Image File Size alot larger after updating image file

[rcrussell78]

Good Morning,

I'm new to using Veeam along with the community which I'm just joining.

I'm working with an existing Veeam image which has Windows 10 on it with a 476 GB hard drive with 300 GB used. The image file I'm working with is 44 GB in size and I'm able to image the Dell workstation I'm working with. I went through a process of updating this image with some software updates for some of the applications on it. I successfully created an updated image using the Veeam Backup agent Version 2.2.0.589 however this is where my issue is.

The original image file as I mentioned is 44 GB in size and takes approximately a half hour to image a computer. The new image file is 140 GB in size and is taking an hour and a half to image. The software updates I did were not that major big in size. Also this original image was created over a year ago and there were no notes on how it was created. I have created three test images using the three different methods on the Veeam agent and all are about the same size of 140 GB. I also have tried the high and extreme compression methods which shrunk the size of the image 20 GB but my concern is that using this compression on an image can cause high CPU utilization.

I have opened Veeam Support - Case # 03158494 in regards to this matter and waiting to hear back from Veeam but wanted to join this community to see if possibly anyone reading this may offer another suggestion as to what I may be missing since I'm new to using Veeam. Thanks for any assistance you can offer in advance.

[Dima P.]

Hello and welcome to the community rcrussell78.

The original image file as I mentioned is 44 GB in size and takes approximately a half hour to image a computer. The new image file is 140 GB in size and is taking an hour and a half to image.

Have you tried to compare the content via File level recovery (you can run file level restore to view the backup file content)?

I have created three test images using the three different methods on the Veeam agent and all are about the same size of 140 GB. I also have tried the high and extreme compression methods which shrunk the size of the image 20 GB but my concern is that using this compression on an image can cause high CPU utilization.

From the top of my head the estimate looks right - we usually count full backup to be half size of the source raw data (when default backup settings are used).

[rcrussell78]

Hi Dima,

Thanks for the welcome and the advisement. I was able to look at the backup yesterday but couldn't find anything that stood out on why this backup is so much larger. Another colleague of mine decided to test yesterday updating the same image on another workstation and take an image of that using the volume level backup option and his image ended up being 46 GB. I reviewed the Veeam agent and the only thing I can notice from his backup creation is that the C Drive GB read was at 355 MB/s while my current test using his image is at 100 MB/s which with the other test workstations I'm using to image I noticed the max MB/S was 130-140 MB/. Could this higher C: drive read rate cause a smaller backup file? Has anyone else encountered this with Veaam just curious? Also thank again for any assistance you can offer in advance.

[Dima P.]

Another colleague of mine decided to test yesterday updating the same image on another workstation and take an image of that using the volume level backup option and his image ended up being 46 GB.

Can you compare the Free/Used space of the volume you and your colleague was backing up?

Could this higher C: drive read rate cause a smaller backup file?

No, that should not be the case, here you see only performance metrics. Thanks!

[rcrussell78]

Can you compare the Free/Used space of the volume you and your colleague was backing up?

The free space is 309 GB free and 166 GB of used space when looking at the properties of the C Drive after the workstation is imaged. When measuring a potential backup potential size of in this case a workstation is the image space going to be half the size of the free or used space? The backup sizes I've been getting when testing have been half the size of the free space because there about 140 GB in size on a volume level backup I'm seeing with my test backup's when trying to create them on a NAS or another partition on the drive which I delete ultimately but was trying to compare when testing. Thanks again Dima for your input on this.

[Vitaliy S.]

Hi Ryan,

Based on what I see there is a difference in how the same disk was used by your workstation and the one used by your colleague in the test. What if you try to clean up the disk space using the Disk Clean Up utility and run the defrag option prior to creating a full backup? What is the backup size in this case?

Thanks!