tutorial to post the screen shot. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/9733-screenshots-files-upload-post-seven-forums.html

 

[Questions]

Size problem, give me a couple of minutes

 

[kado897]

I'm sorry. for some reason your images are corrupted.

 

[Questions]

Finally got it to work, this forum doesn't like jpegs I think.

 

[kado897]

Yes that would be ok.

 

[marsmimar]

I think we have seen this problem before. I don't think it refers to the space on your external HDD but to the space on one of the partitions on your internal drive.

Could you post a screen shot of your disk management screen. Type disk management into the start menu search box and select the entry Create and format disk partitions. Maximize the display and follow this tutorial to post the screen shot. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/9733-screenshots-files-upload-post-seven-forums.html

Keith I think you're on to something. As I always tell people, I'm not an expert at anything and my one remaining brain cell doesn't always work. But I seem to recall that the System Reserved partition needs a certain amount of free space in order for a VSS to be created. Likewise, if System Protection is turned off or doesn't have enough space allocated, the VSS can't be created. Does this sound familiar to you?

EDIT: Found this Technet forum thread. NehaaMSFT says the System Reserved partition needs 40MB free space. And jimg43 says he had to turn on System Protection and allocate a couple of GB free space. Yes, it's an older thread but I think the parameters still apply.

Windows 7 RC Backup fails - Errorcode 0x81000019

 

[kado897]

That was my thinking Lee.

 

[Questions]

I read that link marsmimar suggested, it feels too dangerous for me =s

So basically, I am left with no other options other than to use a 3rd party software?

 

[kado897]

It looks a bit tight on your System reserved partition. I guess that is the cause. If you don't feell comfortable following Marsimar's suggestion the a third party backup solution is the preferable one. I use Macrium Reflect. It is highly regarded by many here. The link is in my signature. There is a good tutorial by WHS here. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/73828-imaging-free-macrium.html?filter[2]=Backup%20Restore

 

[marsmimar]

I think there's enough room on the System Reserved partition. It shows 69MB (69%) free space. On my machine I've got 54MB (54%) free space. So I think System Protection needs to be checked. And it's relatively easy. If I can do it, anybody can do it!

-Click Start > type in Create. A list if items will appear.
-Select "Create a restore point". A new dialog box will appear called System Properties.
-Make sure "Protection" is On for C: System.
-Regardless if it's On or Off, click the "Configure" button.



-Another dialog box will open called System Protection for Local Disk C:
-Under "Restore Settings" select the first option (Restore system settings...)
-If "Protection" was previous Off it will now be On
-Check "Current Usage" and "Max Usage". As I understand it, Current Usage tells you how much hard drive space is currrently being used for restore points and Volume Shadow Copies. Max Usage tells you how much total hard drive space is set aside for restore points and Volume Shadow Copies.
-Use the slide control to set Max Usage. I think the default is 10% of total hard drive size. So on a 1TB (1000GB) drive you're looking at about 100GB being set aside. That might be overkill if you're running low on hard drive space. (I've got mine set to 2% and I have no problems using the Windows 7 built in imaging tool to create my system images. Right now I have 2 restore points set and 3 system images. I've used less than 2GB for all of that. You can play around with this setting and optimize it for your machine.)
-Click OK to save settings and close dialog boxes

 

[kado897]

It might also be worth checking the Volume Shadow Copy service.

type services in the search box and select Services from the list. Scroll down to Volume Shadow Copy and check that it is set to start manually.

 

[whs]

One other option you have is to move the bootmgr from the system reserved partition to the C partition. Then you can get rid of the system reserved and it will not stand in the way. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/209885-bootmgr-move-c-easybcd.html

If you use free Macrium (which I highly recommend), moving the bootmgr to C makes life a lot easier. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/73828-imaging-free-macrium.html?ltr=I

 

[Questions]

No luck for me, the system protection was already on, and I had 80GB+ of free space set aside left still, the shadow volume service was running too =(

 

[marsmimar]

No luck for me, the system protection was already on, and I had 80GB+ of free space set aside left still, the shadow volume service was running too =(

I'm just wondering if you have any damaged or corrupted system files. You could try running a System File Checker scan from an elevated command prompt (option two, this tutorial.) If any problems are found, run the scan 3 times, rebooting in between each scan.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1538-sfc-scannow-command-system-file-checker.html

 

[Questions]

I did that before doing a complete clean reinstall, then I thought of imaging the computer to save myself from future problems such as this =(

I tried a couple of other native backup options, all of them seems to point to the problem of unable to create a shadow volume, any ideas?

 

[marsmimar]

I did that before doing a complete clean reinstall, then I thought of imaging the computer to save myself from future problems such as this =(

I tried a couple of other native backup options, all of them seems to point to the problem of unable to create a shadow volume, any ideas?

Please accept my apology for some clarification. I'm just trying to wrap my one brain cell around this problem.

OK, if I'm understanding this correctly, you ran SFC before doing a complete clean reinstall. Then after you did the complete clean reinstall you decided to try imaging the computer. I'm guessing that after you did the complete clean reinstall, you also installed all Windows Updates, added your personalized settings, installed various programs, etc.

At any time after doing all of this, and before trying to create a system image, did you check system integrity by running another SFC? It wouldn't be the first time that a clean reinstall suffered a glitch during the installation process, or that Windows Updates damaged some system files, or that any of the newly downloaded/installed programs messed something up.

 

[Questions]

You are correct, I did not run another check after installing all the updates, might as well try, then I plan on trying this:

http://www.sevenforums.com/backup-restore/48069-unable-create-system-image-restore-point-2.html