After many years using Paragon Harddisk Management Suite, I left them and purchased Macrium Reflect. Can only say: perfect! Admittedly, Paragon includes harddisk management tools, in the area of partitioning and wiping. Wiping: there are a number of other (often free) tools for file wiping Partitioning: one might try using MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition 9 Reason for the change is Paragon blockdevicemounter stuff (see: http://goo.gl/o516Wz) as well as their UIM-drivers problems (see: http://goo.gl/fsOMby) causing BSOD once in a while. After uninstalling Paragon these UIM drivers remained on scattered all over on the C-drive and in the registry. It took a while to get rid of them. Am using Macrium Reflect v6 now, outstanding! == http://imageshack.com/a/img538/4764/EBKFig.png == http://imageshack.com/a/img905/1116/871sBJ.png ===
I would prefer, if I could safely get it, all files backed up as they changed but I can live with losing 1 hours work max,,,,,,, ,,,,I went from Roxio GoBack, every change on the drive was recorded as they happened and restores were relatively fast, to RollBack Rx, a snap every hour and very fast manual snapshot creation as well as very fast restores, to AX64, a snap every hour and fast snapshot creation and fast restores. Now I have MR 6 and am using it to create a snap daily. If all I wanted was some files backed up as I hit save then I would use a file sync program. (I have 12 Ghosts Backup for this by the way ,,,,,, it is not practical to sync every data file on the C: drive.) Besides, this is not what I want. I want all files protected (system and data) in at at least 1 hour increments. And, in addition, if I am testing a program, or if I decide to open a suspect e-mail (or whatever) because I think it may have come from a client but am not sure, I want to be able to quickly create a snapshot (this function was available with GoBack, by default, and both Rx and AX64 on demand). Yes, I could separate my data and my system to 2 different partitions but I am using a laptop as my main work PC and do not want to do this at this time. This is why I am using AX64 and MR6 together.
Ever looked at SyncBackPro? http://www.2brightsparks.com/syncback/compare.html Is this the option you are looking for? Guess a little off-topic as it has nothing to do with Macrium http://imageshack.com/a/img909/7926/jQKzhN.png
Hi Barry I suspect the length of time your backups take must be a function of your disk configuration. My c: drive is currently 125gb. For me to do a full image takes 14 minutes. But that is to another internal drive. If I go to a USB 3.0 drive on a 3.0 port, it adds about 2 minutes. My incrementals which are hourly take something less then a minute. Pete
Thanks for the suggestion I will take a look at the program. Does it have quick snap and quick restore capability? I thought only AXTM and MR6 had these in terms of imaging programs.
Hi Peter, I guess it must be but I have no idea as to what or why. The odd thing, as noted previously, is that AX64 is using the same external drive, in the same port, and its baseline and snap creation is considerably faster than MRs. When I did the comparisons for the time difference all of my data (and system related files) were on the c: drive so the amount of data, both in terms of baseline and incrementals was more or less the same. AX64 was just under 300% faster for baseline creation. I will have to test again when I get a chance but I do find this very odd.
Morning BG! SyncBackPro (Bvckup2, etc) are file synchronizers, not imagers... they deal on the file level for syncing/replication/etc. of selected files/folders.
I have been wrong about manual snaps in MR6. I just ran one again having had my daily incremental run a few hours ago and no activity on the PC (I was asleep) and while at the beginning the MR interface indicated at that the process would take over an hour, which after about 30 seconds dropped to 17 min, the actual snap took 2 min 19 sec to complete. This is the first time I have let one of these go to completion. When I saw the longer times in the past I just canceled the operation not wanting to wait the indicated time. The baseline times I reported are correct though, AX64 1 hr 15 min vrs 3 hours for MR.
The topic of image frequency is one I am wrestling with myself. First I don't partition my c: drive. Everything is there including "data". But let me define "data". It isn't video or audio files, those reside on one of my two other internal drives. Loss of them would only be a nuisance. My "data" is all the files for my business, such as Access data bases, Outlook, Quickbooks data etc. When I was using Shadowprotect Continuous Incrementals I was in fact doing 15 minute incrementals. I have tested recently and my logic was flawed. I had at one point tested to see what happened if a machine crashed. I tested this by opening access, making a change to the data, and then before closing access crashing the machine by doing a power reset. WHen the machine came up, all the changes to access( and in fact quickbooks) were intact. So I assumed the backup captured the change also. A recent test proved that false. Even though the data is seemingly updated, none of the imaging programs catch the changes until the program has first been closed. They just backed up the file as it was before it was opened. This was true of all the imaging programs, as well as sync programs. Then I checked with the person who assists me with a lot of admin stuff, and she said she didn't see the need. So are hourly incrementals necessary. I don't know. Only that they don't impact my system. As to having a long incremental chain. Time wise my test showed a 30 incremental chain didn't add a significant amount of time. As to a chain failure for me not a big deal. I can always restore an old image, and get current with Raxco's IR. Pete
Peter, 12 Ghosts Backup does its versioning according to a preselected schedule,,,every 5 min or (I think) less if you prefer. In addition, and this is a nice feature, 12 G has something called Hyper Backup. It will merge snaps at a predetermined rate so you do not wind up using a lot of space for file versions. Perhaps this would be a good program for you. As to whats the right number of images/snaps, thats a very personal thing. I have worked out a regime that works for me, that is, I am comfortable with it in terms of security of system and data. To be honest I was most comfortable (though a bit naive) with Roxio GoBack, it had its shortcoming for sure but I felt protected. When I went to hourly snaps with Rx I was unhappy that I might have to redo as much as an hours worth of work so I bought Shadowprotect for the continuous incrementals but it never worked well for me (I did not take the time to learn to set things up properly I think) so I just had to learn to live with the hourly exposure. Over time I have grown comfortable with hourly snaps with my most important files protected via 12 G. I had hoped MR6 would replace AX64 but it has not at this time. In the future I will likely try an Incrementals Forever backup chain an then, if AXTM has not resurfaced with a reliable solution by then, perhaps I will use MR for all my backup needs (other than my weekly full images that rotate off site). Pete, if you are interested in 12G check it out here, http://12ghosts.com/ghosts/backup.htm The following is from the publishers website Windows 8 version available here http://12ghosts-backup.windows8compatible.com/
Hi Pete! I understand your need and probably why QuickBooks and Outlook act as they do until closed (made consistent), but I sure don't understand ACCESS. Serious database programs written for Windows are constructed to act as "VSS Writers." That means they declare themselves as such so that when Windows wants to set up a VSS snapshot, it sends out a handshake to ask the declared writers to make their databases consistent before it issues the VSS lock. If it hears back from all the declared writers that they are now consistent, it issues the system lock and allows the lock requester to have at it as far as the VSS shadow copy is concerned. If it doesn't hear back from all the declared writers, it eventually times out and issues the lock... to bad for those who didn't respond. ACCESS is an important MicroSloth database product, and as such I would expect it to honor the VSS writers code and make its database consistent then respond accordingly to Windows... and in fact, I believe it is (they couldn't be that stupid to make it incompatible with VSS, their own product). I'm not sure about Quickbooks, but it's been around long enough to know all about being a VSS writer and act accordingly. If it doesn't, it's a very week (although popular) system. Outlook doesn't have a chance... I know it can't act as a VSS writer but in 2013 at least (something similar should be available in earlier versions) there is an AutoArchive setting that allows Outlook, while its open, to periodically archive all your important stuff. I'm sure this could be set to make your archive file pretty "consistent" from time to time. These kinds of snapshot decisions are tough to make as far as important data is concerned. In my case, those types of data are handled not by imagers but by replicators... allowing the most important data to be replicated upon change and the lesser items to be handled "periodically." This of course does not solve non-VSS writer problems but does (depending on product selected) use VSS if you'd like them to. Definitely no one-size-fits-all in this arena
Hi Froggie Access does honor VSS writers, it's just the imaging programs capture the file as it was when it was opened. It is backup up, but doesn't include the changes. I may retest. Pete
I'm surprised. It should be emptying its caches and updating its file-based database as soon as it receives that request from Windows to issue a VSS lock. If it does this correctly, then the locked file system (and granted to Macrium, for example) should include a fully updated database at that point in time.
@Froggie Yeah, I am kinda surprised also, but doesn't seem to be the case. @Barry I just tested 12 ghosts. Didn't capture the changes with the file open either. Also as a test, before installing 12 ghosts, I a) took a macrium incremental, and also updated my IR archive. After testing 12ghosts, I decided to roll back with IR instead of a restore. It worked fine, but.... The next incremental with AX64 would have taken the time of the full image as it had to repair the tracking file. Same would have been true with SP's continuous incrementals. But I took another incremental with Macrium and the time was 45 seconds. That is huge. Pete
Sorry to hear about this with 12 G. I really thought it would do the job. Perhaps an e-mail to the developer would shed some light. Re the AX64 tracking file issue: I would suggest that because you rolled back with IR AX64s tracking file was compromised. If you had rolled back with AX instead it would not have had to rebuild the tracking file. Out of curiosity are you using AX64 (V1) or AXTM (V2), not that that would make a diff in this situation, just curious.
I tested with both, didn't matter. Point is there are problems with Perfect Disk, other roll back solutions that all cause problems with the tracking files, that don't cause any problem for MR. I am going to check on this VSS thing with a good source I have.
Barry, In the laptop, where are the backups being written? Same HD as the OS, second HD or external HD?
External drive,,,, when I travel or am out I TRY to plug in the external drive each time I use the PC but am not always able to do so. When at home the external drive is always plugged in so AX64 & Macrium can do their jobs. I also keep my music files on the external drive.
i tried 12 ghosts and had issues with it. i never found it to be a product i would 100% trust my backups to. MR i feel i can trust (i still do use 2 backup solutions but if i only could use just one macrium would be in my top 3)
I meant to say that if you only backup to a single physical location, such as to a different partition on the same disk, then once the disk is gone, your original and backup are both gone, no matter how often you backup your files. That's why I mentioned multiple HDDs. Therefore my most important files (normally word docs and excel files) are with dropbox. Yeah that statement reads a bit confusing.
At the suggestion of the person I queried on another forum, it was suggested I test some other programs. So what I did was opened several programs make some changes and then leaving the programs open took an incremental image. Then I reset the system with Instant recovery so everything was back to normal. Then I restored the image. The fails were programs where the data files were back in the condition prior to starting These included, Excel,Word, and Adobe Acrobat. The passes were programs whose data was in the condition when imaged. These were Outlook 2010 and Quickbooks Pro 2014 Go figure. Pete
