Toolwiz Time Machine

Hi,Does the restore process allow restore at from windows start .
thanks

 

I guess you mean restore during boot. I installed & checked, it doesn't appears during boot. There are no settings at all.

 

Hi bo

That is a very prudent question for any snapshot style application. In my experience with TTM, it was very brief, due to the first time I tried to restore the first snapshot I had taken, it appeared to work fine, it took some time and then rebooted.

Afterwards, I always check event logs, and unfortunately, there was some form of file system corruption listed, I believe it was NTFS file system corruption that was reported if my memory serves me correctly. when I saw this, I removed it and hoped it would be addressed. This was my first experience within minutes of trying it, and I assumed the process of restore was not exactly a sector based restore, or simply it was a program error of some sort.

Many have been using TTM, without issue, but I am assuming if those who use this daily would check their event logs, some would see a report about file corruption after a restore, perhaps this is not always the case, or in my experience it was a one time oddity, but I did not bother with it after this.

You may have a better experience, but I just wanted to share what happened when I tested TTM. I do hope they keep up with development, but I was disappointed that the current build is the exact same one that I tested, which shows it is still February 2013 and so for now, personally, I will wait to see if James soon releases a newer version.

Apparently the file corruption issue has not been a complaint, but I suspect if those using this regularly would check their logs, they may see the error reported, perhaps not.

It is a very good practice to check event logs using ANY snapshot style software after one performs a restore just to be safe.

Great question

Have a good weekend!

Jim

 

What good would that be. I only need a primary snapshot to fall back and if it is automatically deleted when cache is full then thats no good.

If that happened then I have to go back to CTM and atleast with CTM your snapshot is not deleted and the setting can be optimized.

Damn I give this software a thumb down since it automatically deletes a snapshot.

 

Thanks Jim, I appreciate your response. I agree about checking Event logs, I check them on a regular basis even without a reason to do so. The NTFS warning you got might be something expected when using TTM, perhaps majoMo or someone else can say something about it.

Bo

 

For some days using TTM and TTF and checked Events and not found anything NTFS Event error related in my machine.

Said that, there are some info that could be useful for someone else:

♦ When light virtualization software like 'Toolwiz Time Freeze' is used, it is adviced to do a check disk sometimes; I do that when a cleaning maintenance is realized. Such concern is due since some file corruption could happen with their process of freezing the system. Before doing a disk image with Macrium or Redo Backup, I do a check disk ever (since I use TTMachine I do images quite less often; BTW, be aware that TTM is not a image/clone disk software and doesn't replace a imaging software!).

♦ NTFS errors could come from Volume Shadow Copies corruption; in general, by default light virtualization software disable Windows Restore - once it collides with light virtualization engine. I have Windows Restore off ever and I don't use it.

♦ Through command line users can do to check errors:

○ To check the state of the file system:

Code:

chkntfs C:

Message that comes out: "is not dirty" OR " is dirty"

○ To fix disk errors:

Code:

chkdsk C: /F

○ To verify if there are disk errors:

Code:

fsutil dirty query C:

 

Thanks majoMo.

Bo

 

Just a warning ,do not use this and restore an image if you have Bitdefender free installed.I just tried and Bitdefender was removed from add/remove and it could not have the protection turned on.I was able to log on but it would not connect to server warning for the protection, even though it sent me to my account and told me i was logged on.I had to stop it in task manager and install a fresh version over it.I have now gone back to Keriver which has never let me down.

 

Hi folks

I just wanted to add my latest experience regarding TTM. I have tried twice to utilize this software, and the first time I posted about it, there was file corruption post restore. Below is a quick summary of events last night.

The second experience I had just last night...install was fine, used a 2,048KB cache, one snapshot, then after about an hour tried a restore. This is on a very clean system, 7 year old Dell laptop-Inspiron E1705, no antivirus installed, using only windows firewall, etc. the only security app being used is windows defender on Windows 7 pro SP1, stable functioning system.

The restore went seemingly fine. No file system corruption noted in event viewer, but after restore, I hooked up my external drive to copy a few files, when I ejected the drive, there was an immediate blue screen and large windows mini dump after the crash I was unable to access to read, but it was not difficult to diagnose.

I knew immediately the underlying cause as this has never happened before, plus the external drive is only 4 months old. I was barely able to boot back into windows after this crash, very slow boot time, but I did get into the OS and I uninstalled TTM, then restored an image. No further problems with the external drive and i am telling of this because although I see great potential with this software, there are issues that continue to happen, maybe not right away, but something certainly was not operating properly after I had restored. perhaps this may have happened even before a restore, but this is my recent experience, and I am just warning that TTM in my opinion, needs more work, and I do hope James at Toolwiz is continuing to develop this and paying attention to the issues some are seeing and reporting.

He has also been asked about registry corruption reported from some users on their forum, post restore, but has not addressed this as of yet. I think this could be a nice little app, but I have tried it twice and it did not last long before strange issues appeared.

Some seem to have no problems, but this is just my experience, and make sure if you decide to utilize this software, you create a drive image before proceeding.

Have a good day

Jim

 

Thanks Jim for your latest test.

I decided to also test TimeMachine a little more, and this is what I found:
My test platform was an older MSI notebook (AMD Turion Dual Core, 2 GB RAM, 160 GB HDD) running Win7 Professional 32bit. No other security software except Panda Cloud Antivirus free.

I was not able to reproduce your issues at all, after running it for 2 days with hourly snaps ON I had no issues at all to revert to older snaps. The event log was clean, all installed software and hardware worked flawlessly after a restore.

I found that the default 2 GB cache file size is way too small, after installing / uninstalling just one larger software package all snapshots disappeared except the last one. Unfortunately to adjust the size of the cache file you have to uninstall / reinstall the software.

The ToolWiz website mentions that snapshots can be mounted.

Maybe I am blind or a little stupid, but I could not find any way to mount snapshots. Can someone point me to the way to mount snapshots?


The main reason why I like the philosophy behind this software is that it does not touch the MBR, so it works very well together with conventional imagers. If you are using snapshot software, it is essential to make image backups to an external drive also, and software like RollBack RX or its clones make it quite hard to use an imager in parallel. OTOH this also means that ToolWiz TimeMachine is completely useless if you cannot boot into Windows any more.

The company did not work on this software for almost a year, I really hope that they will find the time to maintain it better in the future...


Cheers
manolito

 

Hi manolito

I am glad to read you have not had the issues I wrote about. I gave it a try twice, and although the restore I did appeared to be "fine", the blue screen I received after ejecting my external drive was definitely a new event that has not happened before. TTM was the only change made on the system, and when it was uninstalled after it finally booted back into the OS after a reboot, i then proceeded to restore an IFL image I made and no more blue screen issue after I restored the image. it was a strange event, but it was related to TTM.

It was baffling to me and as mentioned I was unable to open the mini dump file to see what had caused to blue screen, but it was evident TTM played a part. Strange behavior for sure and I have no reason as to why it happened.

As to your comment about being able to mount a snapshot...there is no way i could see to do this either, i came to the conclusion it is not a valid option and James should state so.

So you are not blind or stupid my friend I also wondered the same, and I will say there is NO option to mount a snapshot. It would be a nice feature for sure, but it does not exist unless I too am blind which would not be the first time.

Thanks for your efforts in pursuing this. They are appreciated!

Jim

 

Wow! That was a whirlwind in the playground...

I decided to try this puppy on my AX64 protected test system. Installed (Dec 2013 version), gave it a 4gB snapshot area, rebooted after install.

Took a "baseline" snapshot then 7-min later took a Baseline+1 snapshot. Then did a restore to the baseline. Restore was very fast but when the system came up, my auction bidding software was changed back to its native language (German instead of English) and my most recent calendar manager addition (installed in December) popped up every event since its installation as though none had been dismissed. HOLY COW... what happened.

OK, lets get out of this thing... did a TTM uninstallation, rebooted and the system was back at the German and all event state. OK, I'll just do a HOT restore (which never fails) back to the point in time prior to the installation of TTM. This process started but progressed as though no AX64 tracking information was available... i.e, like a COLD RESTORE. This was scary so I did a HARD RESET of the system followed by an AX64 COLD RESTORE and all returned to normal.

That'll probably be my last test for a while...

Anyway, I also found NO WAY to mount a snapshot, have no idea what happened to my system when restoring to TTM's baseline... and for sure the TTM snapshot tracking mechanism messed up the AX64 tracking mechanism.

Now wasn't that fun...?

 

Hi TRF

I know exactly what you mean my friend. TTM at least for me is missing something during its restore. I have read others have had registry corruption, and it sounds like that is what happened in your case, causing your mentioned apps to act out of sorts so to speak.

James needs to address this because it is dangerous. I am glad you had AXTM to undo the mess.

Thanks for the feedback Froggie. Certainly is baffling whatever TTM is doing to some of us who have tested it. it is apparent to me the restores are not actually "complete" in the sense of an exact restore of the snapshot data. At least I know I am not the only one who TTM does not like.

Jim

 

Looks like it is generally not a good idea to have more than one software installed which uses some kind of tracking mechanism to monitor disk changes...

I used ToolWiz TimeMachine together with the latest Acronis True Image. I made full Acronis backups (hot and cold), and I excluded the TimeMachine cache file from the backups. Restoring these backups went fine both times. Since the cache file was not in the backup, of course all snapshots were lost, but this was what I expected.


Cheers
manolito