Very Confused . . .

[cdressel]

I've been using RBRx for quite a while and thought I understood a little of its workings. I guess not . . .

I'm using Rollbackv91 Build 2695569418, Windows 7, 64-bit.

When I upgraded to Build 2695569418, I uninstalled the old build and cleaned and defragged the drive before the new RBRx installation. Upon installation, I noticed the first snapshot taken on a restart that same day was something in the neighborhood of 12500 MB. I was a little surprised because prior to this, my snapshots varied but were usually in the range of 50 - 400 MB. My install snapshot (locked, baseline) was only 213 MB.

I have auto defragging of snapshots turned off, because I like to do it myself and check other things as that's plodding along.

OK, all is working well . . . I think. I delete any snapshots over 4 days old. A few days ago, I happened to be looking at my snapshot history and saw that that same old 12500 MB "first snapshot" from weeks ago was still in the history, but it had a new date. After watching this for a few days, it seems that as I take new snapshots, and RBRx auto deletes the old ones, the huge snapshot is still there but is renamed each day with a date/time that allows it to remain within the four day window.

Frankly, this isn't making much sense to me. So I decided to simply delete that "first snapshot" of 12500 MB. Hey, that was easy, I thought. I defragged the snapshots and looked at the history again. Guess what? The 12500 MB snapshot was still there, but now renamed as the one that was formerly second in the list. (I'm trying to explain this but it's getting rather complicated.) Again, all my recent snapshots have been in the 50 - 400 MB range.

Can anyone explain what is happening? I guess i'd be curious why I had such a large snapshot to start, then I can't seem to get rid of it. It just seems to keep renaming itself.

Any ideas, or is this the way RBRx is supposed to work? I've never noticed it before, but then again, my snapshots were never that large and I never took specific note of them.

Thanks.

Chuck

[nexstar]

Hi Chuck,

Yes, I think that is expected behaviour but, as you say, it may have not been noticeable before on smaller snapshots.

The file changes which caused the 12500MB snapshot were, most likely, carried on through to the subsequent snapshot(s). So, when you deleted the large snapshot, the file changes were 'inherited' by the next snapshot and its size changed accordingly.

If those changes are in all of your snapshots then the only way you will get rid of the large snapshot would be to update the baseline.

That's the way I understand it, anyhow .

Graham

[pvsurfer]

Why not update your baseline? Doing that should reduce the size of your new baseline snapshot to what you are used to seeing.

Oops, I now see that Graham already suggested that...

[cdressel]

OK, you're both absolutely correct.

I updated the Baseline and all went back to what I would call "normal", with a snapshot size of between 300-400 MB.

What has me confused is why the huge snapshot on the first snapshot after install on the new build of RBRx? I had never seen that before. I had just cleaned and defragged the drive.

Anyway, thanks to you both.

I have another computer (my wife's) that had the same thing happen - one huge snapshot right after install. I've re-baselined mine but I'm going to leave hers and just watch it a while.

Thanks again, as I wander away shaking my head wondering, wondering . . .

Chuck

[nexstar]

I can't really explain the large snapshot except that it can only be as a result of changes on the partition(s). I'm sure you'd have been aware of either adding or deleting that amount of data after the baseline so I just wonder if there could have been some sort of background process which was 'optimising' the drive.

The defragger couldn't have still been active in the background could it? Unlikely really, as you would have similar issues with other snapshots. Just clutching at straws . Let us know if you get any further clues.

Graham

[carfal]

Can the defragger you used show a list of large files? Perhaps it will show the files responsible for this anomoly.

[Owl]

Maybe Windows has done an update in the background? Not sure that would explain the size of the snapshot, but it's an idea. 12GB of data has been deleted somewhere along the line. A video file maybe?

[cdressel]

I appreciate all the comments but it sure hasn't helped me feel very comfortable with what's happened. As I said, I've been using this software for a long time, starting with Version 8, and I've never noticed anything like this . . .

After I uninstalled the old build of RBRx (Ver 9.1), defragged the drive (I just use the W7 defragger), imaged the drive; then I installed the new build. As the install would require at least one reboot, there should have been no active defragger running. The initial (baseline) snapshot was in my "normal" range of 213 MB.

I take snapshots on each restart and at 7:00am each day. However, after a new install, I take a couple of snapshots at about the ten and twenty minute periods after baseline, cuz' it just feels so naked to have no snapshots. It was this first snapshot, after about ten minutes of operating, that showed the huge size (12500 MB).

Perhaps lost in my descriptions is that I have two computers, both upgraded to the latest build at about the same time. One computer had a first "restart" snapshot of 7418 MB and the other had a 12500 MB snapshot. Both computers had baselines of about 200 - 250 MB. It was the first "restart" snapshots that got so huge.

I had thought that they would be auto-deleted as they aged and became older than my 4 day limit. That didn't happen. For example, I had three snapshots on the day of install, plus the baseline. On day 5, the huge 12500 snapshot was still there in the list just under the baseline snapshot; but it was renamed as a day more recent so it wouldn't be deleted.

I really can't think of any reason the snapshots would be so large, let alone that they won't go away. Maybe, as nexstar says, as I "deleted the large snapshot, the file changes were 'inherited' by the next snapshot and its size changed accordingly." I could see that happening but it still leaves me with two questions: 1. Why so large?, and 2. Why isn't the size of the snapshot changing at least a little? The 12500 MB snapshot just sits there and shines it's size at me. It doesn't change to 12501, 12510 or 12498 MB. It sits right there at 12500 MB. And, similarly, the other computer sits there at 7418 MB. The date and time change but never the size.

I mentioned in a previous post that I had re-baselined one computer. That one looks like RBRx is acting like I've always seen it. The snapshots being generated look OK and all seems to be going well.

Maybe this is all just an anomaly, except that it happened with both computers.

I thank you again for all your help. I'll keep looking at my history but I doubt I'll ever understand what's happening. My feeble brain is too overworked, as it is.

Chuck

[nexstar]

Of course, it could always be a bug .

I don't normally pay too much attention to the size of the snapshots but I've just noticed on one of my PC's that there is an older snapshot which is 21.5GB in size!

Could the snapshot sizes on your PC's equate to the used disk space when RB was first installed? More straw-clutching really but just trying to make some sense of where the figures might come from.

Graham

[pvsurfer]

Chuck,

Have you related these events to tech-support? It wouldn't be a bad idea to do so!

pv