Creating image fails - says not enough space

Vincenzo

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I'm trying to use Windows 7 File Recovery to create an image on an external drive. When initiate the process, the app says that there is 700 GB free space on the drive, which is correct. And that it may require up to 70 GB. But when I start the process, it fails after a few seconds and says there is not enough space on the drive. I've disconnected the drive and rebooted, get the same result. The drive is a Seagate GoFlex 2 TB. Any ideas?

Thanks
 

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System One

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It could be the 100mb recovery partition that has less than 50mb of space. I've had that happen, it will usually resolve itself on a short period of time.
 

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I've just looked at Disk Management. The Recovery Partition is 500 MB. What is something that small used for, and how will this resolve itself? Thanks
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro
Now I am thinking that I need to go into the System Protection tab and set up System Protection space on the target drive. I will try that later today.
 

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I think that process wants to do it initially on your main system drive, can't to point it to where you want to store the image file?
 

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If when you say "process" you mean the process of creating the image - it selected the external drive as the target drive for the image automatically. Then gave the error when I started the image creation.
 

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System One

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Hm, well it should say the size of the file it wants to create, maybe it is just too large for the available space on your target drive? This happened to me when I was making an Easy Transfer backup, it was making a 300 GB file, and I had to stick a drive in there that had that much free.
 

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    Asus M2N-MX SE Plus/Asus A8M2N-LA (NodusM)
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    WDC WD50 00AAKS-007AA SCSI Disk Device
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    Recently lost my Windows 8 on my main PC, had to go back to Windows 7.
Does it use some kind of staging area on the main hard drive? How much space do you have on the system drive?

I found "Windows 7 File Recovery" in my control panel, is that what you are using? I don't know why it says "Windows 7" but it is Windows 8.

Ok, I set it to "Use Network Backup" and it found a drive that had 300 GB free. It seems like it will allow me to send it there. None of my local drives can accommodate 300 GB, and it does not let me choose the items unless I find a space that has at least 300 GB free.

backup.png

Stick your 700 GB drive into a network drive, and choose THAT as the location
 

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    Asus M2N-MX SE Plus § DualCore AMD Athlon 64 X2, 2300 MHz (11.5 x 200) 4400+ § Corsair Value Select
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    AMD 4400+/4200+
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    Asus M2N-MX SE Plus/Asus A8M2N-LA (NodusM)
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    nVIDIA GT218 - High Definition Audio Controller
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    Hitachi 40" LCD HDTV
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    WDC WD50 00AAKS-007AA SCSI Disk Device
    ST1000DL 002-9TT153 SCSI Disk Device
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    Recently lost my Windows 8 on my main PC, had to go back to Windows 7.
It could be the 100mb recovery partition that has less than 50mb of space. I've had that happen, it will usually resolve itself on a short period of time.
I concur, this is worth checking.

1. Open diskmgmt.msc
2. Right-click the system reserved partition -> Change drive letters and paths -> Assign a letter
3. Open the partition in File Explorer and enable hidden files and folders.
4. Post the screenshot.

If you can't figure out step 2, post the full screen capture from step 1.
 

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  • OS
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    HP Pavilion dv7t (17.3'', i7-2630QM, HD 6770M 1Gb, 8Gb RAM, 2 SSD@120Gb + 1 HDD@750Gb)
I no longer have that computer at my house, my friend took it back. I will be logging in to it remotely next week, I'll post back after I work on it some more. Thanks
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro
Well, I just noticed that my Main Computer WAS backed up to that free space on my Media Machine. It took most of yesterday to do it, I told it to cancel but it made the backup anyway.

I don't know why the backup could not be done on the 700 GB drive you had, because it should have gone right in there. Maybe it wasn't partitioned NTFS, or was a logical partition. I could not back up to any drive on my main system due to extreme lack of space, but using the Networked Drive, it accepted the location and made a backup.
 

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    Windows 8 Pro with Media Center/Windows 7
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    Asus M2N-MX SE Plus § DualCore AMD Athlon 64 X2, 2300 MHz (11.5 x 200) 4400+ § Corsair Value Select
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    AMD 4400+/4200+
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    Asus M2N-MX SE Plus/Asus A8M2N-LA (NodusM)
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    2 GB/3GB
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    GeForce 8400 GS/GeForce 210
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    nVIDIA GT218 - High Definition Audio Controller
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    Hitachi 40" LCD HDTV
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    "1842 x 1036"
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    WDC WD50 00AAKS-007AA SCSI Disk Device
    ST1000DL 002-9TT153 SCSI Disk Device
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    Recently lost my Windows 8 on my main PC, had to go back to Windows 7.
Just for the record, I do a complete system image backup to an external drive on a very consistent basis. In fact, the process automatically searches for the external drive and recommends it. Does yours work that way? If so, and the previous recommendations of others do not fix your issue, how about giving us screenshot of your exteranl drive because that's where I think the problem may be. For example, I cannot do a full system image backup to an external drive that is formatted as FAT32. Windows politely notifies me that I must backup a system image (using Win 7 recovery) to an NTFS partitioned hard drive. Maybe this information can turn on some lights for you. Anyway, just my two cents. Good luck.
 

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  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro Windows 8.1 Preview
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Sometimes, and for some strange reason, some External backup drives come formatted as FAT32. It would be this way if the drives are intended for MAC/WINDOWS use. So I'll go out on a limb and agree that JustATest may have hit the nail square on the head, check that 700 GB Drive and see if it's Fat32. Let us know. I've never seen a driver larger than 500 GB pre formatted as Fat32 though.
 

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  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro with Media Center/Windows 7
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    Asus M2N-MX SE Plus § DualCore AMD Athlon 64 X2, 2300 MHz (11.5 x 200) 4400+ § Corsair Value Select
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    AMD 4400+/4200+
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    Asus M2N-MX SE Plus/Asus A8M2N-LA (NodusM)
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    2 GB/3GB
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    GeForce 8400 GS/GeForce 210
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    nVIDIA GT218 - High Definition Audio Controller
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Hitachi 40" LCD HDTV
    Screen Resolution
    "1842 x 1036"
    Hard Drives
    WDC WD50 00AAKS-007AA SCSI Disk Device
    ST1000DL 002-9TT153 SCSI Disk Device
    WDC WD3200AAJB-00J3A0 ATA Device
    WDC WD32 WD-WCAPZ2942630 USB Device
    WD My Book 1140 USB Device
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    Recently lost my Windows 8 on my main PC, had to go back to Windows 7.
My external hard drive that my friend's computer would not image to is NTFS formatted. I've imaged to it before with Windows, and just yesterday I ran an image to it with another computer here.

I logged in remotely to my friend's computer, and had him connect up his external hard drive. The image ran successfully. Not sure what the problem was where it would not image to my external HDD.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro
I'm trying to use Windows 7 File Recovery to create an image on an external drive. When initiate the process, the app says that there is 700 GB free space on the drive, which is correct. And that it may require up to 70 GB. But when I start the process, it fails after a few seconds and says there is not enough space on the drive. I've disconnected the drive and rebooted, get the same result. The drive is a Seagate GoFlex 2 TB. Any ideas?

Thanks

Hi there
that's one of the reasons why I don't LIKE the standard built in imaging programs.

There's a little known feature that this requires called V.S.S (Volume shadowing service) and for the Windows built in imaging service to run it actually needs to have DOUBLE the space required for the image creation available -- this is IMO a HUGE limitation in using this type of software.

You are INFINITELY better off using either a FREE product like Free Macrium or a commercial solution like Acronis / Paragon etc.
Make a bootable copy and then do your Backups,.

Forget about Windows imaging / backup -- probably just barely better than nothing but IMO not really fit for purpose.

Cheers
jimbo
 

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Hi there
that's one of the reasons why I don't LIKE the standard built in imaging programs.

There's a little known feature that this requires called V.S.S (Volume shadowing service) and for the Windows built in imaging service to run it actually needs to have DOUBLE the space required for the image creation available -- this is IMO a HUGE limitation in using this type of software.

You are INFINITELY better off using either a FREE product like Free Macrium or a commercial solution like Acronis / Paragon etc.
Make a bootable copy and then do your Backups,.

Forget about Windows imaging / backup -- probably just barely better than nothing but IMO not really fit for purpose.

Cheers
jimbo
VSS is a great thing, because it allows to make backup without taking the system offline. First, the snapshot is taken and saved as a shadow copy, then the image of the shadow copy is created.

And here comes the funniest part :) Lots of third party backup solutions employ VSS, including Macrium (proof) and Acronis (proof).

Vadim
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion dv7t (17.3'', i7-2630QM, HD 6770M 1Gb, 8Gb RAM, 2 SSD@120Gb + 1 HDD@750Gb)
Another issue is that I just saw he was using a Goflex drive. Was it on the network when you originally tried to back up to it? GoFlex drives are supposed to be used on a LAN. Can they be attached directly?

Anyway, I see you were able to make the backup, however you did it, I'm glad you were finally able to do it.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro with Media Center/Windows 7
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus M2N-MX SE Plus § DualCore AMD Athlon 64 X2, 2300 MHz (11.5 x 200) 4400+ § Corsair Value Select
    CPU
    AMD 4400+/4200+
    Motherboard
    Asus M2N-MX SE Plus/Asus A8M2N-LA (NodusM)
    Memory
    2 GB/3GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    GeForce 8400 GS/GeForce 210
    Sound Card
    nVIDIA GT218 - High Definition Audio Controller
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Hitachi 40" LCD HDTV
    Screen Resolution
    "1842 x 1036"
    Hard Drives
    WDC WD50 00AAKS-007AA SCSI Disk Device
    ST1000DL 002-9TT153 SCSI Disk Device
    WDC WD3200AAJB-00J3A0 ATA Device
    WDC WD32 WD-WCAPZ2942630 USB Device
    WD My Book 1140 USB Device
    PSU
    Works 550w
    Case
    MSI "M-Box"
    Cooling
    Water Cooled
    Keyboard
    Dell Keyboard
    Mouse
    Microsoft Intellimouse
    Internet Speed
    Cable Medium Speed
    Browser
    Chrome/IE 10
    Antivirus
    Eset NOD32 6.x/Win Defend
    Other Info
    Recently lost my Windows 8 on my main PC, had to go back to Windows 7.
Hi there
that's one of the reasons why I don't LIKE the standard built in imaging programs.

There's a little known feature that this requires called V.S.S (Volume shadowing service) and for the Windows built in imaging service to run it actually needs to have DOUBLE the space required for the image creation available -- this is IMO a HUGE limitation in using this type of software.

You are INFINITELY better off using either a FREE product like Free Macrium or a commercial solution like Acronis / Paragon etc.
Make a bootable copy and then do your Backups,.

Forget about Windows imaging / backup -- probably just barely better than nothing but IMO not really fit for purpose.

Cheers
jimbo
VSS is a great thing, because it allows to make backup without taking the system offline. First, the snapshot is taken and saved as a shadow copy, then the image of the shadow copy is created.

And here comes the funniest part :) Lots of third party backup solutions employ VSS, including Macrium (proof) and Acronis (proof).

Vadim

Hi there
some versions of acronis do NOT use VSS -- in any case some people might prefer to take an image backup via a stand alone program -- we aren't talking about backing up servers etc here. Also most of these stand alone backup / restore programs use a LINUX based OS so they most certainly won't be using the Windows VSS service.

Note also I'm referring to taking IMAGE and DATA Backups rather than Volume / Disk copies / clones. The Acronis article mentions VSS problems when doing DISK copies which is another issue - and in any case it proves the point that there IS a problem with using VSS sometimes.

I've NEVER had any issues with VSS using Acronis since the old Acronis Workstation right up to ATH 2012 - but I've often had problems with the built in Windows backup systems which is why I don't use it any more.

I'm not getting into any Techno geek argument as to whether in certain cases VSS might be used or whether it's a good thing -- I merely pointed out to the OP that BECAUSE windows backup uses VSS it requires EXTRA space on disks in order too function - while some other products (often Linux based bootable stand alone versions) don't use it and therefore are not going to fail to function because lack of space . (Of course there has to be enough space to store the backup but that's another issue completely).

I think you'll find that the built in Windows backup options are not very well regarded and most people tend to prefer using a 3rd party solution - although using ANY backup solution is usually (providing it works !!) better than NONE.

Cheers
jimbo
 

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System One

  • OS
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    Monitor(s) Displays
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    Hard Drives
    SSD's * 3 (Samsung 840 series) 250 GB
    2 X 3 TB sata
    5 X 1 TB sata
    Internet Speed
    0.12 GB/s (120Mb/s)
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