Introducing AX64 Time Machine - hybrid imaging/snapshot software

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

  1. jwcca

    jwcca Registered Member

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    Hi Isso,

    I have xp-sp3 - 32 bit.

    I installed AXTM v 1.0.795 but can't get it to work. (original install, no prior version)
    (also, No warning messages about unsigned)

    As soon as I select my c: drive and click [Next], it 'crashes', I get the usual warnings and then it sits there as "Not responding" so I red [X] to close it..

    Checking my System Devices, I see that there's a problem with the
    AXDBus Enumerator (axmount.sys and WdfCoInstaller01009.dll)
    which are v 1.0.767 (not v 1.0.795?).
    There's also short notes:
    "Provider Win 7 DDK provider" and
    "not digitally signed"
    v 19.48.46.828 dated 2013-01-23

    Awaiting your response, anxious to actually get to a working copy,

    J
     
  2. Isso

    Isso Developer

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    Hi JW,

    Sorry about this problem. We'll soon be adding crash handling and logging, and after we have it in place I'll contact you and hopefully be able to fix this issue.

    Isso
     
  3. jwcca

    jwcca Registered Member

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    So the problem isn't different versions of AXDBus Enumerator (axmount.sys)
    which is v 1.0.767 (not v 1.0.795?).

    My WdfCoInstaller01009.dll seems to be correct.

    I use VSS regularly so it's not a VSS problem.

    You can PM me if you want me to test something specific...

    J
     
  4. Isso

    Isso Developer

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    I believe it has nothing to do with axmount.sys, as it's the mount driver and is not used at the point of drive selection. I'll PM you as soon as we have the version with crash handling. Thank you
     
  5. jwcca

    jwcca Registered Member

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    Well I got the screen to select the drive, the crash occurred when I clicked [Next], which is when, I assume, AXTM wants to Mount the drive, but can't because it can't use axmount.sys.
    Is there a newer version of axmount.sys, say 1.0.795?
     
    Last edited: Feb 2, 2013
  6. Isso

    Isso Developer

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    When you are selecting the source and destination drives, no mounting is engaged.
    Mount actually happens when you already made some backups, then open the Backup Browser and select Mount. Until that point mount driver is not used.
    Hope this makes sense

    Isso
     
  7. jwcca

    jwcca Registered Member

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    OK, makes sense, I'm happy to wait.. :)

    J
     
  8. starfish_001

    starfish_001 Registered Member

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    Seems to happily coexist with shadow desktop and FDISR which rather surprised me

    looks very nice so far - few rough edges (open backup folder opens a browse for drive rather than the folder) but this is look very interesting.

    When will the next build be released - hopefully a SSD version that I can try in the real world


    This looks like quite an exciting alternative to FDISR, RX has never been good enough for for me drivers are too unreliable.
     
    Last edited: Feb 2, 2013
  9. sukarof

    sukarof Registered Member

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    No problem, I am aware of that this is alpha testing :) I had version 1.796 that i installed 25 january and that version has been working fine. (the one I downloaded today was 1.796_2)
    I did not uninstall the previous version, just installed 1.796_2 "on top" of it. I will try to do a proper uninstall and then install the latest version again.
     
  10. sevenstar

    sevenstar Registered Member

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    When I doing a backup, I decided to abort it. There is no method in the GUI to do that.
    Allen o_O
     
  11. Isso

    Isso Developer

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    Allen, that may be a bit confusing, sorry. We'll add that later. For now you can just close the program :)
     
  12. sevenstar

    sevenstar Registered Member

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    Thanks!

    Also after having done my initial backup, I did an update an hour later. The program did a full backup instead of the fast snapshot (incremental). I repeated this procedure again immediately, and another full backup was done. I repeated a backup the third time and a snapshot image was done.
    Allen
     
  13. TheRollbackFrog

    TheRollbackFrog Imaging Specialist

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    Isso, finally found some time to play a bit with this.

    System: Laptop, 1.8ghz Sempron, RAM 1gb, HDD 80gb, Win7x86 Pro SP1
    Fairly standard build... ESET Smart Security and Shadow Defender (off at the time), nothing else special.

    Initial backup (16.3gB partition) = 16-min (IFW = 21-min)
    Backup size = 10.3gB (IFW = 7.4gB)
    Seems like a compression difference between products...

    Installed Nero v9.

    2nd Backup (17gB) = 6-min (I guess this was a snapshot... not real fast, more like an incremental)

    Upon trying to restore to initial backup, ERROR: -99969

    Just passing this on... more to come.
     
    Last edited: Feb 3, 2013
  14. bgoodman4

    bgoodman4 Registered Member

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    I was thinking about the features of this program, especially the fact that snapshots appear to be incremental backups, and I am wondering how this program compares to Shadow Protect. That is, in what way is it different.

    Also, has anyone used the program in combination with Rx? I really like the idea of regular, fast images being created in addition to RXs snaps and can see myself using this program to do this. To have to wait 6 to 10 min to create a manual snap (backup) if I want to test a new program or whatever is not terribly appealing.
     
  15. MarcP

    MarcP Registered Member

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    If you want to test softwares safely or test things, Toolwiz Timefreeze may be a better free option and it works quite well along with other imaging softwares.

    I think AXTM is meant to be a bit more than just a sandbox software.
     
  16. bgoodman4

    bgoodman4 Registered Member

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    I am not suggesting it is a sandbox type software but testing is something I do and as I said waiting 6 to 10 min to create a snapshot is not appealing. I have Rx, if this program is to replace it, or at a min, supplement it, then I would like to know more specifically what it does and does not offer

    I am asking because I have not followed the discussion all that closely, especially the technical discussion, so I do not know exactly what the program is capable of. Perhaps I should go back to the start of the thread and read the whole thing,,,,,,unless someone can summarize the differences for me between the functionality (not how it works but what it does) between Shadow Protect, RollBack RX and AX64.

    The title of the thread is "AX64 Time Machine - hybrid imaging/snapshot software" so I would think it would combine the best of an image program and a snapshot program,,, that to me would mean replacing the functionality of both SP and Rx which I think are the 2 standards which it is designed to replace. So my question is, does it replace these 2?

    I am interested in possibly finding an alternate to Rx but I feel I need a clearer understanding before I can make a decision if this is it.
     
  17. carfal

    carfal Registered Member

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    Isso. I've been testing AXTM in WMWare workstation and would like to report my experiences.

    Initially i used a usb (2.0) drive connected to my VM.

    The snapshot and restore times were erratic at best. Sometimes it would take 15-30 sec to snapshot or restore and other times it would take 10min to restore a 20mb incremental image. Unplugging and reconnecting the USB drive would sometimes restore the original speed back but other times it would appear to run at normal speed then slow down to a crawl. still other times unplugging and reconnecting the USB changed nothing.

    I'm not game to test this on my real system yet but was wondering what other peoples experience was in a VM enviroment.

    I was about to give up on AXTM but had an idea. I added a second virtual drive to my VM so that i in effect emulated a system backing up to an internal drive. Well, things changed dramatically. AXTM was snappy indeed. Still not as fast as Rollback but a good performer non the less, especially when you consider that you have the advantage of imaging to a seperate drive.

    So was wondering if the USB drivers of VWMare Workstation are what is causing the slow down when using a USB drive and if you or anybody else have used an external USB on a real system with no issues in regards to speed? I would also like to know if anybody else has had this issue in a VM enviroment.

    Thanks

    EDIT: The VM is W7 x64
     
  18. TheRollbackFrog

    TheRollbackFrog Imaging Specialist

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    Decided to try and use the "Create Recovery Media" option to perform above failed recovery attempt. Atempt to create a recovery CD failed... it went through some motions (no error), ejected my BLANK CD-R at about 35% and sat there, I put the CD-R back in and the media creation process finished without error. BUT... the created CD-R was toast... nothing of any significance on it.

    Tried the ISO creation processed with success, then successfully burned a recovery disc using Nero.

    Using recovery disc, restoration to original backup from snap#1: 14-min.
    Using recovery disc, restoration to snap#1 from backup above: 14-min.

    At this point I'm not sure where the snapshot recovery speed comes in (above times appear to be nothing more that standard restorations). Maybe bouncing around amongst snapshots is not the best way to realize the speed this product offers.

    I'll play some more...
     
  19. Isso

    Isso Developer

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    starfish_001,

    Thank you for sharing your experience, I'm happy to hear it!
     
  20. Isso

    Isso Developer

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    sukarof, that's strange. Looks like you installed the same version twice, and it shouldn't cause any problem. I'll see if I can reproduce it. Please let me know if uninstall/install helped.
     
  21. Isso

    Isso Developer

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    Allen, could you look into the backup folder and let me know how many backup files with axd extension are there and what's the size of them. Please PM that information, or send to info@ax64.com. Thank you
     
  22. TheRollbackFrog

    TheRollbackFrog Imaging Specialist

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    The irony of this is the recovery media appears to be WinVistaPE-based :D
     
  23. Isso

    Isso Developer

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    Froggie,

    Sorry to hear that it doesn't work for you. We'll release new version with logging soon, and I'll hopefully be able to figure out what's wrong.

    As for slow restore - if you are using recovery media, the program always does a full restore, thus it's slow. At this moment fast restore is possible only while restoring from main OS - that is the primary restore method, and recovery media is normally used only when the computer doesn't boot or disk fails.
     
  24. Isso

    Isso Developer

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    :) Hmm, how did you know it? Recovery media for Win 7 is created based on OS recovery console (WinRE.wim), so it should be Win 7 if you create it from Win7. Unless I'm missing something...
     
  25. Isso

    Isso Developer

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    bgoodman4,

    I tested both RollbackRX and ShadowProtect for a limited time, so perhaps I'm not the right person to give the answer, but the summary IMO would be as follows:

    Conceptually AXTM is close to ShadowProtect, because both of them are imaging apps. There are some differences though that make AXTM much faster:

    1. AXTM uses a driver to track drive changes in realtime, thus it can create the incremental image fast (SP compares the current content of the drive with previous backup every time you do incremental, which takes time).
    2. AXTM restores only the changed sectors (as opposed to SP which restores the entire drive). This makes the restore many times faster.
    3. AXTM restores the drive right from the running OS (as opposed to SP which uses recovery environment). This saves another couple of minutes for each restore.

    Overall, fast backups and fast restores result in an experience that is closer to snapshot apps rather than imaging apps. But AXTM still is an imaging app that can be perfectly used to backup data (as opposed to snapshot apps).

    To get some idea how program works check this two AXTM videos on youtube:

    Backup

    Restore

    EDIT: can't get those links to display properly, sorry
     
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