Backup restore with Seagate freeagent took forever

I did a backup restore using the Seagate 250GB USb drive and it took a whopping 9 hours for 110 GB. That cannot be normal.

I am using Vista Ultimate 32bit and I used the Complete Backup that comes with the OS and it only took just over an over for a 140GB restore using the same drive.

Why did it take so long using Acronis?

Asus P5n-E
EVGA 8800GT
2 x 320GB Seagate drives Raid 0
Q6600
2GB Ram

 

No response?

 

Because TI boots into the Linux environment to restore C. The Linux drivers that TI has stink for your hardware, so it runs at USB 1.1 speeds. That makes it about 1/10 the speed. It could be worse. They might not work at all.

You could create a VistaPE boot disk with the TI plugin, and it would run in Windows with the Windows drivers. That should run at USB 2.0 speed.

Or you could wait a while, a few months, a year, who knows, for better drivers to be added to the TI Linux environment. Since the last update was Novermber of 2007, don't be impatient.

I'm not a big fan of the Vista Ultimate backup implementation, but it sure works better with your hardware. I think I'd learn how to use it the best way possible.

 

Thanks for the reply. I did not know the USB drive would be that slow with Trueimage.

 

USB is a slow process for anything sustained over time. The fastest link for the Seagate FreeAgent Pro is eSATA. That will be roughly 4-5 times faster.

 

One ought to see at least, roughly, 1GB per minute. for backups and maybe that fast to twice that pseed for restores.

These terribly slow times are a driver problem and not normal operation.

 

The USB port you choose also makes a difference. Do not connect your USB drive to a USB port on your keyboard or monitor, as they offer less current and may not run the USB drive reliably or at optimal speeds. Connect the USB drive to a USB port on the PC itself.

 

I am using the same USB port that I always use with the drive. A restore using the Vista Backup Restore takes about 1 hour with the same drive but almost 10 hours with less data with trueimage. I don't think it has anything to do with the USB port at all. Unfortunately I wouldn't be able to use this product.

 

Does Vista's "Complete Backup" application do an image of the entire drive? If so, why would you need ATI?

Did you read jmk94903's reply to you? He suggests that ATI's Linux drivers for your drive are not current, so the connection runs at slow USB 1.1 speeds. He offered you a solution.

 

I have no idea what the guy was talking about. I don't know anything about updating Linux drivers or any of the sort. What i understand is that the drive operates at 1.1 with trueimage due to the linux drivers. Seems to me that the programmers need to update them so USB 2.0 will function. I used the the application to create a bootable USB flash drive and that's how I did the restore.

Yes Vista Complete Backup does a complete backup of your system using a VHD file.

 

You might want to understand what he's talking about.

When ATI does a restore, or when it does anything after booting from the Rescue CD (or Rescue on a bootable USB drive) it's not operating in Windows: it's running Linux. So, at that point it depends on the drivers included in its Linux package. Your drive is fairly new, so jmk94903 says that ATI's Linux package doesn't include good drivers for your drive, thus it runs at USB 1.1. speeds.

His suggestion to create a VistaPE boot disk with the TI plugin, would enable recovery to run in Windows with the Windows drivers, which should therefore run at normal USB 2.0 speed.

If Vista Complete Backup backs up the entire drive state, why do you need ATI?

 

I have no idea what a VistaPE is and the reason I was thinking about using TI was because it's easy to mount the backup so i can browse the files. It's not easy to mount the Vista backup. I have pretty much given up on this though. I used TI a few years ago when i was using WIn XP and it was fast so I wanted to know why it was now so slow. Now i know.

Thanks for the help.

 

Reading the original posting by Deihmos I became interested in making a comparison of different methods when creating an image. Normally I only make full backups that are scheduled in off hours and only casually look at the times. I realize that my comments pertain to creating a backup image and not the restore that you are concerned about but I thought I would pass my observations on anyway.

I then compared four different setups and recorded the results.

Given:
· Windows XP Home Edition w/ SP3.
· Acronis TrueImage Home v.11, build 8053.
· C: drive – Seagate 160 GB PATA, NTFS.
· D: drive – Seagate 160 GB PATA, NTFS.
· F: drive – Seagate FreeAgent 320 GB USB 2.0, NTFS. This is not the Pro model.
· All drives have a single partition.
· Image file size (.tib) is 15.7 GB.

Objective: Compare the time to create a 15.7 GB TI-11 image.
· Within Windows created a full backup image of C: to D:. Time to complete – 15 minutes.
· Booting with the TrueImage 11 Rescue Media CD created a full image of C: to F: Time to complete – 71 minutes.
· Within Windows created a full backup image of C: to F:. Time to complete – 23 minutes.
· Using Mustang’s VistaPE bootable CD created a full image of C: to F: Time to complete – 20 minutes.

Conclusions:
· Cannot confirm the accuracy of completion times but this is what Windows XP reports.
· The completion times make sense considering the lower transfer rate of USB 2.0 compared to an internal IDE or SATA drive.
· Completion time using the TrueImage Rescue Media CD is excessive and with a larger image file this might be a problem.
· Mustang’s VistaPE alternative is a viable option. This also allows for mounting an image.


Bruce

 

The really striking comparison is between creating the image from Windows versus from the Rescue CD: 23 minutes versus 71 minutes. Yours is also a relatively new model USB drive, so again the Rescue CD's Linux environment may not have optimal drivers for your drive.

I haven't done an exact comparison, but I think the same comparison on my equipment would be much more even.

 

Hello Deihmos and Bruce Mahnke,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

We are sorry for delayed response.

Please try booting with "acpi=off noapic" parameter as it is described in Acronis Help Post.

If the problem persists, could you please collect some information to let us investigate it thoroughly?

Please create Acronis Report, Windows system information and Linux system information (sysinfo.txt) as it is described in Acronis Help Post. Please keep the drive in question connected and powered on during the creation process.

Then submit a request for technical support. Attach all the collected files and information to your request along with the step-by-step description of the actions taken before the problem appears and the link to this thread. We will do our best to investigate the problem and provide you with a solution.

Thank you.
--
Marat Setdikov