Slow performance during Rescue mode restore

I'm unable to use the NTFS format on my USB hard drive due to extremely slow backup/restore performance while in standalone mode. I have reformatted the USB hard drive as FAT32 because the backup and restore is much faster this way while in standalone mode but there is a 4GB limit for each .tib archive and it has to split into 4GB segments. The backups from the Windows version is full speed using either FAT32 or NTFS formatted USB drive but four times slower using NTFS than FAT32 formatted USB drive from the standalone version. Is it possible if you can get a fix for the Linux NTFS driver to allow backup/restore to be faster on the USB drive. I'm using TI 10 build 4871.

 

Keith, I do believe you have struck oil here ! Long ago when I was using Usb drives for backups I had noticed and complained about slow restore times though imaging times were ok which they should have been as I always backup in Windows. May I presume that you do backups and restores both in standalone mode? Edit I see that you have already got that covered.

I had worked round this by using a Bart PE TI CD and latterly by using internal drives exclusively.
It never occurred to me that changing the USB drive back to FAT 32 might speed things up. Your findings make sense as there are some who have no speed problems with USB drives and others who find they crawl along. So it is possible that the slow ones are on NTFS and the fast ones have stuck with FAT32.

Food for thought both for users and Acronis support.

Xpilot

 

I only restore in standalone mode and it's full speed from a FAT32 formatted USB drive but extremely slow from a NTFS formatted USB drive. I would like to bring this attention to Acronis Tech Support.

 

Yes Tech Support really need to pick up on this one.

I now realise why my restores from an internal drive are four times faster than from an external drive.
When I was using the USB drive it was under NTFS while on the internal drive I use the Secure Zone which of course is formatted with FAT 32.

Thanks again for your insight. It sometimes takes a fresh pair of eyes to see the Pike Staff that we have been tripping over for ages .


Xpilot

 

Hello Keith Weisshar,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

We are sorry for the delayed response.

Please note that need some additional information to investigate this issue. Could you please collect the following information?

1) Please create Acronis Report, Linux system information (sysinfo.txt) and Windows System Information as it is described in Acronis Help Post. Please keep your external USB hard drive connected while creating Acronis Report and Linux system information.

2) Provide the exact vendor and model of the external USB hard drive you use.

3) How long does it take to create an image archive (more than 1 GB) when booted from Acronis True Image Bootable CD created with the build 4871 of Acronis True Image 10.0 Home to the external USB hard drive if it is formatted into FAT32?

4) How long does it take to create an image archive (more than 1 GB) when booted from Acronis True Image Bootable CD created with the build 4871 of Acronis True Image 10.0 Home to the external USB hard drive if it is formatted into NTFS?

5) How long does it take to create an image archive (more than 1 GB) when using Acronis True Image 10.0 Home in Windows to the external USB hard drive if it is formatted into FAT32/NTFS?

6) Also please perform the same tests for restoration process and let us know the results.

Then submit a request for technical support. Attach all the collected files and information to your request along with the link to this thread. We will investigate the problem and try to provide you with a solution.

Thank you.
--
Aleksandr Isakov

 

built bartpe cd and your problems are gone!

 

Not necessarily. It can be difficult to get the PE boot disk to work on some machines.

 

I have now bought a USB drive out of retirement just to see if I can reproduce your findings. I have compared timings of restoring the same image when the drive was formatted in NTFS and then in FAT 32. In my particular set up there was virtually no difference in the time taken.

I do find however that restores from an internal drive are many times faster then a USB drive which is why I made the change some time ago.


Xpilot

 

The backup archive is 2.5GB. The answers to the following quotes are:

2) Western Digital My Book Essentials with 500GB
3) 3.5 minutes
4) 7 minutes
5) 2.5 minutes for both formats
6) Restore is about the same speed as backup in all cases.

 

I'm seeing this level of slow performance also on TI10. It takes about 1.5 / 2 hours to to a backup and 8+ hours to restore from an external NTFS-formatted USB2.0 HDD. My machine has 400gb of HDD space, of which 100gb is used.

I've done this type of backup and restore before using TI8 on a machine with much the same configuration (in fact, that HDDs in this machine are the same drives as those in the other). The difference was that I backed up to a network drive (Buffalo Linkstation). It was *much* faster, around 30 mins each for backup and restore.