Introducing AX64 Time Machine - hybrid imaging/snapshot software

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

  1. Hadron

    Hadron Registered Member

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    I have to say that you guys are very persistent with this application.
    Will it ever come a time when you give up on it?

    I have given up on it a few times, then gone back to it hoping that it would be more reliable. :isay:
     
  2. ratchet

    ratchet Registered Member

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    From a technical standpoint I'm probably the least qualified here but I'll share my 2¢ anyway! Firstly, the more qualified posters can correct me but I don't know if you can do a Hot Restore from either of the two (pre boot or media) boot methods. What you can do is just restore from AX's Windows GUI. Select the snapshot you want to restore to>Restore tab>Advanced tab (lower left) in the Restore Wizard>select Hot Restore>OK (I think that is next) and again I think>Restore and it will start.
    I don't remember when v2 was first released but I tried it numerous times hoping it would resolve an issue with v1 and v2 not rendering Microsoft mouse cursor via the boot recovery environments. Works fine with other imaging programs! Anyway, when I realized a really low price for v2 might not be around I purchased it, even though I may never use it's feature set, but kept going back and forth from v1 (1.3.7 or 1.4.1 both were flawless) to v2 back to v1. I've been using v2 528 now for probably at least three months if not longer and my dozens of two minute or less Hot Restores have all been perfect.
    Now you need to understand my requirements are quite simple, essentially just use AX for quick snapshot restores, so I never encounter all of the issues described on here. I can also attest that it has zero conflicts with W7's own backup feature, Paragon or Macrium Reflect!
    One other minor point. Numerous posters mention that v1 Hot Restores are faster than v2 and the AX staff more or less claim that is impossible since they use the same engine. I honestly have never compared times but I will say this. I realize a snapshot/restoration depends on the size, but my manual snapshots with v1 were almost always under 30 seconds. With v2 they are almost always over 40 seconds. I've never timed restorations but I do know that either one can do it in around two minutes or less. The point is that those claiming v1 is faster may be correct but it's hardly worth a consideration. I don't even know if you can purchase v1 anymore.
     
  3. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    Yeah, I am one of those. I came back with 548, as my other solution didn't do that well on my new machine. So far excellent. I am now beating up on it on my testing desktop. No technical problems, but performance isn't always that good.

    Pete
     
  4. brihy1

    brihy1 Registered Member

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    I opened up time machine gui and did a hot restore,20 minutes later it was at 14% complete?I booted up with the rescue disk and it took over 25 minutes to restore?Wheres the speed of a snapshot program?This program claims to be a snapshot program like rollback rx,i dont see anything like that.To me its nothing more than a imaging program and i already have macrium for that.AGAIN wheres the seconds to minutes restoreo_Oo_Oo_Oo_Oo_Oo_O??
     
  5. ratchet

    ratchet Registered Member

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    If you took a baseline image and then restored it's going to restore the whole baseline. Do this: make sure you have a baseline; go online for a few minutes; make a new folder on the desktop and do some other things; then take a snapshot; then play some more and delete the new folder; restore. If it takes 20 minutes I have no clue because it should take 2 minutes and the test folder should be back!
     
  6. manolito

    manolito Registered Member

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    No, not if you do a HOT or WARM restore. In these cases only the changes will be restored, not the whole baseline image. If this takes 20 minutes, something with the software is terribly wrong...

    Cheers
    manolito
     
  7. brihy1

    brihy1 Registered Member

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    I took a baseline and then took 2 incrementals and store them on a external drive.When i restore this laptop to either one of those incrementals it is taking over 20 minutes to restore?So im guessing something is wrong?
     
  8. TheRollbackFrog

    TheRollbackFrog Imaging Specialist

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    Brihy1... (2) questions. How long did the snapshots take and exactly how are you doing the restoration (steps, pls)?

    Edit: Actually (4) questions :oops:... what's the speed of your external device (USB2, USB3, eSATA, etc.) and what is the device itself?
     
  9. brihy1

    brihy1 Registered Member

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    The baseline backup I think 40 minutes(maybe longer) to take-incrementals 10-15 minutes If I remember correctly.

    To restore I opened up ax64 gui-browse&recover-right click incremental backup –advanced-hot restore-after a few seconds it would go to a cmd line interface and show a % of the restore-after 20 minutes it was at 14%

    Also tried from ax64 rescue disk and it took over 25 minutes to restore

    My external device is Seagate freeagent goflex(1 tb),I have no idea about the speed
     
    Last edited: Dec 14, 2014
  10. TheRollbackFrog

    TheRollbackFrog Imaging Specialist

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    Brihy1, first of all, this is an imager that restores to a snapshot in a unique way as compared to other imagers. Using other imagers to restore to a snapshot causes the imager to completely reload its baseline followed by applying each incremenal until its reached your designated status. AX64 only restores (HOT or WARM) the differences between where the LIVE system is and the snapshot selected for restoration... this is way less restored data than the normal imager.

    Having said that, there is no way an imaging snapshot program can restore to the previous snapshot in less time than it takes to record that snapshot. Your snapshot imaging time was appx. 15-min. so going back 1-snap would be very close to that time... going back more snaps would add some additional time although not necessarily the equivalent time as both snaps took to take.

    The other item is... in all the production releases to date (Build #528 is the latest), a "soft" problem exists on some systems that causes HOT restores to hang, which sounds like that's what's happening to you. That's the main reason WARM restore was developed in v2 (WARM restore is the DEFAULT for v2... no messing with ADVANCED settings). WARM restore is supposed to be a SAFE (no soft HANGs as in HOT restores) method for restoration, taking a few more "seconds" (45-sec to 1-min to BOOT into restore mode).

    ...and, having said all that, you may want to try the current BETA release (Build #548) which supposedly has finally fixed the HOT restore (HOT is the DEFAULT for Build #548..)

    ...and I have to repeat, this snapshot program is nothing like Rollback RX in either its speed or its method of preserving snapshots... two totally different beasts.
     
  11. brihy1

    brihy1 Registered Member

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    This is taken from ax64 website:Speed: the snapshots and rollbacks with Rollback RX normally take only 3-5 sec, while AX64 takes 10-40 sec to do the same.Im not even close to those speeds?This is the main reason i got this program.
    • Can you tell me what is a warm restore?
    • The hot restore is done while in windows correct?
    Dont get me wrong i like the program but im trying to figure out why my restores are taking so long when the program is supposed to restore in seconds to minutes?

    I appreciate all the help
     
  12. TheRollbackFrog

    TheRollbackFrog Imaging Specialist

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    The program, regardless of its claims, cannot do what you describe... unless you are taking snaps, from an SSD, and storing them to an SSD. It is, basically, an imaging program... and you can't do speed miracles with imaging. I regularly do snapshots (HOT) in 30-45 sec. but that happens only when the snap is close to the last snap and my protected volume is an SSD and my storage volume is a 7200-rpm SATA-based disk... you'll never get that with a USB-based disk, especially USB2. That's even tough to get with USB3 under Windows 8.1.x with all of Microsoft's buggy USB3 drivers. If a lot of time passes between snapshots, a large snapshot will result (especially if you're defragging the protected disk), even after just Windows housekeeping type of activities (750mB-1gB per day).

    The reason the production version has a WARM restore is because on some system configurations, other task activity (security apps, special drivers among others) sometimes causes AXTM to HANG while doing a HOT restore. During a WARM restore, AXTM BOOTs into a WinRE configuration (Windows Repair mode) which doesn't have any of those external interferences that are found during a HOT restore in LIVE Windows mode. This allows their HOT restore to function without any external anomalies. To do this, AXTM has to BOOT into that WinRE environment which takes almost a minute to do. Otherwise it's the same restore as the HOT type.

    Yes, the HOT restore is done while running under LIVE Windows only. You might wanna try the BETA mentioned above... just make sure your system is protected by another means... just in case.

    Edit: and if that external disk you're using is a USB2-based GoFlex... your restorations will indeed be pretty slow.
     
  13. brihy1

    brihy1 Registered Member

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    Ok thanks for the explanation,the help was much appreciated
     
  14. TheRollbackFrog

    TheRollbackFrog Imaging Specialist

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    You're very welcome!
     
  15. taotoo

    taotoo Registered Member

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    What is the backup size of the incrementals that take 10-15 minutes? Unless those incrementals are many gigabytes each, then something isn't working right.
     
  16. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    Not necessarily. TM might be rebuilding the tracking file, in which case it takes time, but the incremental size may be small
     
  17. taotoo

    taotoo Registered Member

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    Maybe, but if it's consistently rebuilding the tracking file then that itself isn't right.
     
  18. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    One way to test. Build an incremental. Add a picture to the desktop or something like that and then take another incremental. It should be fast.

    Pete
     
  19. Chamlin

    Chamlin Registered Member

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    Froggie, Pete, all,

    1. When is it advisable to include the Restore MBR in a restore?
    2. Under what conditions would you use Full Image Recovery?
     
  20. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    Since I have nothing unusal in the mbr, i usually don't bother with it.

    I saw under 548, in many cases the hot restore ended up a full restore. I use it if I am not sure of hot restore
     
    Last edited: Dec 15, 2014
  21. SanyaIV

    SanyaIV Registered Member

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    I'm guessing MBR restore would be needed for bare metal restore? Would AX64 (the beta with bare metal restore) recognize that by default or does one have to enable it specifically when restoring to a completely new drive?
     
  22. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    You probably would have to enable it.

    Pete
     
  23. bgoodman4

    bgoodman4 Registered Member

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    If you think you might have some malware that could have affected the MBR then it would obviously be appropriate to restore it.
     
  24. SanyaIV

    SanyaIV Registered Member

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    So in version 8 of Comodo Internet Security it has a thing where it writes ADS data to files and hence changes the modified date; would this interfere with AX64? Perhaps making the snaps larger or could even perhaps cause corruption? I really don't understand how all of that works, just trying to figure out if the ADS issue will affect my usage with AX64?

    I'm asking this question here rather than on the Comodo forum because I think you'd know better what would interfere with AX64, hope that's okay.
     
  25. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    Shades of the Kaspersky mess when they did something similiar. I would stay away. Will it affect AX64, I don't know. If no one else has the answer it may be trial and error.

    Pete
     
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