Introducing AX64 Time Machine - hybrid imaging/snapshot software

Discussion in 'backup, imaging & disk mgmt' started by Isso, Jan 18, 2013.

  1. cloggy49

    cloggy49 Registered Member

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    Last weekend I was about to purchase 4 PC licenses of AX64TM but decided to give it a try first. Well, I installed it on October 5th and since then I now have 25 (!!!!) hourly snapshots starting Oct5 till one made at 14:00 hrs a few minutes ago. This is not what I understood how the program is working. Am I the only one with so many hourly snapshots, did I run into a bug or...maybe I have no clue how the program is working at all. If I would keep on using AX64TM, I wil soon run out of diskspace... :-(

    So, I've decided to remove it and use Macrium Reflect for weekly full and one daily differential backup and use bvckup2 to synchronize my data folders to my NAS server every hour (if needed when changes are detected).
     
  2. stapp

    stapp Global Moderator

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  3. taotoo

    taotoo Registered Member

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  4. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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  5. Baldrick

    Baldrick Registered Member

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    Thanks, Waj...completely understand that you must focus on the bigger picture...at least initially.

    I will wait patiently in the wings.;)

    Regards, Baldrick
     
  6. cloggy49

    cloggy49 Registered Member

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    Hi, my apologies not to mention that I was evaluating V2_0_0_665 on Windows10 Pro X64 and with V2 there is no option to turn on or off the hourly snapshots. I've seen that in V3 an option will be introduced where you can set the time for snaphots.
    The 3 hourly backup mechanism is described on the AX64TM website but it is how V1 is working and obviously V2 works completely different (actually, there is hardly any decent V2 information to be found in their knowledge base / F&A section). Maybe this 24 hour mechanism works fine when you leave your PC on for 7x24x365 but powering it off for several hours overnight probably confuses the retention/merge of hourly snapshots.

    I had it running from Oct 5 around 19:30 hrs till today, October 7 14:05 hrs and I have only seen hourly snapshots, so I wonder when Daily (and after a while Weekly) snapshots are being created. As there is no clear description on how V2 is working and after 25 hourly snapshots, I decided to de-install it. Maybe when there is more detailed information available on the AX64 website how V2 is working and the program is a bit more mature, I might consider to evaluate it again. For now I stick with Macrium Reflect and Bvckup2 (the later one is bloody fast!) and both are freeware....:)
     
  7. TheRollbackFrog

    TheRollbackFrog Imaging Specialist

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    Cloggy, this was published when v2 was released (I don't believe it has changed since then)...

    IV. New merging and purging schedule

    Following a similar schedule to Apple's own backup solution, AX64 Time Machine now keeps: hourly backups for the past 24 hours, daily backups for the past month, and weekly backups until your backup drive is full.
     
  8. cloggy49

    cloggy49 Registered Member

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    ..and when are daily backups supposed to be created? I was running the program for almost 2 full days (Oct. 5 till Oct. 7) and not a single daily backup was created.

    BTW, the hourly backups are not kept for the last 24 hours..I had hourly snapshots spanning almost 36 hours... Maybe it keeps the last 24 hourly snapshot files which are not taken every hour as hours are skipped due to the PC powered off/hibernated.
     
  9. taotoo

    taotoo Registered Member

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    All backups are the same at the point that they are created. They only become Daily or Weekly etc once a merge has taken place.
     
  10. cloggy49

    cloggy49 Registered Member

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    Thanks, will install it again and let it run for at least a week to see how it behaves..
     
  11. dagrev

    dagrev Registered Member

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    Automatic hourly backups become daily, daily become weekly, as I understand it. If you don't have automatic hourly on, all backups are then manual by the user.
     
  12. Rainwalker

    Rainwalker Registered Member

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    OK..I just attempted to install v. 665 and during the installation I received popup the software had not been signed. I have played around with AX64 for awhile now and have never seen this warning. I aborted. Download came from https://ax64.com/beta/SetupTM_2_0_0_665.exe via email. I presume it was the same that was sent to many. Size 27,956 KB. Are others seeing the warning? Is there a hash available?
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 7, 2015
  13. TheRollbackFrog

    TheRollbackFrog Imaging Specialist

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    It's a PRIVATE BETA, it may not be signed. Lots have used it, it's very safe... as far as signing is concerned :shifty:
     
  14. Rainwalker

    Rainwalker Registered Member

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    lol......I guess...OK Froggy, thanks :)
     
  15. manolito

    manolito Registered Member

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    After posting the URL I guess that it's not that private any more... :D
     
  16. Rainwalker

    Rainwalker Registered Member

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    I apologize...was not understanding of what "private" meant in this instance.
     
  17. MrWeary

    MrWeary Registered Member

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    I bought AX64 during the sale.
    AX64 2.0.0.637


    Thought I would give it a try ...
    I have used Rollback RX for years.
    It has Both saved my Ass more then few times and Broke my system a few times to!

    I was "playing around" with AX64 and had it install "startup manager"
    I rebooted and booted into the AX64 recovery system
    I has it to a "restore" and it started to restore ..
    but it took for ever for it to do the restore.
    not sure how long because after a very long wait I left the room. LOL
    Rollback took just seconds to do a restore.

    So HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO DO A RESTORE o_O
    Is it just me or is this how long it normally takes ?
     
  18. TheRollbackFrog

    TheRollbackFrog Imaging Specialist

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    MrWeary, it sounds like you performed a COLD restore from the Recovery Media. This will restore all your images to reconstruct your system as though you were doing a restoration to a new <BLANK> HDD. There is an option available in that media to do what AXTM calls a WARM restore... this only restores the HDD differences rom the current image on disk to the time point you are restoring to... a much shorter operation.

    ...and please understand, Rollback RX doesn't do a System Restore... it cannot put Humpty back together again if your HDD hardware fails or is damaged, AX64 can do this.

    It's the WARM (or HOT from LIVE Windows) restore you're looking for if you want to see how it all works, and you cannot have Rollback RX installed on your system if you want to successfully test this software in any reasonable way.
     
  19. MrWeary

    MrWeary Registered Member

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    Thanks for the reply.
    I do not have rollback installed ..
    like I said I wanted to try AX64
    OK I should have used a "warm" restore ?
    Were is that Option ? in the Recovery Media ??
     
  20. TheRollbackFrog

    TheRollbackFrog Imaging Specialist

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    While in the RECOVERY MEDIA, <select> the image point you wish to recover to, hit RESTORE on the toolbar.

    In the "Recovery Wizard" window, <select> "Advanced."
    In the Advanced Settings, unCHECK the "Full Image Recovery" option.
    <select> OK
    <select> "Recover Now"
     
  21. MrWeary

    MrWeary Registered Member

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    Well .. No Wonder !
    They need to make the MUCH easier !!!!
    I would have never thought or even tried to find that option !
    Thanks for the help !
     
  22. pb1

    pb1 Registered Member

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    Yeah, that is one of the few things that is not so good with this little app, they have managed to hide that well. To well, it should be more open and obvious as the rest are.

    I am trying out the private beta v.655 and it works well which is more that one could say about the former official v.2 versions. They always messed up my system. But this one works very good so for, crossing fingers, beautifully in fact and fast. I hope they can get their act together with this coming version.
     
  23. TheRollbackFrog

    TheRollbackFrog Imaging Specialist

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    MrW... when you do a restoration from the app while in Windows, I believe it sets that mode correctly so that when you BOOT into the resident Recovery Media, it does the right thing. When you MANUALLY BOOT into the Recovery Media, it's assuming you're probably there to do a FULL restore.
     
  24. TheRollbackFrog

    TheRollbackFrog Imaging Specialist

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    I hope that's Build #665 you're talking about... :cautious:
     
  25. pb1

    pb1 Registered Member

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    Nope, i have a VERY private exclusive beta :p , or maybe it was a typo - who knows ;) .
     
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