Introducing AX64 Time Machine - hybrid imaging/snapshot software

Hi Pete,

Please see above Kit1cat post and my response to him too!

You don't need to make Recovery CD/DVD/USB and so forth. Just make it as your bootmenu with EasyBCD.

Best regards,

Mohamed

 

It would pay to keep a copy on usb/cd just in case the hard drive failed.

 

I am not sure what you mean by hard drive won't boot at all.

If it doesn't boot Windows, you can still boot into the bootmenu.

For boot failure, one can use Windows repair.

However, in case of hard drive failure one can make a flash drive (USB) from another computer and so forth.

But most of the time, one can recover from the bootmenu. Also, one can do COLD imaging and restores from the bootmenu.

I have found hardly any need for CD/DVD/USB, especially with new versions of the software being introduced at least on a monthly basis. It is too much wastage of resources.

Best regards,

Mohamed

 

Not a bad idea if one doesn't have a second computer on hand.

Best regards,

Mohamed

 

It is like having multiple OS on your system.

1. The first OS will be Windows.
2. The second OS will be AX64 Recovery Media.
3. The third OS will be Image for Windows Recovery Media.
4. The forth OS will be Macrium Reflect Recovery Media.
5. And, so forth.

Best regards,

Mohamed

P.S. Here is an screen shot!

 

Forgive me if this question has been addressed but 161 pages I hardly have time to go thru them all. I have Win 8 Pro using GPT and UEFI. If I click advanced under the restore option I have the options of Restore EFI partition,Restore Recovery partition,and Restore MSR partition. Do i want to check any of these? What would be a recovery partition? Like the ones the OEM manufacturers put on drive? Thanks for clearing this option for me.

 

normally just restore C drive would do. however if you have boot problems then restore all 4 partitions.


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Hi Pete,

It has sometimes happened to me that restoring the snapshot didn't work in Windows, it sits at some % and the system is frozen. In those occasions, I have restarted the computer and in the bootmenu chosen the AX64 Recovery. In the Recovery Mode, when I chose the snapshot I wanted, it did a full restore to that snapshot with the bootmenu remaining intact.

Yes, there might be sometimes where the boot loader is broken. In those rare cases, you one two choices:

1. First repair the boot loader.
2. Failing so, use a Recovery Flash Drive (USB) to recover to the image.

CD/DVD are obsoletes. In all my laptops, I have replaced the DVD Drive and with SSD (in DVD bay) as my primary drive with my the OS on the SSD. The original hard drive which came with my laptops, now serves me as a secondary drive.

Best regards,

Mohamed

 

Hi Pete,

If you have AX64 the Recovery Console during bootup as bootmenu, you have noting to lose but gain. For 99% of the time or more, you can boot into the AX64 Recovery Mode during bootup without a Recovery Media. However, for those 1% of the time or less do have a Recovery Media as CD/DVD/USB (flash drive) as an insurance.

However, I usually don't prepare the USB (flash drive) as an insurance. I do it when need be, then I create one on demand from one of my other computers.

Best regards,

Mohamed

 

quick update:

i was finally able to make the initial backup. the main thing i did was to defrag and consolidate free space, which took a full day and required me to move another 400 GB of files to external HDD or it would have taken weeks. the initial backup took about 30 minutes and produced a 65 GB image. i haven't tried incremental backups yet.

details:

AX64 replied to my support request and said the error meant there was a problem writing to the backup destination. they suggested i do a full disk check.

i did a regular disk check (no surface scan for bad sectors), and it found no errors. i will do a full surface scan with disk check or HDD Regenerator, but i know from experience that for a 1 TB disk such a scan can take many hours maybe more than a day during which time I cannot properly use my computer so it'll have to wait. or maybe I have to move any files i use in that drive temporarily to another partition.

i also defragged the target HDD to consolidate free space, something i've never done on it because it takes days. the fragmentation was about 90% according to some defraggers and it had no large blocks of free space remaining. the problem is that that type of defrag normally takes for days, so in the end i had to move about another 400 GB of data (including all videos, virtual machines, almost all big files) away from it to external HDD's and even then the defrag took over night - I have some very large files, like an 80 VHD on there which really choke up defraggers.

at first i tried to defrag it without moving those files, but after a whole day MyDefrag (data disk weekly defrag), which I was running with Windows offline was only about 1% through of stage 3 (and progessing super slowly), so I decided to cancel it and to clear up all the large files to external drives. then I used Auslogics Defrag, which defragged the remaining files (under 200 GB) in about 30 minutes, but its free space optimization took over night (about 8 hours, although I'm not sure when it finished as I was asleep).

In any case, either AX64 needs a non-fragmented destination drive, or my drive has bad sectors but AX64 just didn't run into those this time because there was so much more free space this time (I haven't moved my VM's and other files back to the destination partition yet).

 

I have had a computer since windows 95 and never used backup software because it looked to complicated, just used cd or flash drive to backup photos or text files. Came across your software and tried it on my old windows 7 32 bit and it was so easy I can not believe it. I just bought a 4 pc license for all my computers, as I get time. Just wanted to thank you for making a simple to use program. sly53

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter2150
What happens if the hard drive won't boot at all?

I am not sure what you mean by hard drive won't boot at all.

If it doesn't boot Windows, you can still boot into the bootmenu.

For boot failure, one can use Windows repair.

However, in case of hard drive failure one can make a flash drive (USB) from another computer and so forth.

But most of the time, one can recover from the bootmenu. Also, one can do COLD imaging and restores from the bootmenu.

I have found hardly any need for CD/DVD/USB, especially with new versions of the software being introduced at least on a monthly basis. It is too much wastage of resources.

Best regards,

Mohamed

@ Mohamed,

EasyBCD, i use a lot and one instance fully trashed my dual boot with win 7 and 8 and even the EasyBCD restore would not work. The bootloader and menu was fully trashed and Windows startup repair Disc was useless as this could not repair the problem, system restore was gone and safe mode could not be used because of the corruption. So my hard drive would not even boot past the post. "Im on a big panic!"

Now if you do not have a master disc, your in trouble and the only method was to go back to basics and use usb/dvd tool kits and repair and rebuild the boot loader in dos, which then stated i "no OS found" so i had to make the partitions active and you know the rest.

Im just saying dont rely too much on the bootmenu to save the day, when you get corruption because it wont if your system will not boot and if you have no tools on USB/DVD etc you will be stuffed.

 

How about just picking up a new drive (external?) and using it only as the AX64 destination drive?

 

BUT you could easily create the rescue media using a 2nd PC,,,,so you are not completely stuffed.

 

BUT you could easily create the rescue media using a 2nd PC,,,,so you are not completely stuffed

@bgoodman4,

yeah totally, but if you only have one, then likewise.

regards

Legacy

 

I had a similar problem with AX. It turned out my fairly new HD was faulty. Tried doing a surface scan but would take too long. In the end I downloaded the manufacturers test program and the quick test found it faulty in minutes. Can't guarantee it will be the same for you but might be worth a try.

 

Had the same problem with EasyBCD as you. After wasting a lot of time I ended up re installing Windows, then restoring an USB image. All the repair options were useless. Fortunately it does not take long to install Windows and you can mostly leave it to do its thing and take a break.

 

Hi Legacy,

Sorry to hear about your troubles. You are correct as a last resort one has to have an external Recovery Media. In those rare occasions, I usually create one on demand on a USB Flash Drive from one of my other PCs. After using it once, then I reformat the USB Flash Drive to use it with something else.

Best regards,

Mohamed

 

Hi Djg05,

What is EasyBCD?

It is nothing but an editor. It helps edit the entries in the BCD Store, basically editing the entries in the boot loader. Once the entries are edited, then EasyBCD is no longer needed nor it is resident.

Therefore, your problems had nothing to with a BCD editor called, "EasyBCD".

Best regards,

Mohamed

 

@ Aladdin,

sometimes when you reset and repair the bootloaders entries in Easybcd.
This can cause the corruption problem i faced as the restore entries had no effect.

Any how,we could all talk all night on bootloaders and Easybcd. lol

lets get back to the topic.

AX64

 

I prefer to use an internal drive because it's always available and more convenient, for now at least. But obviously if there is something wrong with the current drive then I'll have to buy a replacement.

 

Thanks. It's a Western Digital drive and they do offer a drive diagnostic utility. The quick scan came up clean, so I'm currently running their extended scan which takes 2-3 hours (estimate).