Introducing AX64 Time Machine - hybrid imaging/snapshot software

Ive been using ax64 for several weeks now,using SSD windows 8 and it has worked great,as they say it does what it says on the tin,my congratulations to ISSO for such a good program,thanks ISSO.

 

Hi guest please keep us updated with your results! its very interesting!

 

Hi Isso

I think that there is also the issue that on some systems (like mine) the automatic backup is much slower than the majority of other systems; based on yours & other users benchmarks when compared to what I am seeing). I believe that you have an idea as to why this is (but if not then I am happy to work with you and the team to see if we can find this). In the interim I am really using the product as an ATI replacement (which is great).

Personally, given that this only affects a minority of users (as far as I know) I think that the other issues raised/discussed are most probably more important, i.e., chkdsk issue, etc., and I suspect that resolving the speed issue mentioned my require a good deal of work, if at all possible.

Let me know if, as & when you are able to look at this and I will provide you with user feedback.

Regards


Balders

 

Hi Balders! Would you give us (the group) a good description of your system configuration and the software you run and maybe we can get some other eyes on this problem.

We need to know what else is running on this system (AVAS, RBrx?, anything that is "running" and may affect performance). We also need to know source and destination disk nomenclatures... what kind of disks, capacity, RPM speed, etc... actual disk model #s would be best. Are you saving snaps to same disk/different partition or separate disk, and where is the 2nd disk connected? How fast is your CPU (model # would help) and how much RAM is on the system. What your running OS?

One of the things I would like to know is when AXTM is backing up, with the TaskMgr fired up and you looking at the performance TAB, how much CPU (%) is being used in each processor (if a multi-thread or multi-core CPU) or in a single proc if that's what you have. In the same performance TAB, I would like to know what the available RAM memory for use is. I would also like you to look at the PROPERTIES/Details of the Baseline snap and tell me what the following are... Size, Date created, Date modified.

With some of this info we may be able to track some things down. Hope we can help.

 

Hi RB

Hope that you are well?

Thanks for the interest. I have sent a lot of this information to Isso already but will see if I can locate that. Having said that the remainder you are speaking about I am not very sure as to how to collect it. Would an export from the Windows System Information tool provide all of what you are asking for or please propose something else that may be better if you know of a suitable app?

And how would you like me to provide the information that I can get hold of?

Regards


Balders

 

Whilst awaiting a reply to my previous response I can provide the following.

Source = C:
Target = E:

C: Internal, connected by SATA3

Description Disk drive
Manufacturer (Standard disk drives)
Model ST3500418AS ATA Device
Bytes/Sector 512
Media Loaded Yes
Media Type Fixed hard disk
Partitions 2
SCSI Bus 1
SCSI Logical Unit 0
SCSI Port 3
SCSI Target ID 0
Sectors/Track 63
Size 465.76 GB (500,105,249,280 bytes)
Total Cylinders 60,801
Total Sectors 976,768,065
Total Tracks 15,504,255
Tracks/Cylinder 255
Partition Disk #0, Partition #0
Partition Size 100.00 MB (104,854,016 bytes)
Partition Starting Offset 1,048,576 bytes
Partition Disk #0, Partition #1
Partition Size 465.66 GB (500,000,879,104 bytes)
Partition Starting Offset 105,906,176 bytes

E: External, connected by eSATA

Manufacturer (Standard disk drives)
Model SAMSUNG HD502HJ SCSI Disk Device
Bytes/Sector 512
Media Loaded Yes
Media Type Fixed hard disk
Partitions 1
SCSI Bus 0
SCSI Logical Unit 0
SCSI Port 6
SCSI Target ID 0
Sectors/Track 63
Size 465.76 GB (500,105,249,280 bytes)
Total Cylinders 60,801
Total Sectors 976,768,065
Total Tracks 15,504,255
Tracks/Cylinder 255
Partition Disk #1, Partition #0
Partition Size 465.76 GB (500,104,691,712 bytes)
Partition Starting Offset 1,048,576 bytes

Different...see above for details

OS Name Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium
Version 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 Build 7601
Other OS Description Not Available
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name CYMRU
System Manufacturer System manufacturer
System Model System Product Name
System Type x64-based PC
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU 750 @ 2.67GHz, 2668 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date American Megatrends Inc. 0401, 26/03/2010
SMBIOS Version 2.6
Windows Directory C:\Windows
System Directory C:\Windows\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Locale United Kingdom
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "6.1.7601.17514"
User Name XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Time Zone GMT Daylight Time
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 4.00 GB
Total Physical Memory 3.99 GB
Available Physical Memory 2.33 GB
Total Virtual Memory 7.98 GB
Available Virtual Memory 5.10 GB
Page File Space 3.99 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys

Sent this info to Isso already so will need to see if I can dig it out.

Regards



Balders

 

Sorry if this has been asked and answered before, but I'd like to know where the snapshots are stored. My system partition, C:, is almost full and I have no easy way increase it (because it's a raid 0 system and I would have to recreate all virtual disks & partition, 2 TB data to move back and forth...).
Thanks.

 

Any other drives you have. USB drive, network drive, etc. It's better to not store snapshots on your source drive. Backing up the backup will create a blackhole that could potentially destroy the universe.

 

Hi RB

Information I sent to Isso a little while back re. performance when snapshot being taken.

DISK

At one stage there were 28 occurrences of the AXTMApp.exe image showing.

Read varied from 17,984,167 B/sec to 24,120,531 B/sec at peak
I/O Priority was Normal throughout
Response Time maxed out at 158 m/s
Write never seemed to go above 1,464 B/sec

CPU

20 - 27 threads
CPU 2-10
Average 2.34 - 8.87 with the higher values coming in the 50% - 100% part of the backup cycle

I firmly believe that it is not inherently AXTM that is the issue but my system & its configuration.

Hope that is what you are looking for?

Regards


Balders

 

Thanks,

When I mentioned the snapshots I meant the data used to revert the PC to a previous state, not the partition/disk imaging. Could you confirm it's still the case ? Thanks.

 

Hi Balders,

does this slow I/O speeds happen only with Ax64 or with other programs too?

The things that you should check are:
1) your security software (antivirus/hips). If you have an image uninstall them and perform 2-3 additional snapshots.
2)If the problem is not restricted only to AX64 it could be a problem with the sata controller driver. This can be easily fixed by uninstalling the device from the "device manager" interface and rebooting (= forces windows to "reinstall" the controller).
3) other programs that install similar drivers like imaging or ISR apps.

Panagiotis

 

Hi Balders,

I have noticed a slowdown if KAV/KIS is used as evidently everything is being scanned as back-ups are being generated. You need to add the AXTMApp.exe in the AXTM folder to KAV/KIS's exclusion list.

Also with WRSA, I have noticed that either the AXTMApp.exe or AXTMImageBrowser.exe in the AXTM folder (or sometimes both) are sometimes automatically added by WRSA to the Identity Shield protection list. If either of these has been added, change them from monitored protect to allow in WRSA's Identity Shield.

After checking both of the above, see if your speeds increase. HTH.....

 

Hi Puff

Thanks for the suggestions but in all cases...already done, and that since I first started as one of the AXTM alpha testers, many months ago.

Sadly, that did not help.

Regards


Balders

 

Hi Pandlouk

Thanks for the suggestions. As advised to Puff, re. 1, already done & catered for.

With regard to 2...I will try that as I have not done so previously and always have RB Rx available in case something goes wrong with that.

The only other imaging app I have installed is ATI Home 2013 (which ironically I am hoping to use AXTM to replace in terms of plain imaging) but from speaking with Isso neither of us think that is a problem as I have the Non Stop backup functionality disabled...but at a pinch I could uninstall it completely and image from the Recovery CD, i.e., cold image. Might try that if all else fails.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Regards


Balders

 

Hi Balders,

Sorry to hear... I try different security set-ups constantly and have images saved with different set-ups. In both of those cases, my speeds increased. I am sorry it was not a help to you but maybe someone with those set-ups will be helped if they too experience any slowdowns. I know with me KAV/KIS used a lot of CPU when AXTM was doing a back-up until I added the exclusion. Good luck as I am sure it will get figured out...

 

Hi Puff

Thanks. I am going to try another complete uninstall/reboot/re-install/check all exclusions...just to see if that helps and also to see if for some reason the install time that I have always experienced (takes 10-15 mins for the install process to complete) has improved. I may be paranoid but cannot help thinking that this is in some way linked to the slow snapshots...but cannot see how.

I am just glad for Isso that my troubles do not appear to be the case for the vast majority of AXTM users...he has got an awesome product there.

Regards


Balders

 

Hi Pandlouk

I have a question re. the above.

In Device Manager I am seeing entries under 'Storage Controllers', i.e., 'JMicron JMB36X Controller', and under 'IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers', i.e., 'ATA Channel 0' x 3, 'ATA Channel 1' x 3 plus other related to PCI IDE Controllers , which I am sure I can ignore.

But not sure which of the above to delete and get recreated by rebooting? I am assuming that it would be the 'JMicron JMB36X Controller' entry...but thought it best to check.

Would you be kind enough to advise?

Many thanks in anticipation.

Regards


Balders

 

You are welcome,

about 1. Hips components hook deep down in the OS and disabling them sometimes (most of the times) does not work. A complete uninstall (or disabling their drivers) is necessary for being sure that they do not interfere.

I did not know that you had RollbackRX installed. . How many snapshots do you have and how much free space? When was the last time that you uninstalled it and defraged your system.
RBRx adds an overhead in I/O operations of 4-6% (not much) but if the space is low and you have a lot of snapshots it can slow down your system. When it automatically defrags it's subsystem (it does it 1-4 times every hour) can impact greatly other I/O operations; and since AX64 uses VSS, everytime it takes a snapshot it creates a shadow volume that gets deleted after finishes and so on every hour. If you have small free space in RBRX (less than 20gb), AX64 automatic snapshots cause heavy fragmentation in RBRXs subsystem, RBRX defrags more often to overcome it, and as a result Ax64 snapshot speed gets slowed down.
RBRx and Ax64 are compatible but under certain circumstances having them both can make your system crawl.

Panagiotis

 

I had originally installed Ver. 1.967 and later upgraded to Ver. 1.996. I haven’t made a big deal out of using the software because I can’t create any rescue media, as I have GPT partitions on my Windows 8 machine.
I suddenly had a hard drive failure and the AXTM backup was the newest I had. I installed Windows 8 on another hard drive and then tried to install AX64 Ver. 1.996. 1.996 saw the GPT partitions and would not continue, saying GPT was not supported. I then installed Ver 1.967 and was immediately able to restore the AXTM backup to my hard drive. Everything seemed to work just perfectly. After everything was checked, I again upgraded to Ver. 1.996 and I’m using it more often now.
Although still concerned about not having a rescue media, I was able to recover by reinstalling the operating system, then AXTM.
Do I assume that Ver. 1.996 just automatically blocks any actions on a GPT disc, if it hasn’t yet created a backup – in this case, using Ver. 1.967? As I had a backup under 1.967, Ver. 1.996 now seems to backup and restore just fine – just no rescue media.
Thanks,
Chuck

 

First uninstall the "ATA Channels" and reboot. Most of the times it solves such problems.
Only then, if the above fails to fix the problem, uninstall the storage controller "JMicron JMB36X Controller" and reboot again.

Panagiotis

 

Another newbie question about AX64 : how fast is a snapshot restore, say for a recent PC having 40GB data on the system disk. Thanks.

 

Online restore = depends on how many sectors are changed and need to be restored (e.g how nuch data from the 40gb have moved around with defrag operations or have being overwritten by other files). On my systems it usually takes 12-30 seconds. (I use internal sata or e-sata disks to store the images).

Offline Restore= similar to other imaging apps

Panagiotis

 

Hi Pandlouk

I take your point about HIPS and have uninstalled KIS and tried AXTM...but no difference...which sort of backs up the discussions I have had with Isso re. this. I am convinced that KIS is have no abnormal impact on things.

In terms of RB Rx...as far as I am aware there are a number of other user who run both this and AXTM (Froggie is one I believe?) and none of them have, as far as I know, experienced the sort of speeds I have/am experiencing. Again, something that Isso has confirmed from his observations.

However, in response to your specific questions:

How many snapshots do you have?; never more than 36 - 40 at any one time.
How much free space?; currently 333GB
When was the last time that you uninstalled it/defraged?: 3rd March 2013

The RB Rx snapshot (taken every 2 hours) are as sprightly as ever; circa 5-8 secs.

I was not aware of what you say re. when it automatically defrags it's subsystem (it does it 1-4 times every hour), etc. So one option will be (one weekend when I have the time) to completely uninstall RB Rx, defrag, install AXTM...and see if that results in faster AXTM snapshots. However, given the free space I have on my source drive I suspect that this is not the main cause.

I still suspect a disk I/O issue re. the eSATA connection...and so my try mounting the 2nd drive internally and connecting it up via a 'proper' SATA3 connection.

Again, thanks for your help & suggestions.

Regards



Baldrick

 

OK, thanks. Will give it a try.

 

Thanks. Also, you mean AX64 is capable of online restore, that is restoring the system disk without rebooting from a recovery media, or without any reboot at all ?