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Thread ID: 121837	2011-11-16 23:25:00	100 GB seems to have gone missing after imaging failure	tuiruru (12277)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
1243892	2011-11-16 23:25:00	Hi Yesterday I decided to make the regular bacup image of my primary hard drive using Active Disk Image and putting the image on a WD Elements 1tB external drive. I did a quick check of the amount of free space on the WD using “Computer” and it showed 200+ GB – at least enough and then some for the image using normal compression. I started the image (it normally takes about four hours to complete) and went out. During that time there was a brief powercut in the area, and when returned 5 and a half hours after the image had started, I was greeted with and “image fail” type notice, which I assumed had something to do with the powercut (the laptop had it’s battery in but…). I decided to start the backup again, so went to delete the folder that was to contain the image, but curiously it was registering as having a size of only about 116kb!. I deleted it anyway, and then checked the amount of free space on the WD and now it was telling me that there was only 112GB free. I had noticed that there had been a message about being “unable to write to..” from the little app that I use to post warnings from Windows Events Manager, so I thought I’d run a surface check on the hard drive. Because it was late I decided to use the Windows Check Disk tool, rather than run it from a command line prompt, and set it to automatically fix file system errors and scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors and set it going. I waited for a while to see that it was running, noted that it was telling me that 24 files had been checked and went to bed. When I got up three hours later to go to the loo it was still sat on 24 files checked, so I groaned and shut it all down. I’ve looked at the WD this morning and here are the stats from right clicking on each folder and choosing “Properties”: Folders bytes GB Films 66,967,826,432 - 62.3 25 Sept Image 209,425,032,168 - 195 Backup - new 203,336,278,016 - 189 20 Oct Image 222,624,571,392 - 207 Total 702,353,708,008 653 Here’s what “Computer” says about the WD drive as a whole: Used 879,196,426,240 bytes Free 121,004,564,480 bytes Total 1,000,200,990,720 112 GB free out of 931GB Now, surely the “Total” (702,353,708,008) from the first set of figures should be about the same as the “Used” (879,196,426,240) from the second set of figures? It seems to reflect the difference between the 200+ GB before I started the Image and the 112 GB being reported now. The bottom line is, before I started the whole process there was enough space to do and image, and now there isn’t, despite deleting the folder that the image was due to be in. The folders listed above are the only ones that show up when using “My Computer” (the “Show hidden files” option is on). I hope all that makes sense. I am using Vista Home Premium SP 2 As usual, all comments/advice/suggestions gratefully accepted.	tuiruru (12277)
1243893	2011-11-16 23:38:00	Pop this program on and see what it says about the partitions. download.cnet.com	wratterus (105)
1243894	2011-11-17 01:21:00	Pop this program on and see what it says about the partitions. download.cnet.com Hi Wratterus - thanks for responding Do you mean partitions on the drive that I am imaging to? That's just a straight forward storage drive. "Looking at it" with "Active@DiscImage" does not show any partitions whereas "Active@" does recognise the three different partitions on the drive that I am trying to image (I include all three partitions in the image).	tuiruru (12277)
1243895	2011-11-17 01:51:00	Here's what easeus shows: 3376 The backup drive is the third one - there are two hard drives in the Laptop.	tuiruru (12277)
1243896	2011-11-17 17:53:00	You could try doing a search for any large files created on the specific day. There may be a temp file hidden in some obscure folder which contains the partial image. Also worth trying the simple task of emptying the Recycle Bin. Some apps may dump their failed jobs into there. I once had hundreds of GB go missing after doing a sweep for duplicate files. Turned out that although the recylcle bin was configured to be way too small for all those files that they were all in reality still held in the bin, and still reporting space used.	Paul.Cov (425)
1243897	2011-11-17 18:03:00	You could try doing a search for any large files created on the specific day. There may be a temp file hidden in some obscure folder which contains the partial image. Also worth trying the simple task of emptying the Recycle Bin. Some apps may dump their failed jobs into there. I once had hundreds of GB go missing after doing a sweep for duplicate files. Turned out that although the recylcle bin was configured to be way too small for all those files that they were all in reality still held in the bin, and still reporting space used. S#*t Paul!! Here's what it said about the recycle bin: 3378 on the face of it nothing big.... But, empty it and, hey presto, the missing space is back!! Thanks mate!! :)	tuiruru (12277)
1243898	2011-11-19 06:09:00	Four hours to back up the system drive? Mine backs up in 20 minutes tops. I keep the System partition (C in most, D in W7) down to not more than 60gb. Vista might be on D as well if it has a small primary partition at the beginning of the disk for start up files. In Windows the D will be seen as C because the first partition is hidden. The back up program usually sees it as D. Have I confused you?!	mzee (3324)
1243899	2011-11-19 21:42:00	Four hours to back up the system drive? Mine backs up in 20 minutes tops. I keep the System partition (C in most, D in W7) down to not more than 60gb. Vista might be on D as well if it has a small primary partition at the beginning of the disk for start up files. In Windows the D will be seen as C because the first partition is hidden. The back up program usually sees it as D. Have I confused you?! Hi mzee As you can see from post #4 The lappie has two physical drives both of 300+ GB, and the first has two partitions on it. Both drives are getting pretty clogged up and so I'm waiting til I can afford another external HD so I can permanently archive the things that don't change much (like the videos and pics) and then remove them from drive 0 for good. Also, I've "played" with a lot of software over time that I've never really tidied up (my wife will tell you I've never been big on spring cleaning of any variety) As for the four hours, I've got nothing to compare it with. For the imaging (of all three partitions) I use Active@ DiskImage, which a number of us here do, and I just assumed the length of time it took was because it was being compressed and squeezed down a Usb 2 connection. Verifying the image takes less. Yeah, it is a bit of a pain.......:)	tuiruru (12277)
1243900	2011-11-19 22:06:00	Thats a LOT of data to back up, esp via USB, so the time its taking would be about right. Normally when I make an image of a new install, if its the usual approx 15-20GB, it takes about 5-10 Minutes over the LAN to a server, using normal compression, but to USB drives will easily be longer.	wainuitech (129)
1243901	2011-11-19 22:23:00	Thats a LOT of data to back up, esp via USB, so the time its taking would be about right. Normally when I make an image of a new install, if its the usual approx 15-20GB, it takes about 5-10 Minutes over the LAN to a server, using normal compression, but to USB drives will easily be longer. Yeah - I just have to plan to have it run when I go out - powercuts permitting! :)	tuiruru (12277)
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