Cannot restore ShadowProtect backup because file too large

[jmt356]

I cannot restore a ShadowProtect backup. SP says that there is not enough space on the destination drive.
Both the source drive and the destination drives are the same size, but the destination hard disk has a 15 GB partition that makes the C drive to which I am trying to restore the SP image less than 1 TB.

Source drive: 1 TB (450 GB free)
Destination drive: 985 GB (925 GB free)

Is it possible to remove some of the free space in the SP source drive to make it 985 GB rather than 1 TB? I have about 450 GB of free space on the source drive and I should not need a full 1 TB on the destination drive to fit the information on the source drive to the destination drive.

[HansV]

If the source drive is defragmented, and if you created a disk image, the 15 GB partition is probably in the way, even if the used space is much smaller than 925 GB.

You'd probably have to shrink the backup image. Some (older) articles about this subject:
Shrink volume size: Removing free space from an image.
Alternative Methods to Shrinking volume size for your drives.

[jmt356]

I tried to shrink the volume, and it created a 14 kb incremental image that SP is unable to restore ...

[HansV]

14 kB?

[BobArch2]

What version of SP or SPX are you running? The links that Hans provided are related to older versions of SP (as Hans pointed out). The shrinking of the source volume is a complicated process, one that I would try to avoid if possible.

SP cannot restore an incremental file (.spi) without there being a full (.spf) file available as a reference point. And, as Hans questioned, 14KB? Shrinking a volume should create a new full backup (.spf) and not an incremental (.spi).

You mention that the destination drive contains a 15GB partition. Which again Hans suggested is in the way of having like size source and destination drives essential for a restore. Is the 15GB partition really needed? If not, reformat the destination drive to eliminate the 15GB and add its space to the main portion. If that 15GB contains valid, needed data, then consider backing it up first before performing disk management on the new drive.

[BobArch2]

I should have added that there is also another feature in the SP/SPX restore function that might help, called Hardware Independent Restore. Albeit it mentions restoring to a different computer it is also used to restore to different hard drives. I will add that I have not used the HIR function to restore to a smaller drive but it might be an option to consider.

[jmt356]

Shrinking the volume created a 14 kb incremental file. I think that file contains nothing more than information communicating which of the sectors of the 1 TB disk are empty (not written to) so that SP can then use that information to restore the disk to a smaller partition.

I think the problem was not with the 14 kb incremental file that contained the shrunk volume information but another incremental file. I am still researching this.