Introducing AX64 Time Machine - hybrid imaging/snapshot software

To Isso, I have some questions regarding merging. First, what happens to merged files that doesn't exist in newer snapshot? Even if deleted, do they take up space?

Second, I have this internal hard drive that's running out of space, and I want AX64 Time Machine to hourly backup to it. My external drive has plenty more space, but I don't want it on all the time (plus it's not encrypted). Therefore, which one of these scenarios will save the most space?:
1) Leaving the job to "Automatic Hourly Backup".
2) Merging everything into one image.
3) Deleting everything and recreating the image once a week.

I'm leaning towards #3, unless #1 uses the same or less space, or #3 causes errors compared to #2 (which takes forever). Exemplary product by the way.

 

Had a problem over the weekend, I'm afraid (version 1.1.0.972). Tried to restore and I waited over half an hour, the restore was still at 0% and the hard disk indicator wasn't flickering - there was literally nothing happening. I waited, but still nothing. After nearly an hour, the only way out was a reboot, and then my laptop wouldn't boot at all, so I had to do a factory reset .

I'm not sure if it was conflicting with another program as at the time I was trying out Forticlient, and it's the only thing that I had on my machine that I don't normally have on there (and probably won't be putting back now if there's a conflict).

The problem is that I am also unable to create the recovery disc at the moment, too, so I was stuck. I've restored from scratch and reinstalled AX64, and everything is working fine now (no Forticlient installed) - restores taking a minute or two at the most. Just thought I should report the problem.

 

mrfargoreed,

Why not? I'm curious. What happens?

 

Hi there,

Official stable version is 1.1.996. Are you using an old, old beta?

Best regards,

 

It's an issue that Isso is aware of - the recovery disc doesn't boot on my machine; I just get a black screen for several minutes and nothing happens.

I'm using the last beta because 1.1.996 gives me a warning message regarding GPT and am unable to use it, whereas the beta versions didn't give me the warning, and have worked perfectly up until now, that's what makes me think it might be a software incompatibility issue.

 

Isso wrote somewhere in here that one has currently to create the recovery media on a PC that has no special MBR. I don't know if it's the case for you here.

 

Something interesting has come up from a discussion over on the Rx forum. I know we are not supposed to directly quote posts from other forums but I will take a chance and do so anyway since the comment and my reply to it has implications for folks considering using AX64 & Rx together in a rather significant way.

http://horizondatasys-forum.com/rollback-rx/30343-rollback-snapshots-drive_cloner.html#post41973

My comment to the above

 

Hi Isso

In an earlier post you stated that the console message:

"External volume modification detected. Backup will take longer than usual"
was due to using a recovery environment.

Does this mean that every time you use any kind of Win PE3 recovery environment to access the hard drive, AX64 or Marium Reflect or even Win 7 Repair Disk, that AX64 Time Machine will take a long time to back up after that access?

Apart from not using the recovery environment is there any way round this?

Thanks

Terry

 

Isso, please see the post at http://horizondatasys-forum.com/rollback-rx/30343-rollback-snapshots-drive_cloner-2.html#post41993, as I said in that post I think that Froggies comment (which I quote there) should be on your website.

 

Thank you Easter, we are working mainly on EFI/GPT support at this moment. It's a hard nut to crack, but I believe we will meet our original deadlines.

Isso

 

Kent, Zero3K,

Thank you for reporting this bug, I've added it to the ticketing system, and we'll address it soon.

Isso

 

J_L,

Yes, at this moment the merging feature has a limitation, i.e. it doesn't cut the free space (i.e. deleted files). But we will fix it in one of the upcoming releases.

For your options:

1) Uses the most space, but provides with the longest backups date range
2) Uses the least space, however merging will take time, especially considering that we don't support merging multiple backups at once (we're going to add this option too)
3) This one is the easiest to maintain, but provides you only a week worth of backups.

Isso

 

mrfargoreed,

I'm so sorry to hear this. I'll see if we can reproduce this issue.
By the way, after you did a factory reset and installed AX64, were you able to restore your system to the backup that you were originally trying to restore?

By the way I think you can upgrade to the newest version. The GPT check is done only when you select your drive to backup. So unless you change the settings I think the new version should work (I haven't tried this though)

For recovery media - I'll write to you a PM in a moment.

Isso

 

bgoodman,

Thank you for the link, I just read that thread. I think some of my posts might confuse Rollback RX users, sorry. I'll include Froggie's excellent reply to the KB and place it first, so the users get the initial short overview before proceeding to Carfal's findings.

Isso

 

Hi Terry,

You are right, every time after you use a recovery environment AX64 will need to re-synchronize its backups that will take some time. The reason is following: in order to quickly save and restore the changed sectors, AX64 is constantly tracking them. When you boot into Recovery environment, you can make any change to the volume that is protected by AX64 and it will know nothing about those changes. As a result, if AX64 doesn't re-sync the backups, the next backups may become corrupted.

By the way Rollback RX is having the same problem, apparently that's why they are disabling Windows Recovery environment. However it doesn't protect them from a situation when the user boots from a CD/USB recovery media, or boots into alternative OS. In such case RBX snapshots may easily become corrupted.

That's why AX64 is detecting that the protected volume was modified externally, and "re-synchronizes" the backups to keep them valid.

Hope this makes sense,

Isso

 

Just a question about merge : there were several references to the possibility of merging backups. I don't see any command allowing to do so in the GUI. Is it possible, and how ?

Thanks.

 

When you manually delete a snapshot AX64 will automatically merge the deleted snaps data with the remaining snaps, most likely (I suspect) the one nearest to it. I have no idea how this bit of magic works buts thats my understanding of whats going on.

 

i see ppl saying " i am using ax64 beta" ... where can i get a beta to test it also ?

10x

 

Thanks, I am not sure on how to delete "manually" a snapshot, you mean from the GUI ? Sorry to be so hard to understand...

 

Hi Merleone

You go into the backup browser. Right click on the backup u want to delete. Then you are presented with a menu. Click on delete and your backup is deleted. Thereafter, you get an automatic merging of images.

Hope this helps

Terry

 

MerleOne,

Just open the Backup Browser and you'll see the corresponding button on the ribbon - Mount, Restore, Delete

Isso

 

Here's the beta: http://ax64.com/temp/SetupAXTM_1_972.exe

Isso

 

No, Isso, I was unable to restore. Each time I tried the restore would freeze.

Great stuff - thank you. I will install it now .

 

mrfargoreed,

Maybe we share a similar problem....

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=339999&page=69#1707

.... and previous posts.

 

Thanks also to TerryWood. I tried that, selecting an intermediate snapshot and, after a while, I got this error message : Merge error code C1000011 code 5.

What should I do now ? Thanks.

Edited : In particular, are the remaining snapshots still valid ? Should I delete the ones that were after the one supposedly deleted (I am not sure it was deleted, I didn't pay attention to the one I deleted).