Returnil and Extended Image Backup/Restore times

Hi,

I tried Returnil (RSS release 13), recently, for a few days. Now I have reinstalled my system (Windows 7 SP1 x64). Before reinstalling Returnil on it I wondered if someone could help me with a question.

I noticed that having Returnil on my system (even with Returnil service disabled - set to manual - at startup) extended Macrium image backups of the C drive from a few minutes (4-5) to about 16 minutes. Is this inevitable with a large application like Returnil on the system. My concern is that any restore of such an image of the C drive will be greatly extended also!

I wondered if there is a way to mitigate this issue - perhaps in the way I install Returnil: to a different partition? Even if this is a feasible solution I have never installed a program to a different drive before so would need to explore it. Or perhaps there is another solution?

I would appreciate some feedback on this. Thank you.

 

Having Returnil installed should not increase the size of the image or the time necessary to create it in any significant amount.

Perhaps you are creating images with the virtual protection enabled. This should never be done. If the virtual protection is enabled, reboot and don´t enable it, then begin the process to create the image. This applies either to "hot" images (created within Windows) or to "cold" ones (created from a boot medium outside of Windows).

 

Hi discs,
Did you create a Virtual Disk (Virtual Mode > Tools > Virtual Disk)? When this is dismounted (closed), it reverts to what it really is; a very large, empty file and may end up adding additional time to your backups.

@Robin

When the Virtual Mode is active, RSS/RVS will terminate any attempt to run a backup/image process so discs would have encountered a block rather than an extended image creation time.

Mike

 

Hi,

Thank you Robin and Coldmoon for your replies.

I don't think I did a backup image while in Returnil virtual mode; when I did experiment with a Virtual disk, it was on a separate partition (although I gather Robin's later response indicates any Vitual disk on C would have blocked an attempt at a backup image).

I am still in the process of reinstalling Win 7. What I will do is to finish installing some needed stuff, do a Macrium image backup and note the time it takes (I will also note the size in GB of what is backed up). I will then install RSS and work with it once or twice, and then do another Macrium image - noting time and size of backup.

If there is an issue I will write back - or I may do so anyway, just to express a comparison.

Thanks again, for your help.

 

I thought its worth getting back on this.

I found out why the time for a system image may be vastly extended with a Returnil product (RSS or RVS). Even though one exits virtual mode to do the system image backup, Returnil does not always delete or deallocate the RVSYSTEM.CCH file for virtualisation use. Last time I had to remove Returnil (Gui) from autostart with Windows, and this did ensure RVSYSTEM.CCH was no longer taking up 50% of free disk space. [In my case the Returnil CCH file was about 50GB on a 125GB drive in the Program Data folder. This means that before Returnil my backup size was about 25GB, and after Returnil 75GB!]

But the problem is resolved for me, since if Returnil fails to deallocate the CCH file - which I believe it should!? - I think I can ensure it does by removing, temporarily, its Gui program from autostart.

 

How I permanently solved the problem of RVS releasing disk space allocated for virtual storage (I am posting this in case it may prove of help to someone else).

I am still learning about RVS. I realised, after reading the help file and previous posts, that Returnil doesn't necessarily need the vast amounts of disk space I was allocating for virtual mode by using the default setting of 50% under Virtual Mode > Settings > Percentage of free disk space used for virtual mode. (I was thus allocating nearly 50GB! of what happens to be around 100GB of free space to RVS).

I have now reduced the space to be allocated to 2% (2.2 GB is sufficient for my needs) - and RVS cleans itself nicely after a reboot into normal/real mode, with no leftover RVSSYSTEM.CCH file.