Solved Macrium Reflect unexplained large increase in FULL image size

Bree · Apr 10, 2025

A Guy said:
Could it be the contents of C:\Windows\servicing\LCU after 3 patch Tuesdays? Usually they are around 1 Gig on 10 Home

wiganken said:
There is no such folder on either of my devices.

The LCU folder carried over from Win10 into Win11 21H2. It disappeared from Windows 11 starting with Win11 22H2.

Bree said:
With 22H2 Microsoft stopped using an LCU folder.

Possibly because their telemetry told them the first thing we all do after a CU is delete it?

One W11 machine does not show the LCU folder - post #4

Ghot · Apr 10, 2025

I can tell you this... my backup images have only increased in size about 1GB over the past two years. Version 8.1.xxxx (paid).

Tester · Apr 10, 2025

@Ghot Do you exclude software from images and profile? As for me at least 70gb of software is added (that i use) in the last 2years alone.
OS and software about 420gb about 25gb of profile. (no games, and cleanup junk files weekly) Data on other disk/network.

Mooly · Apr 10, 2025

wiganken said:
Question – Does anyone have any suggestions please?

Look at the problem from the other end. Keep tabs on the size of the installation Macrium is backing up rather than just looking at Macrium file sizes.

An 'unexplained' increase in Macrium full image disk image size implies the image file is growing while the Windows installation being backed up is not. That really would be 'unexplained' and need investigating.

If however the installation is growing in size then the increase in Macrium file sizes is fully explained by that. Fwiw my installation has grown from around 74Gb in mid December to 85Gb today. 98% of that increase is of Windows doing and although I am running DEV builds it is still one heck of an increase. I have used only Windows tools to clean the OS.

Ghot · Apr 10, 2025

Tester said:
@Ghot Do you exclude software from images and profile? As for me at least 70gb of software is added (that i use) in the last 2years alone.
OS and software about 420gb about 25gb of profile. (no games, and cleanup junk files weekly) Data on other disk/network.

No.

I install large things like games or big programs on a storage drive
The total used space on my C:\ drive is approx. 37GB

Bree · Apr 10, 2025

Ghot said:
I can tell you this... my backup images have only increased in size about 1GB over the past two years. Version 8.1.xxxx (paid).

Mooly said:
Fwiw my installation has grown from around 74Gb in mid December to 85Gb today. 98% of that increase is of Windows doing and although I am running DEV builds it is still one heck of an increase. I have used only Windows tools to clean the OS.

I thoroughly clean up after each Patch Tuesday, them make my system images. I retain the last three months' images.

Mounting all three system images, then exploring them with TreeSizeFree shows that for my System One the Windows folder has actually shrunk each month this year, as have the .mrimg files.

Tester · Apr 10, 2025

@Bree
Windows folder on your installation grows a lot with folders:
2025-02-11 58.930 folders.
2025-03-11 64.446 folders.
2025-04-08 80.558 folders.

I made a cleanup script, to remove all the emtpy folders from Winsxs folder, because it is not cleanup properly after windows update.

C:\Windows\WinSxS\Temp\InFlight\ Deleting Empty Folders

If you want a 100% sure way of deleting files in "C:\Windows\WinSxS\Temp" boot to another OS or even a Windows PE. Permissions mean nothing in these environments. I've done this countless times with no ill effects. The script grants itself the rights to take ownership of the folders, so there's...

www.elevenforum.com

It should delete almost 40k+ empty folders for your installation.

Bree · Apr 10, 2025

Tester said:
It should delete almost 40k+ empty folders for your installation.

Thanks, 34,578 folders actually. But at just 122MB I'm comfortable leaving it 'as is'.

Tester · Apr 10, 2025

After cleanup, it still is 122 mb, only all empty folders are gone.
For example MalwareBytes scan stalls about 15to 20min to check every folder if it has files in it, so removing the empty folders, will decrease the time needed for scanning.

wiganken · Apr 10, 2025

Mooly said:
Look at the problem from the other end. Keep tabs on the size of the installation Macrium is backing up

The size of the installation that is being backed up should only have changed minimally. I haven't installed anything since the previous image in January. As I said in my OP the DELL laptop is my secondary device and not used for data storage. I only web browse and use Thunderbird emails.
I run Privacy Eraser to remove unnecessary junk.
I have 'Show hidden files' enabled in File Explorer and searched the DELL and can't find anything.
If the size of the data being backed up has increased by 7 GB then it is not down to me.
By running Disk Cleanup I have reduced this 7 GB down to 5.44 GB still unaccounted for.

It's as if Windows has added this 5.44 GB or Macrium Reflect has suddenly included data that it didn't include in the January image. I should add that I have not changed MR settings so MR has done this itself (but only on the DELL device).

kelper · Apr 10, 2025

Macrium images the partition, including file system metadata, MFT (in NTFS), etc., which isn't shown in file size totals but is stored in the image.

BitLocker or other encryption can cause the entire volume (even unused sectors) to appear as "used", leading to a large image.

Could you decrypt temporarily and try another disk image?

wiganken · Apr 10, 2025

kelper said:
Could you decrypt temporarily and try another disk image?

Thanks, but neither Bitlocker or encryption has ever been enabled on my devices.

Mooly · Apr 10, 2025

wiganken said:
The size of the installation that is being backed up should only have changed minimally. I haven't installed anything since the previous image in January.

That's exactly what I'm getting at. It should only have changed minimally but I'll bet in reality it has grown considerably. Unless you keep notes you won't know for sure.

When I clean installed in December (so just 4 months ago) I started a tally chart. This is showing free space rather than used space but outcome is the same. The partition is 200Gb. The size of the Windows install has grown inexorably:

Code:

14/12/24: 126GB free after clean install of build 26120.2702
17/12/24: 125Gb free after Macrium Boot Menu added.
18/12/24: 123GB free after install of Dev build 26120.2705
22/12/24  122GB free after rebuild of Recovery Partition.
23/12/24  123GB free after Optimisation had run.
25/12/24  126GB free after full disk clean. Approx. 4GB reclaimed although Disk Cleanup reported only a few hundred MB to clean.
25/12/24  127GB free short time later. Seems to be hovering between 126GB and 127GB free.
28/12/24  126GB free after several Intel Updates installed.
10/01/25  126GB free.
18/01/25  122GB free following installation of Dev Build 26120.2992 No full disk clean performed.
24/01/25  123Gb free following full disk clean. Approx. 2Gb reclaimed although Disk Cleanup reported only 600Mb reclaimable.
25/01/25  121Gb free following update to Dev Build 26120.3000
27/01/25  123Gb free following disk cleanup via Storage Sense options. Free space continued to increase.
01/02/25  124Gb free.
01/02/25  123Gb following update to Dev Build 26120.3073 along with a disk clean.
12/02/25  120Gb was 123 Gb falling to 121Gb after driver update and then falling again to 120Gb after a disk clean which reported 1Gb to clean.
15/02/25  121Gb free following update to Dev Build 26120.3281 and a disk clean. 117Gb before disk clean.
23/02/25  120Gb free following update to Dev Build 26120.3291 and a disk clean. 117Gb before disk clean.
28/02/25  120Gb free falling to 115Gb after video driver update via WU.
28/02/25  119Gb free following disk clean.
15/03/25  117Gb free following Macrium restore to 28/02/25 and latest updates applied. Disk cleaned.
18/03/25  114Gb free following update to Dev Build 26120.3576
25/03/25  118Gb free and then feature update finishes after clean up at 116Gb. 118Gb to 110Gb (download complete) to 92Gb free after install to 116Gb free after disk clean.
25/03/25  114Gb free following further updates (Intel Display) and a disk clean.
29/03/25  117Gb free following update to 26200.5516 followed by disk clean. Was at 100Gb before cleanup.
04/04/25  115Gb free following update to 26100.5518 and disk clean.

Code:

Fishmill · Apr 10, 2025

wiganken said:
The size of the installation that is being backed up should only have changed minimally. I haven't installed anything since the previous image in January.

Like you, I don't deliberately store any personal files on any partition on my "system drive".

I very rarely install new programs on C. Most of my software is antique versions that work well.

Any growth in the occupied space on my C partition is almost entirely due to the whims and wishes of Windows itself...Windows Update, Windows Disk Cleanup, etc. Whatever housekeeping Windows chooses to do or not do.

Nonetheless...my C partition occupied space can vary considerably. In the last year, it has been as low as 45 gb and as high as 57 gb. For reasons known only to Windows. I have no problem with that.

Consequently, the size of the corresponding Macrium full images of all partitions on the system drive have likewise varied....from as little as 29 gb to as much as 33 gb. That's totally expected behavior and I have no problem with that either.

You can easily drive yourself crazy trying to fully understand all the behind-the-scenes machinations of Windows.

Have you ever spent an hour or an afternoon poking around in the dreaded "Event Viewer"? I did.....and suffered a 13 percent loss in IQ (as measured by Stanford Binet).

Patient to doctor: "Doc, it hurts when I do this".

Doctor to patient: "Don't do that".

OldNavy · Apr 10, 2025

My windows installs have always steadily increased in size and i put that down to log files getting bigger and just mysteriuos stuff.
I've never given it much thought especially since i give the partition a generous size and let windows do its thing.

Mooly · Apr 10, 2025

Fishmill said:
You can easily drive yourself crazy trying to fully understand all the behind-the-scenes machinations of Windows.

That is so true.

In fact on this latest install I haven't even run SFC or DISM commands because I suspect half the time you are chasing your tail with so called errors that aren;t errors at all... that's another story though.

OldNavy said:
I've never given it much thought especially since i give the partition a generous size and let windows do its thing.

I do actually wonder how low (my free space) will go or whether it will self limit at some point and purge some of these mysterious dark matter files that can't be found.

OldNavy · Apr 10, 2025

Keeping your flux capacitor updated helps.

Scannerman · Apr 11, 2025

OldNavy said:
Keeping your flux capacitor updated helps.

And regular checks for out-gassing.

OldNavy said:
My windows installs have always steadily increased in size and i put that down to log files getting bigger and just mysteriuos stuff.
I've never given it much thought especially since i give the partition a generous size and let windows do its thing.

Thought I'd run the PC Manager ap just for kicks after rebooting ye olde X99 Krait. Nearly 4GB of dead wood to clean up there. Was really surprised as not even a week ago I cleaned up system files. I'm thinking Windows updates are responsible for most of this bloat. Reminds me of all that left over cardboard and packing material I so quickly accumulate from Amazon deliveries.

Mooly · Apr 12, 2025

While on the subject of disk space do you ever check here, the WindowsLiveKernelReports folder?

It will always report as empty if you hover over it so click it and click through the permissions box that will appear and have a see if anything is there. These are log files and can be deleted if you don't need them for debugging. They can be be big. Somewhat unexpectedly I found a 1Gb file here from pretty much day #1 of this latest installation. I've become lazy looking here recently.

BamaInArk · Apr 12, 2025

This probably won't apply with the OPs case however I just learned of a video game that was taking up a ton of drive space. My granddaughter plays Fortnite. I just replaced my son's gaming computer with a newer one and in cleaning up the old one I noticed something taking up a lot of space on his boot drive. MR images had grown by a LOT. Turns out the Fortnite game defaults to saving certain game play as MP4 videos stored under the Users folder. I found over 1200 MP4 files that were taking up dozens of gigabytes of space.

Solved Macrium Reflect unexplained large increase in FULL image size

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