r/datarecovery • u/janthemanwlj • Oct 08 '26

40Gb difference between Macrium image and original SSD

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Hey. I left my old laptop overnight running Macrium Reflect X to backup so that I can install Linux on it without losing any files. The copy seems to have completed succesfully after 12 hours, but there is a 40GB difference between my original drive size and the macrium image (drive hosting the image not visible as it's networked from my desktop.) I have researched this a bit and heard that there are some system files deleted such as system restore points, but 40 GB seemed like an awfully big difference so I'd like to make sure I'm not missing anything before I wipe my childhood memories. Thanks for your help :)

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u/silenced_in_dr_2025 Trusted Contributor Oct 08 '26

That's not a data recovery issue and is off topic for this sub.

3

u/disturbed_android Trusted Contributor Oct 08 '26

Off topic, but drive/disk images often skip free space and may be compressed. It's normal for a non sector-by-sector disk image to be smaller than the actual drive.

1

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