Macrium Reflect image size has increased unaccountably

I have 5 images right now.

All of the same system SSD in the same PC that changes very slowly.

ALL data other than virtually 0 email and a very small bookmark file are on a totally separate disk and not imaged.

I have a May image that is 21.6 gb. This was done with whatever version I had at the time. I don't get every update. It may have been 6 months or a year old.

I have one from August that is 20.7. I have another from August that is 22.2. These would likely have been done with the same version I had in May.

I have 2 from the last 3 weeks that are 23.6 and 23.7; these were both done with version 5283.

So, you might say a little larger at 23 plus.

But I cannot swear to them being cleaned in the same manner immediately before the images were taken---so maybe you can't draw any conclusions from me.

Did you use 5283 at all?

Are you sure all versions prior to 5321 did not have this symptom?

Macrium Reflect will allow you to mount a backup as a drive letter. You could mount the most recent backup, and, assuming that you still have a previous backup, mount it as well. Then perform a detailed comparison of the two to locate differences.

There are tools available to help make comparison easier.

EDIT: One simple test...
After you mount both images, look at what the raw size of all files is. If they are very nearly identical, then this tells you that the compression is the difference because the sizes you see here would be the actual file sizes (not compressed sizes).

Something doesn't sound right here:

I only use my DELL for browsing internet and emails (via Thunderbird email client). No files are saved on the DELL so the only changes to that machine are due to software updates.

And:

and the DELL image increased from 45 GB to 48 GB.

So what the heck have you got on there Those image sizes will come out at around 90Gb+ on a restored image. Windows on its own comfortably fits on a 20Gb partition, in fact it takes much less than even that. I know disc images I have made of basic Windows installations come in at around 7Gb from memory (not with Macrium but they are all much of a muchness compression wise).

So if you are making a full disc image of Windows and on a system that has no user files on there... well you see why I ask.

wiganken said:

....No files are saved on the DELL so the only changes to that machine are due to software updates. Restore Points are disabled so I do not expect the image size to vary much....

....the DELL image increased from 45 GB to 48 GB....

Mooly said:

Something doesn't sound right here.... Windows on its own comfortably fits on a 20Gb partition... So if you are making a full disc image of Windows and on a system that has no user files on there... well you see why I ask.

I agree with Mooly, even your 45GB sounds excessively large for a system with no user files. This system of mine uses just 18GB for a full install of x64 Windows Pro. Installed apps and some portable apps add a further 7GB to that.



Its latest Macrium image is 10GB.




I suggest your system is long overdue for a clean up of its Component Store.

Analyze Component Store (WinSxS folder) in Windows 10

Clean Up Component Store (WinSxS folder) in Windows 10

wiganken said:

...Restore Points are enabled so I expect the image file size to change....

Macrium doesn't back up restore points (or swapfile.sys or hiberfil.sys come to that)

Macrium Support said:

...System restore points are not included in the snapshot and can take up to 10% of the partition capacity.
Kind Regards

Nick - Macrium Support

https://forum.macrium.com/post/1351

Thanks for all replies. I haven't deserted my post. I have been busy analysing this problem amongst other things.

I ran ‘Cleanup Component Store’ on both machines as per Bree’s suggestions in #5 but this only reduced my C: ‘Used’ space by 1.9 GB on my DELL laptop and nothing at all on my desktop PC.

Re hsehestedt #3 post - I don’t have previous images to compare. I keep an Excel spreadsheet where I write down the image sizes and I can see the file size increasing. Interestingly I have just noticed the increase is not sudden as I thought. It has been creeping up over time.

The ‘Storage’ on my two machines are as shown on pictures. First picture is DELL laptop.

Another thing I noticed is that in September 2019 I had to do an In-Place Windows upgrade (because Windows update failed to install 3 times) and this gained me 9 GB of disk space on my Desktop.

Question - I believe an In-Place upgrade allows me to keep all my apps and user files so do you recommend trying this step to create a new ‘baseline’ so to speak? I would create a new image first in case of problems.

Looking at your first pic: about 71 used; the sum of what's shown is about 32; what is the remaining 39?

Looking at your second pic; about 93 used; the sum of what's shown is about 49; what is the remaining 44?

Here's mine for comparison; about 36 used; the sum of what's shown is 36, virtually nothing remaining:

My apologies. The pictures are missing "System & Reserved" files so here are two new pictures. The DELL laptop figures equate with the 'Used' figure but the Desktop shows that there is 2 GB unaccounted for. It shows 92.8 GB Used but only finds 90.89 GB used?

Can anyone advise if my second question is worth trying? For simplicity here it is again: -

Question - I believe an In-Place upgrade allows me to keep all my apps and user files so do you recommend trying this step to create a new ‘baseline’ so to speak? I would create a new image first in case of problems.

wiganken said:

Question - I believe an In-Place upgrade allows me to keep all my apps and user files so do you recommend trying this step to create a new ‘baseline’ so to speak? I would create a new image first in case of problems.

That is perhaps using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. I would advise first cleaning up the Component Store. I routinely do that before making my images. My usual way to do that is with Disk Clean up's 'clean up system files', making sure that 'Windows Update Clean-up' is selected (in fact, I select almost everything else too).



But there are many ways to do the same clean up, including using DISM as in this tutorial.

Clean Up Component Store (WinSxS folder) in Windows 10

You'd be surprised just how much can be recovered in this way, running into quite a few GB if you haven't done a clean up recently.