Introducing AX64 Time Machine - hybrid imaging/snapshot software

Now that you mention this, I get that message every time I reboot my desktop machine. And I don't have anything else writing to my boot drive.

 

Zero3K,

Do you run the program on Windows 8? If so, this is a known problem and we'll release the fix in 1-2 days. If not, please send to me (info@ax64.com) the logs by clicking on the top left corner of the program, selecting About, then Collect Logs. Thank you

For using it as a security program - when doing online (fast) restore AXTM has approximately the same security as RollbackRX eta, which in some cases is not enough (for example TDL4 rootkit bypasses both). But, in contrast to RollbackRX, AXTM has offline restore feature (using Recovery Media), which will for sure kill any malware.
My recommendation is - don't trust any program that doesn't use separate recovery environment and claims it protects the PC from malware. All of them can potentially be bypassed. When using AXTM, if you think you have a virus/rootkit, restore the drive using Recovery media.

Isso

 

Indeed, my desktop is on Win8. Not my laptop which doesn't show that symptom so I guess I'm hitting that known issue.

 

Scoobs72,

Thank you for the information, I'll try to reproduce this problem and be back.

Isso

 

Yes Marc I remember you have Win 8, please upgrade when we release the new version (1-2 days from now).

Isso

 

I'm running it on Windows 7. I sent the logs that should help figure out the problem.

 

Thank you, I've looked through the logs and I can see that the volume had been indeed mounted in a alternative environment. If you don't have a multiboot system, that might happen if you boot from any type of recovery CD, or if you use the Windows recovery environment. Do you by any chance remember if you have used any of these between 12:00 and midnight yesterday?

Isso

 

I used the USB stick that I put the Recovery Environment on to see how it looked.

 

Oh, ok. Then that message is normal and it shouldn't repeat again. The reason is that AXTM is tracking the changes to the volume in realtime. And if the volume is modified in any alternative environment, then that tracking data cannot be trusted, so the program spends some time to reveal the real changes, in order to prevent incremental backup corruption.

Isso

 

By the way if you did a restore using the AXTM recovery environment (rather than just booting into it), you woudn't get that message.

Isso

 

I didn't do anything in the Recovery Environment. I just looked through the backups that were made and then exited it.

 

It doesn't really matter, because as soon as the system mounts the volume, it already gets modified.

 

I have some questions and some suggestions:

1. Will it work when restoring to a new HD/SSD that's the same size or larger than the previous one?

2. How do you unmount a mounted backup? (I had to uninstall the mounted image using Device Manager)

3. It should have a wizard made that is used in place of the Backup Browser in the Recovery Environment.

4. It should write what it does to the Event Log.

 

Zero3K,

Thank you for suggestions. My answers:

1. Yes it will
2. As soon as you mount a backup you'll see a button "Unmount" on the right side of "View backups" button. Upon pressing on it there will be a menu with all mounted drives - choose any to unmount
3. Could you please explain what steps do you see in the Wizard? Normally wizards are used for operations that involve multiple steps, while Browser operations are mostly single step.
4. Good idea, thank you. Added to future development list.

Isso

 

3. Basically, a wizard that asks if you want to backup from/restore to a drive and what drive/snapshots to be backed up/restored.

 

I see, thank you. What you describe is mostly what other imaging software offer. I had other principles in mind when creating this program (to make it very simple to use):

User selects source or destination drives only once at first use. Afterwards, for backup you simply press Make Backup button. For restore - you select the point in time and press Restore button. That's it.
As you can see there is no real need for a wizard, because you basically need a click to make a backup and another two to restore.

However later, when we release a Pro version of the program, we'll include more options, and at that point in time the wizard will become quite handy. Hope this makes sense.

Isso

 

Why is that? Also, I just noticed that is CPU usage when backing up/etc is usually 40% or more. Maybe it could be reduced or be set to be at the Idle priority.

 

That's how the file system driver works. As soon as it mounts the volume it makes changes to a number of file system metadata files.

For CPU usage - changing the priority doesn't reduce the CPU usage, it just gives the priority to other CPU users if there is any. CPU usage can be reduced by introducing delays to the operation, but that will increase the backup time.

Isso

 

I know that the Idle priority doesn't reduce CPU usage. I just want my computer to be useable when its backing up, etc while viewing a flash based media(s) in a web browser such as Opera.

 

I see. Right now the priority is already set low. So we should find another method to make other programs more responsive, I'll think about it.

Isso

 

When I look at the priority of "AXTMApp.exe" via Task manager, its shown as being in Normal priority, not Low.

 

That's the Process priority. There is also such term as Thread priority. The backup Thread(s) have low priority.

 

Maybe lowering the process priority will help. It seems to have done so for me.

 

In theory it shouldn't really matter, but if you think it helped I'll do more tests to check it, thank you for the hint.

Isso

 

im testing this software and look great good job, just one question how do i select my nas as default backup storage?

thanks in advanced