How To Determine Partition Sizes In An Acronis .tib File

[JetsetBkk]

I have lots of old .tib files - Acronis "True Image Backup" files.

I have changed my system drive to a smaller SSD and want to determine which .tib files contain the new smaller partitions and which were made from the bigger SSD and contain the bigger partitions.

When I click on a .tib file, an Explorer shell (installed by Acronis) allows me to view the files as if the .tib file was a folder. But it's the partition sizes I need to know.

Any ideas?

[Pib]

Once you open the Acronis file in explorer like you mentioned above I think you should be able to just then open Windows Disk Management to see the partition structure/size since the Acronis file was opened basically as a virtual drive and can probably now be seen in Disk Management.

[JetsetBkk]

Once you open the Acronis file in explorer like you mentioned above I think you should be able to just then open Windows Disk Management to see the partition structure/size since the Acronis file was opened basically as a virtual drive and can probably now be seen in Disk Management.

That was a good idea... but no luck! Yes, the Explorer window is labelled "C:", but doesn't appear in the Disk Management window.

[Tywais]

Run Acronis and go to this part shown below and mount them. The full details will be there. Using explorer doesn't mount them, just access the files within it.

[Tywais]

BTW, Acronis doesn't care about the partition size in that if the tlb data is smaller than the drive it is going to it will automatically fit it.

https://kb.acronis.com/content/2770

https://kb.acronis.com/content/6042

[WhizBang]

I would assume the .tib files with the most recent date and time stamps would be the SSD image(s).

[Pib]

If using Win 7 the File Explorer does not automatically mount ISO type images as virtual drives like image backup files usually are...but Win 8.X and 10 File Explorer usually does. Click on the image file in Win 8 and 10 and it automatically mounts as a virtual drive which you should be able to see in Disk Management then. However, but, I expect there are some image backup formats that won't work that way.

OP, maybe you are using Win 7?

[JetsetBkk]

Run Acronis and go to this part shown below and mount them. The full details will be there. Using explorer doesn't mount them, just access the files within it.

Capture.JPG

I'll give that a go once I've made an image of my current system.

I won't do it before then because I once ran a version of True Image Home - merely to test that it was installed correctly - and although I didn't start the restore operation that I had set it up to do as a test, it had already done something to my system drive so that after exiting Acronis and turning off my laptop, it wouldn't boot!

I had to use a "Boot Anything" CD - can't remember the exact name - to boot it.

[JetsetBkk]

BTW, Acronis doesn't care about the partition size in that if the tlb data is smaller than the drive it is going to it will automatically fit it.

https://kb.acronis.com/content/2770

https://kb.acronis.com/content/6042

"Automatically"? - that's what I thought until I tried it about a year ago.

I have Acronis True Image 2014 Premium. Then I was restoring an image from a 500 GB HDD to a 256 GB SSD. The HDD was way less than 50% full of data because I like to do a complete disk image as a system image, so don't put any or much data on the other 2 partitions.

BUT, True Image restored only the first 256 GB - didn't reduce all partitions to fit.

I went back to the HDD and use Minitools Partition Wizard to reduce the partition sizes and move them. (Maybe the move wasn't necessary).

Maybe some versions of Acronis will do it automatically, but mine can't. Mine will allow you to manually change sizes of partitions before doing the restore as in your first link, but I'm not comfortable doing it that way as I had lots of problems in the past doing that on a friends PC. (Ended up with data copied and a non-bootable drive ).

I'll read that first link again and muster up the courage to give it a go. At least I have plenty of good system images if I screw it up.

[JetsetBkk]

I would assume the .tib files with the most recent date and time stamps would be the SSD image(s).

Yes. But if there's a way to be sure I'd like to do it. Of course, I should've named the images "256" or "128".

[JetsetBkk]

If using Win 7 the File Explorer does not automatically mount ISO type images as virtual drives like image backup files usually are...but Win 8.X and 10 File Explorer usually does. Click on the image file in Win 8 and 10 and it automatically mounts as a virtual drive which you should be able to see in Disk Management then. However, but, I expect there are some image backup formats that won't work that way.

OP, maybe you are using Win 7?

I thought you knew me Pib!

(XP forever!)

[bendejo]

I've been using a file shell called FreeCommander for a long time, probably since XP. What I'm about to describe was done with FC and Acronis TI Home 2011 on Win7:

1) go the the dir containing the .tib file

2) right-click the tib file, if TI was installed correctly there should be an entry called Archive, move right on the arrow and click Mount

3) Mount Wizard window appears, there is a column 'Capacity' that will tell the original partition size (or sizes) contained in that tib.

And there you go. Cancel out of window when done.

[JetsetBkk]

Just to let you guys know what happened... (and also to keep a record of what happened in case it happens again in the future).

The reason I wanted to try different .tib files was that my PC had been running intermittently sluggishly for over a week. The disk access light was coming on for 5 to 10 seconds or more, and then go off for about the same time. While it was on, the PC was very slow and sometimes completely unresponsive. This would continue for about 30 minutes and then stop for a few hours.

I ran a program called "Process Monitor" from Sysinternals. That told me which files were being accessed and by which programs.

The main ones were Microsoft's Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) or Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM). That was updating some database or log files. Also my antivirus s/w was reading a lot of files and Vuze, the torrent client, was updating its statistics file. Also "Everything Search" was often updating its database file. So I reduced the frequency of logging of all the programs I could and turned logging off on those I could. But still the problem remained.

I'd convinced myself that my SSD system drive was faulty because most of the I/O operations listed by Process Monitor were on the C: drive. That's why I replaced it with a smaller one. So that's why I wanted a quick way to determine the partition sizes in the .tib files. But really, the date of the file is all I really needed to know - the older ones were the 250 GB size.

But then the problem finally became clear because one of the programs I run, called "CrystalDiskInfo", reported a problem with my main working 2 TB WD Green data drive.

It reported "Pending Sector Counts". After that happened, the disk access light didn't come on so much. I guess the O/S knew there was a problem and didn't keep re-trying the I/O operation. Then, 2 days later, CrystalDiskInfo reported "Unrecoverable Sector Counts". I had already bought a replacement drive and have now copied everything onto it. The old drive is in my rubbish pile and the new one is working OK. (Touch wood).

So something I've learned - when the run light comes on and the processor runs slow, it's probably because there's some disk I/O going on that won't complete and it's a sign that a disk is about to fail.

Hope this helps someone else in the future.

All comments welcome.

Edited April 22, 2016 by JetsetBkk