[solved] Backup fails because of a lack of free space while the free space is 2 times the size of the backup.

Stéphane, welcome back...!

I would suspect the core issue here is that your Automatic Cleanup settings do not allow for the number of backup images that your backup drive needs to hold.

Automatic cleanup will only delete the oldest file(s) after a new full backup has been created successfully, therefore you need a minimum of 2 x the size of your full backup space just to use 'Store no more than 1 recent version chains' in the cleanup options.

67GB x 2 = 134GB space required and your drive only has 121GB available, so insufficient space.

Hi Steve,

Thanks for your reply, and sorry if I answser you only now.

The automatic cleanup is set so that the number of backups is 2.

On the external hard drive, there is 120 Go free space, and 2 backups are stored (67 Go each).

This leaves enough free space to make a new backup, then delete the oldest.

Here is the problem.

And the next backup is today ;-)

Thanks for your help.

Stéphane

Stéphane, please check the top of the Notifications page for your backup task.  If you set a warning there for when the free disk space is below a set value, this can also cause this type of issue.

Steve.

Here is the email notification :

first notification :

ATI Demon started. Version: 23.4.1.14690.
Operation Weekly system backup started according to schedule.
Create a backup archive From: Disk 1
To the file: "N:\Sauvegardes Acronis\Sauvegarde système hebdomadaire\Sauvegarde système hebdomadaire.tib"
The pending operation 173 has started: "Creating the partition image".
Writing a full version of the file: Sauvegarde système hebdomadaire_full_b16_s1_v1.tib
The pending operation 173 has started: "Creating the partition image".
Error 0x13c0014: VSS Retry: 1
| error 0x10c442: Failed to start creating volume snapshot.
| error 0x10c46b: VSS writer 'System Writer' with class ID 'E8132975-6F93-4464-A53E-1050253AE220' has failed to process the snapshot.
Error 0x4001d: The quotas have been broken.
| Path: N:\Sauvegardes Acronis\Sauvegarde système hebdomadaire\Sauvegarde système hebdomadaire_full_b16_s1_v1.tib
| error 0x4001d: The quotas have been broken.
| functionality: `anonymous-namespace'::FreeSpaceChecker::CheckFreeSpace
The target drive lacks free space.
Delete unnecessary files or choose another archive location. : ⎂ Ignore // ⎂ Cancel //
The target drive lacks free space.
Delete unnecessary files or choose another archive location. : ⎂ Ignore // ⎂ Cancel //: User Response:
Error 0x101f6: Write Error
Error 0x13c0010: Interrupted by timeout.

Stéphane, the main log shows that there are two related issues at work here!

There is a VSS snapshot issue and there is a drive quota issue, which may be directly related to not being able to create the snapshot.

I would recommend running the VSS Doctor tool initially and use it to fix any VSS errors found, then follow this by doing a Windows Restart before retrying your backup.

Hi Steve.

Sorry if I did not answer early. I was busy.

I ran VSS Doctor.

There are 3 issues :

-  VSS Writer Status : but no error detected.

-  VSS Shadow Storages Status : If I click on "Fix Issues", the following message appears :

________________________________________________________________________________

"The following shadow storage configuration changes will be performed :

- For D:\ on D:\ set maximum shadow storage size to 47 GB.

If you are sure that you understand consequences of these actions and still want to proceed, click Yes."

________________________________________________________________________________

I don't understand with there is a problem with D:\. I don't backup D:\ when I backup System C:\.

- Disk Free Space Available :

There is a problem with a 99 MB volume ...

I join the report.

Thanks for your help :-)

Stéphane

Stéphane, the VSS issue with the 99MB partition is common and shouldn't be a problem, and the other VSS issue with the D: partition is just trying to apply recommended size values, so you should apply the fix offered by VSS Doctor then restart the computer.

Hi all.

Some news.

After cleaning the C: partition, the size is now 99 GB instead 110 GB.

And with 132 GB free space on the external hard drive, weekly backup run correctly. Each backup is 58 GB.

It seems that Acronis needs a free space a minimum of twice the backup size  to run the backup correctly.

On an other PC, with Acronis 2018, there is the same problem since yesterday. The free space on the external hard drive is just now less than 2 times a backup. The backup fails with the same error message.

Is there a known issue with the size of free space / backup size ?

Thanks.

Stéphane

Acronis will always require sufficient free space to store a minimum of 2 x Full backup image files when using Automatic Cleanup rules such as 'Store no more than 1 recent version chains' - this is because no files are ever deleted until after a further new full backup has been created successfully, so that users are not left in a situation of having no backup at all.

There may also be considerations regarding the total size of the source data involved where Acronis is making a 'guess' about the level of compression that can be achieved, including omitting all the items specified on the task Exclusions page options, where the guess will initially be high until the actual make up of all the files in the source is determined - this is because some files can be highly compressed whereas others such as video, music, photos are already highly compressed and cannot be compressed further.

Hi Steve.

If I understand what you are writing, the space needed is twice the size of the partition, not twice the size of the backup.

That's right ?

Best regards.

Stéphane

It should only be twice the size of the backup, not the partition as far as I understand.

Hi Steve.

Why should free space double the size of the backup, if Acronis needs to perform a (single) backup correctly, before erasing the older one? The size of one (1) backup, or even the size of the space occupied on the partition (in my case), should be enough.

But I realize that I have been imprecise (and wrong).
In fact, the free space on the external disk must be at least equal to the space occupied on the partition that you want to save.
For example, if the space occupied on C: is 100 GB, it takes at least 100 GB free on the external disk, even if the backup is only 80 GB.

That's right ?

Best regards.

Stéphane

In fact, the free space on the external disk must be at least equal to the space occupied on the partition that you want to save.
For example, if the space occupied on C: is 100 GB, it takes at least 100 GB free on the external disk, even if the backup is only 80 GB

Stéphane, the core requirement here is that there must be sufficient free space to accommodate the size of data that will be captured in the backup file, so if your backup is going to be 80GB you must have 80GB of free space at a minimum, but probably more will be needed to avoid running out of space and causing the backup to fail.  Acronis will try to write the backup file as contiguous data where possible, so the fragmentation level of the destination drive can be involved.

If you are using Automatic Cleanup, then the space required is effectively doubled, as Acronis will always create a new Full backup file before deleting any previous, older backup chain files.

The Shadow Copy created for the backup is also in play and can be 10 to 15% of free disk space as well.

To chime in as well - a disk that has less than 10% space is likely to have issues as well.  File caching and writes need space and the lower the available space, the more difficult it is for the disk to perform.  This can especially be an issue when creating a large, single backup file (58GB in this case as noted above) as the amount of contiguous disk space becomes smaller and smaller and may not accommodate such a large file.  

Just a general rule of thumb - you typically don't want to get below 10% on any disk - you can get away with this a little bit if you have a large disk.  For instance, on a 1TB drive, 10% would still leave you about 100GB to play with.  But the smaller the disk, the less free space you'll have and 10% is kind of the breaking point for disk performance when you're looking at 256GB drives and smaller. 

Hi all.

Thanks for your comments.

Here is what I observed on 2 PC for which the system backup was failed :

PC1 :

free space on the external hard drive : 123 Go.

backup size : 67 Go.

backup failed just when it reached 66 494 464 ko with the error "lack of space".

PC2 :

free space on the external hard drive : 202 Go.

occupied space on C: 135 Go

backup size : 127 Go.

Every time, the free space on the external drive was at least 50% greater than the backup size (or the occupied space for the second PC)

Is it consistent with your explanations ?

Thanks.

Best regards.

Stéphane

Stéphane, yes, I believe the explanations already given are consistent here with the size of your backups and free space available.

PC1 backup size 67GB with 123GB free space on backup drive.
2 x 67GB = 134GB space needed if using automatic cleanup.

PC1 backup size 127GB with 202GB free space on backup drive.
2 x 127GB = 254GB space needed if using automatic cleanup.

The above does not allow for caching space, headroom to handle fragmentation etc, so really for PC1 you should ideally have at least 150GB free space, and for PC2 nearer to 300GB free space.

Steve.

Thanks for your answer.

I'm sorry, but I don't understand why Acronis needs twice the backup size.

In my case, the automatic cleanupp is set to 3 backups.

3 backups are already done. Each is 127 Go large. (and occupeid space on C is 135 Go)

But one day, with a free space of 202 Go, it's not enough for doing a new backup before deletting the oldest ?

(I ask you again because I'm not sure I gave you all the information. But it will be the last time:-)

Best regards.

Stéphane

I'm sorry, but I don't understand why Acronis needs twice the backup size.

In my case, the automatic cleanup is set to 3 backups.

3 backups are already done. Each is 127 Go large. (and occupied space on C is 135 Go)

But one day, with a free space of 202 Go, it's not enough for doing a new backup before deleting the oldest ?

Stéphane, what type of backups are you creating here, are they just Full backups, or do they include Incremental or Differential backup files?

If your cleanup settings are to 'Store no more than 3 recent version chains' and you already have 3 version chains created (3 x Full backups plus all associated backups for each chain), and still have 202GB free space, then it is difficult to understand why that wouldn't be more than enough space to write a new 127GB Full backup file?

To understand further, you would need the TI_Demon backup log file for when the error was given about lack of space?

Hi Steve.

Thanks for your help.

I join the ti-daemon log I received when the backup failed.
Do you understand where is the cause of the problem ?

Best regards.

Stéphane

Stéphane, sorry am not able to open your log file as is giving me a 403 Forbidden error when trying to do so!

Steve, I am having the same problem.

Ian

Hi Steve,

Hi Ian

2d Upload. Don't work.

Here is the log :

________________________________________________________________________________________________

2019-04-03T20:00:02:867+01:00 6484 I00640000: Attributs de la copie de réserve de la sauvegarde : format tib; need_reserve_backup_copy false;
2019-04-03T20:00:02:867+01:00 6484 I00640002: Opération Sauvegarde système mensuelle démarrée conformément à la planification.
2019-04-03T20:00:08:319+01:00 6484 I00640000: Attributs de la copie de réserve de la sauvegarde : format tib; need_reserve_backup_copy false;
2019-04-03T20:00:08:334+01:00 6484 I013C0000: Opération : Sauvegarde
2019-04-03T20:00:08:334+01:00 6484 I0064000B: Priorité changée en Basse.
2019-04-03T20:00:08:834+01:00 6484 I000B03F0: Créer une archive de sauvegarde Depuis :  SYSTEM (1-1), Windows RE tools (1-5), Windows (C:) Vers le fichier :    "P:\Sauvegardes Acronis\Sauvegardes système mensuelles\Sauvegarde système mensuelle.tib" Compression :  Normal Exclure :        Fichiers correspondant au filtre Critère de concordance :       hiberfil.sys, pagefile.sys, $Recycle.Bin, swapfile.sys, System Volume Information, *.tib, *.tib.metadata, *.~, *.tmp, C:\Users\Véronique\AppData\Local\Temp, C:\Users\Véronique\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache, C:\Users\Véronique\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\*\cache2, C:\Users\Véronique\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\*\OfflineCache, C:\Users\Véronique\AppData\Local\Opera Software\Opera Stable\Cache, C:\Users\Véronique\AppData\Local\Opera Software\Opera Stable\Media Cache, C:\Users\Véronique\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Cache, C:\WINDOWS\CSC
2019-04-03T20:00:08:865+01:00 6484 I000101F8: L'opération en attente 173 a démarré : « Création de l'image de la partition ».
2019-04-03T20:00:09:295+01:00 7184 I00640000: Écriture d'une version complète sur le fichier : Sauvegarde système mensuelle_full_b6_s1_v1.tib
2019-04-03T20:00:09:780+01:00 6484 I000101F8: L'opération en attente 173 a démarré : « Création de l'image de la partition ».
2019-04-03T20:24:29:922+01:00 3284 E0004001D: Error 0x4001d: Les quotas ont été enfreints.
| niveau de suivi: erreur
| line: 0x1d8eab676a3f6aee
| fichier: c:\bs_hudson\workspace\431\products\imager\archive\impl\operations\archive_message_callback.cpp:1221
| fonctionnalite: TrueImage::Archive::ArchiveMsgWriteCallbackProcessor::ProcessWriteCallback
| line: 0x1d8eab676a3f6aee, c:\bs_hudson\workspace\431\products\imager\archive\impl\operations\archive_message_callback.cpp:1221, TrueImage::Archive::ArchiveMsgWriteCallbackProcessor::ProcessWriteCallback
| Path: P:\Sauvegardes Acronis\Sauvegardes système mensuelles\Sauvegarde système mensuelle_full_b6_s1_v1.tib
| $module: ti_demon_vs_12510
|
| error 0x4001d: Les quotas ont été enfreints.
| line: 0x6d93396f95de5cb
| fichier: c:\bs_hudson\workspace\431\core\backup\file_writer.cpp:111
| fonctionnalite: `anonymous-namespace'::FreeSpaceChecker::CheckFreeSpace
| line: 0x6d93396f95de5cb, c:\bs_hudson\workspace\431\core\backup\file_writer.cpp:111, `anonymous-namespace'::FreeSpaceChecker::CheckFreeSpace
| $module: ti_demon_vs_12510
2019-04-03T20:24:29:922+01:00 6484 E000101F6: Error 0x101f6: Erreur d'écriture
| niveau de suivi: erreur
| line: 0x65b5eb7011094700
| fichier: c:\bs_hudson\workspace\431\processor\diskadm\da_commit.cpp:345
| fonctionnalite: DaProcessor::CommitImpl::OnDaError
| line: 0x65b5eb7011094700, c:\bs_hudson\workspace\431\processor\diskadm\da_commit.cpp:345, DaProcessor::CommitImpl::OnDaError
| $module: ti_demon_vs_12510
|
| error 0x70004: Erreur d'écriture
| line: 0x9d2de1f088cbc4d8
| fichier: c:\bs_hudson\workspace\431\core\resizer\backup\stream_wrappers.cpp:64
| fonctionnalite: resizer::StreamWrapper::Write
| line: 0x9d2de1f088cbc4d8, c:\bs_hudson\workspace\431\core\resizer\backup\stream_wrappers.cpp:64, resizer::StreamWrapper::Write
| $module: ti_demon_vs_12510
|
| error 0x4001d: Les quotas ont été enfreints.
| line: 0x1d8eab676a3f6aee
| fichier: c:\bs_hudson\workspace\431\products\imager\archive\impl\operations\archive_message_callback.cpp:1221
| fonctionnalite: TrueImage::Archive::ArchiveMsgWriteCallbackProcessor::ProcessWriteCallback
| line: 0x1d8eab676a3f6aee, c:\bs_hudson\workspace\431\products\imager\archive\impl\operations\archive_message_callback.cpp:1221, TrueImage::Archive::ArchiveMsgWriteCallbackProcessor::ProcessWriteCallback
| Path: P:\Sauvegardes Acronis\Sauvegardes système mensuelles\Sauvegarde système mensuelle_full_b6_s1_v1.tib
| $module: ti_demon_vs_12510
|
| error 0x4001d: Les quotas ont été enfreints.
| line: 0x6d93396f95de5cb
| fichier: c:\bs_hudson\workspace\431\core\backup\file_writer.cpp:111
| fonctionnalite: `anonymous-namespace'::FreeSpaceChecker::CheckFreeSpace
| line: 0x6d93396f95de5cb, c:\bs_hudson\workspace\431\core\backup\file_writer.cpp:111, `anonymous-namespace'::FreeSpaceChecker::CheckFreeSpace
| $module: ti_demon_vs_12510
2019-04-03T20:24:32:265+01:00 6484 E013C0005: Error 0x13c0005: Opération réalisée avec des erreurs.
| niveau de suivi: erreur
| line: 0x9f2c53c72e8bce5f
| fichier: c:\bs_hudson\workspace\431\products\imager\demon\main.cpp:617
| fonctionnalite: main
| line: 0x9f2c53c72e8bce5f, c:\bs_hudson\workspace\431\products\imager\demon\main.cpp:617, main
| $module: ti_demon_vs_12510

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

Stéphane

Stéphane, thank you for the log data which again just confirms that this is an issue with regard to lack of free space.

2019-04-03T20:24:29:922+01:00 3284 E0004001D: Error 0x4001d: Les quotas ont été enfreints.

Please open the Options for your "Sauvegarde système mensuelle" backup task, and check what you have set at the top of the Notifications page settings for handling of free space?  This can have a direct impact on how Acronis deals with free space on the backup drive.

If you have anything set in this area, try disabling the setting to Show notification message on insufficient free disk space then retry your backup task.

Hi Steve.

I think you have found the cause of the problem.

On the first PC, the option "Notify me when free disk space is less than" is set to 60 GB.

Your hypothesis is perfectly consistent with what I observed on this PC.

I will know for the 2d PC the evening.

I will tell you.

I think I'll keep this setting until the problem comes up again, then I'll turn it off and see if the problem is solved.

Thanks for your help again :-)

Best regards.

Stéphane

Hi Steve.

The option "Notify me when free disk space is less than" is activated on the 2d PC too !

I set up this option to anticipate a free space problem, but in fact it created a problem!

Why what must be a warning fails the backup?

I will confirm when the problem occurs again.

One more time, thanks for your help :-)

Stéphane

Stéphane, when this Notification setting is enabled, Acronis checks how much space will be left on your destination drive after allowing for the size of the planned backup action and looks to see if this will still leave the amount chosen by the setting.

So if you set the Notification setting to 60GB, are making a backup of 70GB, your backup drive must have space to store a minimum of 60GB+70GB or else the error 'Quotas are exceeded!' will be given.

I have only ever used this setting when testing issues and not for any of my live backup tasks.

Hi Steve.

I confirm that this option is the cause of the problem.

I disabled this option on all my computers.

Thanks a lot.

Stéphane

Stéphane, that is good to hear!  Thank you for giving feedback to confirm the resolution.