I have a feeling this will be a new puzzler, or perhaps not... (I hope for the latter). I'm upgrading a laptop by replacing the SSD (128 GB) with a larger one (256 GB). I created a system image using the Windows 7 Backup utility, and created a Windows Repair Disc using the same. I replaced the SSD in the laptop with the larger one, and booted from the repair disc to restore the system image to the new SSD. The image contained the system partition (C) and a recovery partition (Q). The recovery completed successfully and Windows 7 booted with no problem. I'd like to add that there was no "wait time" between creating the system image and then restoring it to the new SSD; the system image was created from the old SSD and then immediately restored to the new SSD. Now here's where it gets interesting.... The old SSD shows the system partition (C) as having 96.5 GB total space with only 4.59 GB free. The new SSD shows the system partition (C) as having 96.5 GB total space with 53.6 GB free (of course there is extra unallocated space on the new SSD, but that's not the issue here). The recovery partition (Q) kept its size consistent on both the old and new SSD's. When I think "system image" I think of it like a "snapshot" of the computer's partitions. One would think that if you create an image and then restore from it, everything would remain the same. But this is not the case; we're talking about 49 GB of used space on the old SSD's system partition that is now suddenly free on the new SSD's system partition. My question is, why is there suddenly so much free space? There's one other wrinkle. The user has a network folder that contains about 21 GB of data. They had this folder set to "Always available offline." Now I know that creates a cache in windows (CSC-Cache) to store the offline data. After I restored the image to the new SSD, I had to set this folder to be available offline again (another puzzler, you'd think those settings would've been consistent since its a system image). After making the files available offline, there was about 32.8 GB free space. Still, there's a huge chunk of free space that wasn't available on the old SSD's system partition. I'm very concerned as to how much data has been "lost" or if this is simply a matter of Windows not truly doing a "snapshot" when a system image is created. Any assistance or guidance on this would be greatly appreciated. I've used the Windows 7 Backup and Restore utility many times and never encountered an issue like this. I may have to look into cloning software if there's no answer, as I'm not comfortable with nearly 33 GB of data suddenly gone missing. Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question. Anonymous 2014-03-26T20:21:24+00:00 To create an image you need to use the image creation tool (which I avoid because of lack of functionality and because of reliability problems). What image creation tool is this? I've used Windows 7 Backup and Restore several times to restore an entire image to a drive without issue (I must confess I never looked this hard to see if there was missing data, but I've never heard anything to the contrary, and I know by now I would've heard about it from my clients if ANYTHING was missing that they would've noticed). I have a feeling I'm going to need to use cloning software like Clonezilla or Acronis True Image to ensure everything is copied over. 0 comments No comments To create an image you need to use the image creation tool (which I avoid because of lack of functionality and because of reliability problems). What image creation tool is this? I've used Windows 7 Backup and Restore several times to restore an entire image to a drive without issue (I must confess I never looked this hard to see if there was missing data, but I've never heard anything to the contrary, and I know by now I would've heard about it from my clients if ANYTHING was missing that they would've noticed). I have a feeling I'm going to need to use cloning software like Clonezilla or Acronis True Image to ensure everything is copied over. Anonymous 2014-03-26T20:15:41+00:00 Hello Forest, The computer in question belongs to our CEO, so I can understand how he created 26 GB worth of data (two .ost files). :-) Allow me to clarify about what I did to back up the computer. I opened Control Panel, clicked Backup & Restore, then clicked Create a System Image (in the left pane). I was then asked where to save the backup (saved to a USB drive with 320GB of free space). Then I was asked what drives I wanted to include in the back up, and it was here that I checked the boxes next to the C partition and the Q recovery partition. Then windows warned the backup would take about 98 GB of space.... uh oh. Now, I decided to step through this as I wrote it, and already I see something amiss. The recovery partition (Q) was almost 10 GB in size. The system partition (C) was 96.5 GB in size. So in theory this should amount to about 106 GB, though perhaps windows is able to exclude free space (I know if there are any files at the "end" of the partition, that free space must be included). Even so, this still does not account for that 26 GB of missing outlook data. Not only that, but the entire outlook folder isn't there either. And again, one would think "system image" means "everything." Apparently Microsoft has a vague definition of what "everything" really is. 0 comments No comments The computer in question belongs to our CEO, so I can understand how he created 26 GB worth of data (two .ost files). :-) Allow me to clarify about what I did to back up the computer. I opened Control Panel, clicked Backup & Restore, then clicked Create a System Image (in the left pane). I was then asked where to save the backup (saved to a USB drive with 320GB of free space). Then I was asked what drives I wanted to include in the back up, and it was here that I checked the boxes next to the C partition and the Q recovery partition.

Then windows warned the backup would take about 98 GB of space.... uh oh. Now, I decided to step through this as I wrote it, and already I see something amiss. The recovery partition (Q) was almost 10 GB in size. The system partition (C) was 96.5 GB in size. So in theory this should amount to about 106 GB, though perhaps windows is able to exclude free space (I know if there are any files at the "end" of the partition, that free space must be included). Even so, this still does not account for that 26 GB of missing outlook data. Not only that, but the entire outlook folder isn't there either. And again, one would think "system image" means "everything." Apparently Microsoft has a vague definition of what "everything" really is. Anonymous 2014-03-26T20:05:23+00:00 The outlook folder has almost 26 GB of data. Now the next question I have is, why wasn't this moved over when I created a system image?not why it was never brought over in the first place. This is serious. I also wonder how you can accumulate 26 GBytes worth of Outlook data but this is really besides the point. Perhaps the key lies in this phrase from your first post: "**I created a system image using the Windows 7 Backup utility" . The backup utility is supposed to back up your data. It does not create an image. To create an image you need to use the image creation tool (which I avoid because of lack of functionality and because of reliability problems). 0 comments No comments The outlook folder has almost 26 GB of data. Now the next question I have is, why wasn't this moved over when I created a system image?not why it was never brought over in the first place. This is serious. I also wonder how you can accumulate 26 GBytes worth of Outlook data but this is really besides the point. Perhaps the key lies in this phrase from your first post: "**I created a system image using the Windows 7 Backup utility" . The backup utility is supposed to back up your data. It does not create an image. To create an image you need to use the image creation tool (which I avoid because of lack of functionality and because of reliability problems). Anonymous 2014-03-26T19:58:50+00:00 Forest, Thank you for enlightening me to this utility! One more trick to add to my own bag. While this doesn't answer my question, it is helping me attempt to find where all that data went. Drum roll please... Apparently the following folder is missing from the new SSD: C:\windows\user<username>\appdata\local\microsoft\outlook The outlook folder has almost 26 GB of data. Now the next question I have is, why wasn't this moved over when I created a system image? Thank you again for this program, Forest. If nothing else, I'll be able to find what else is missing, if not why it was never brought over in the first place. 0 comments No comments Thank you for enlightening me to this utility! One more trick to add to my own bag. While this doesn't answer my question, it is helping me attempt to find where all that data went. Drum roll please... Apparently the following folder is missing from the new SSD: C:\windows\user<username>\appdata\local\microsoft\outlook The outlook folder has almost 26 GB of data. Now the next question I have is, why wasn't this moved over when I created a system image? Thank you again for this program, Forest. If nothing else, I'll be able to find what else is missing, if not why it was never brought over in the first place. Anonymous 2014-03-26T16:28:23+00:00 I would run TreeSize on both disks, then compare the results. http://www.jam-software.com/treesize\_free/ 0 comments No comments I would run TreeSize on both disks, then compare the results. http://www.jam-software.com/treesize\_free/