Hi guys!
just thought I would offer some assistance on this issue, as I too have been agonising over the problems with getting Gigabyte's Xpress Recovery2 tool to work.
Having already used it successfully weeks previous on a customer's computer I thought I would backup my own new system the same way. 403 - "Not enough HDD Space" error, as everyone else. I tried everything mentioned above, and in other forums, including connecting drives in other configurations, etc etc.
As correctly stated by users and the GB manual, the Xpress tool needs unallocated space at the end of the drive to work. I can confirm it works fine on SATA drives (you MAY need a BIOS upgrade, if you are having problems - especially with >2TB drives).
The problem I was having was I had already turned on the other nice Gigabyte feature (BIOS backup) which also uses space at the end of the first HDD (in my case 8MB was allocated).
Although this had not shown up originally in the Disk Management tool, it was showing on later boots.
I disabled this in the BIOS. Deleted the partition using Windows Disk Management, and that again freed up all remaining space on the drive (right to the end of the drive - which Xpress Recovery needs).
Tried again to boot from the Gigabyte Motherboard disc and run the Xpress Recovery2 tool... and it run through perfect.
Further thoughts:
I disagree with others who say don't use this tool/backup process. For anyone who has ever had a proprietary system (Sony, HP, Dell, NEC, PB, etc) you will know that they normally come with easy Recovery options to restore the system to "factory state". Gigabyte have allowed the average user to have the same useful feature on their custom made PC.
As instructed by the GB manual, do your basic install of Windows, update all motherboard drivers, graphics/sound drivers, and maybe some relevant Windows updates. (In my case I did the whole shebang and installed every update recommended). Do any basic tweaking, customising of screens, Explorer, desktop, etc... (as these are only registry stored settings and save time later redoing them). Confirm you have a reliable working system - even run a few tests (eg. BurnInTest by PassMark and memtest86, to name two). Then go ahead and backup your system using the Gigabyte Xpress Recovery tool. So long as you do not have a fatal HDD failure you can easily restore the main system partition to "your" factory state.
Naturally, anything you install after that backup will not be covered so normal backups/cloning tools can then kick in. Yes, storing them on secondary or external HDDs is the best/safest option. There are many tools on the market for this now, including Acronis True Image, EASEUS Todo Backup, Casper, and a favourite amongst the more techie-minded CloneZilla (normally runs 5 times faster than other tools!).
I hope this information can help others, and maybe solve your particular problem with this tool. I'm a huge Gigabyte fan, and prefer their systems over ASUS and others, having installed, tested and used many for other customers... but each to his own!
Zelnak.
EMAIL REDACTED - SS
/tw.giga-byte.com/Support/Motherboard/TechGuide_List.aspx?NewTechID=91
Facebook
Twitter