Backup Time Longer than Expected?

Discussion in 'Acronis True Image Product Line' started by dschoppe, Sep 1, 2005.

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  1. dschoppe

    dschoppe Guest

    Hi,

    I just did a full backup of a 120GB SATA drive (containing 35GB of data) to a second, freshly formated, internal 200GB Ultra ATA/IDE drive. The computer is a 3GHz P4 with 1GB RAM. The backup took almost 4 hours. Isn't this too long?

    The reason I ask, is that when I back up this same data across the LAN to VXA1 tape on another computer (under Retrospect Professional), my backup times are less than this including a verification pass as well!

    Thank you,
    Don
     
  2. Menorcaman

    Menorcaman Retired Moderator

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    Hello Don,

    Can you please advise whether you created the image under Windows or after booting from the rescue CD.

    Regards
     
  3. dschoppe

    dschoppe Guest

    Hi Menorcaman,

    Thanks for the reply. I booted from Windows as this is the typical way I would plan to run the software, i.e., automatic nightly backups.

    Thanks,
    Don
     
  4. Menorcaman

    Menorcaman Retired Moderator

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    Hi Don,

    So it's not a Linux driver issue then. In which case I would say that 4 hours to backup 35 GB used space is way too long. Have you checked that both of your drives are actually working in Ultra DMA mode?

    Regards
     
  5. dschoppe

    dschoppe Guest

    Menorcamen,

    No I haven't check this. Where do I look? BTW, both drives are Seagate. The source drive is a SATA 120MB, and the destination is a 200GB IDE. The destination drive is using cable select (middle position, making it the master?) and there is also a CDROM drive on that same cable if it makes any difference.

    Thanks,
    Don
     
  6. Menorcaman

    Menorcaman Retired Moderator

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    Hi Don,

    Open up Control Panel>System>Hardware>Device Manager. For the IDE drives, select IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers, right click on the Primary IDE and/or Secondary Channels and select Properties. Click on the Advanced Settings tab and you should see the "Transfer Mode:" setting (usually set at "DMA if available") and the "Current Transfer Mode:" that indicates what mode the hard drive or CD/DVD ROM is actually working in (my DVD ROM and DVD recorder are connected to my Primary and Secondary IDE controllers respectively, which both indicate they are operating in Ultra DMA Mode 2).

    The SATA drive transfer mode is normally shown under Control Panel>System>Hardware>Device Manager>SCSI and RAID controllers. Right click on your SATA controller, select Properties and then click on the Device Info tab. Your SATA transfer mode will be shown against "Current Tranfer Mode:" (Channel 0 and Channel 1 for my SATAs both show Ultra DMA mode 6).

    Well that all depends what type of cable is being used (<check out this link for an explanation>). It's possible that a slow (e.g. PIO mode 1 or 2) CDROM drive is preventing your IDE hard drive from working at optimum speed. Therefore, if possible, run the two IDE devices as "masters" on separate IDE channels (e.g. hard drive on Primary and CDROM on Secondary).

    Regards
     
  7. dschoppe

    dschoppe Guest


    Menorcamen,

    Thanks again. I will check the transfer modes and also consider moving the IDE hard disk to the second controller so it exists there alone.

    Best regards,
    Don
     
  8. dschoppe

    dschoppe Guest

    Menorcamen,

    You were right! The new HDD was running in PIO mode. In XP, I had selected "DMA if Available", but I forgot to "enable" the drive in BIOS under the hard disk configuration. In other words, when I entered BIOS setup, I needed to set "AUTO" for the controller to which the HDD was attached.

    Now my full backup takes under 30 minutes.

    Thanks again!
    Don
     
  9. Menorcaman

    Menorcaman Retired Moderator

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    Hi Don,

    Excellent!! Just pleased I was able to help.

    Regards
     
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