Case # 03196291 - Dead "zombie space" after restore / some further issues

[fredywenger]

Hi
We actually use Acronis but are not really happy with it...
I have spent day's now with tests of veeam windows agent.
Configuration and doing backups principally looks good - congrats to that.

But I have noted very strange problems with the restore (if there is no solution for that, we can't use veeam).
We work with Win10 machines and have "replacement machines" installed with Win7 to be able to do a restore from an image of a production machine to a replacement machine in wost case.
Configuration replacement machine:
C: drive (OS) with Windows 7
D: drive (data) empty

I then first have done an image save to the “replacement machine” to be able to restore the “original image” after my tests.
- The image save has worked - the size was about 34 GB (what is plausible)
Then, I have restored an image from my production machine to the “replacement machine”
-> Thereby I have noted a general problem with the veeam keyboard driver (wrong driver was loaded)
The restore has worked so far...
Then, I wanted to do a restore if the “original image” to the “replacement machine”
Thereby I had incredible problems:
- The driver to the USB 3 host controller was corrupt!
- So the mouse and also the keyboard have not worked (I was not able to enter the PW to start the machine)
--> Fortunately, I had an “old” mouse and an old keyboard with direct interface (not USB), so I was able to enter the PW
--> After boot up the machine, I have tried to update the USB driver what has caused a BOD in no time
--> After a longer time I have found an HP-update to the USB3 that could be installed with setup
=> This may be or not a random...
=> Do you know of such problems with Win 7??
Update: In the meantime, I have found this entry in the forum:
veeam-agent-for-windows-f33/case-020346 ... 40109.html
I have booted the (win7) “replacement machine” the first time with a USB stick that I have created with my (win 10) machine and had activated “include drivers (recommended)”.
So I can imagine that the win10 USB 3 drivers were injected in the win7 OS and that has caused he problem?

After bring the USB bus at work again, I wanted to do a further image save...
After the image file was bigger than 250 GB!, I have canceled the job
I then have see, that alone the (empty!) D:drive was bigger then 150 GB!
Also the windows explorer hast showed that the drive hat “used space” of about 250 GB, whereby the size of all files together was zero!
I then have formatted the (empty) d: drive and started a further image save....
The image then was about 170 GB! and I have noted the same issue as with the D: drive also with the C: Drive!
The Windows explorer (property to the disk) says, that there are more than 250 GB used on the C: drive, whereby all files counted together are about 35 GB!

So it seems, as the backups/restores have created some “zombie spaces” on both C: drive and also D: drive or have destroyed some bits in OS table to used disk size

Can you give me an explanation to that issue and advise how to delete the “zombie space” please?

Thanks

[Dima P.]

Hello Freddy,
Sorry for keeping silence.

So I can imagine that the win10 USB 3 drivers were injected in the win7 OS and that has caused he problem?

Yes, drivers might be the root case. Its recommended to keep recovery media per operating system version to avoid conflicts with driver version. Another option would be to disable drivers being injected during recovery (when booted in RE go to Tools > Load Drivers and uncheck the box to inject included drivers during recovery).

I then have formatted the (empty) d: drive and started a further image save....

Need to know what backup mode was used in Veeam Agent for Windows backup job? Any chance that operating system volume was included in the backup? Thanks!

[fredywenger]

Update:
I had intensive contact to the Veeam support (to this and other cases9 and the Veeam support was able to comprehend and solve this bug (according to Veeam
Unfortunately, I have no information yet in which version the bugfix will be included...
I have opened a new thread with all of my findings (detailed .pdf) here:
veeam-agent-for-windows-f33/evaluation- ... 55099.html