Introducing AX64 Time Machine - hybrid imaging/snapshot software

Potential new user with a quick question. Will AX64 work if the drive is compressed under Windows 7?

 

Yes I realise that, but for whatever it did I could not get the drive to boot. All the repair options failed. It was easier to re install Windows so that at least I knew the boot structure was correct. Often the longest way is the quickest

 

I found where it said a new license would be needed to be purchased with a version change to continue getting updates. I have 1.2.1120, so does that mean when 2.x.xxx version comes out I need to purchase it to get updates? Also for updates do I just install over the top or what? Also for version change, over the top? Thanks

 

As for policy questions, I think Isso has to confirm renewal questions. So far I have done all my upgrades right over the top.

 

Thanks twl845, I will wait for Isso for the policy, no hurry. sly

 

fwiw, my destination partition has NTFS compression enabled, and for a while I suspected that might have been the reason for my initial backup trouble, but it worked fine in a VM with a compressed destination drive and also more recently I was able to make the backup without disabling NTFS compression.

 

Sly, I looked it up for you on the AX64 web site and found the upgrade info as you suspected:
License terms

The purchased software license is valid for life, there is no annual fee to pay. Customers who purchase the license are entitled to free minor upgrades. Major software upgrades (i.e. from version 1.x to 2.x) will be available to existing customers at a discount.

 

Thanks, I looked but I guess not good enough, thanks for your help. sly

 

But I would bet that you know someone with a PC so,,,,,,,,,,

 

I just thought an external drive would enable you to avoid the need to defrag the big drive/files. Would save you all the time you would need to put into making the current drive available for AX64.

 

Yes to all unless Isso tells you different regarding a particular upgrade (in rare cases it may be better to do a fresh install rather than on top of). Isso has mentioned that new major versions will require a new license but the license fee, he expects, will be discounted for existent license holders.

 

Hi bgoodman4, The license is valid for life. You will only pay for a major upgrade.

 

Hello, is Ax64 compatible with comodo sandbox virtualization? considering system wide virtualization is not compatible.
Thanks!

 

I believe that it is even compatible with system wide virtualization such as Deep Freeze but not Shadow Defender, which was posted a few pages back by a respectful member. This is from my memory only.

Best regards,


Mohamed

 

Hi Kelvin,

Here it is.

Best regards,

Mohamed

 

update on my drive diagnotic test: the extended test found no errors. i may still run HDD Regenerator at some convenient point (no hurry), but for now I assume the drive is fine and the earlier AX64 problem was either due to fragmentation of free space or something unknown.

but wouldn't I have to defrag the external drive too if fragmentation is a problem for AX64? if you are talking about buying a dedicated external drive for AX64 use only, then I could just as well re-partition my current 880 GB destination partition and chop a ~200 GB volume out of it for exclusive AX64 use. but all this is bit extreme at moment since I'm just trialing the software - not even sure yet that AX64 is better in terms of speed, reliability and convenience, than Drive Snapshot, which is my current default backup tool...

 

Hi pajenn

I am running AXTM with the target as a dedicated external HDD connected by eSATA, and have never had to defrag that (yet!). In fact, due to all the archived AXTM_YYMMDD_HHMM folders I have on it there is only 46Gb of free space and AXTM seems to be able to record its hourly incremental snaps with no issues...as far as I can tell.

Regards, Balders

 

Hello Balders,

The "...as far as I can tell" is exactly why the suggested "Verify integrity of backups" (http://feedback.ax64.com/forums/206.../4138520-verify-integrity-of-backups#comments) is such an important feature to integrate in AX64.

Happy trails,
defconnect

 

Very interesting result of successful restore with Recovery Media on a different HW/SW platform. This just goes to further strengthen what a killer-app AX64 is!
Of course you are right that due to the fast nature of AX64 the restore is as fast as a verify (or possibly faster, because verify should look at the whole chain), only an automatic verification without having to restore every individual snapshot would be handy, especially in the case of automatic hourly snaps.

 

Dearest Pete,

Thanks for testing and you hit the nail right on the head. With each successive version of Windows we got something new. With Windows Vista and Windows 7, we got BartPE and WinPE receptively. And, with Windows 8 we got WinRE.

The Recovery Media for the imaging programs was either a massive download (250+ GB) or if one needed to build their own Recovery Media, then one needed to download the 1.7GB WAIK to build WinPE.

The WinRE is built into Window 8. Thus, the Recovery Media, the WinRE can be build with just any imaging program without downloading the WADK or even WAIK. For earlier versions of Windows one has to insert the OS to build the WinRE.

Add to that the boot loader has become less prone to corruption with successive versions of Windows. With Windows 8 the corruption of boot loader has become non-existent. Not only that the ability to repair the computer, the Recovery Environment is built into Windows 8. One no longer needs the repair disc to repair the broken Windows and/or boot loader. Anyhow, one hardly requires that.

So, it makes more sense to have AX64 Console as bootmenu on startup. To have it on your fingertips while Windows is starting. In those rare cases, if the Windows and/or boot loader is broken, then one can build a Recovery Media from another computer to boot into AX64 Recovery Environment.

Can you do one more test for us? Can you please build your Recovery Media based on the Windows XP machine and boot into the Windows 7 machine?

Best regards,

Mohamed

 

Hi defconnect

You have taken me too literally...or I should have been more specific...re. what was advised, i.e., never had a problem with an AXTM image or snapshot.

I have nothing against such a feature and have used one for a number of years in other imaging apps...but I have NEVER come across a duff image...perhaps I am just lucky.

Cheers, Balders

 

Just wanted to make a comment about Faronic's Deep Freeze, which was talked about above. My experience does NOT mean that it incompatible with AXTM, quite frankly, I'm not too sure what to make of it.

On my first attempt to install AXTM, I uninstalled the two programs that I knew were incompatible but I decided to keep Deep Freeze on my machine. Before I installed AXTM, I has horrified to see that all of my external USB drives had disappeared, not showing up in My Computer. My USB printer and keyboard were still working but all of the external drives had vanished. I went into Disk Management and sure enough they were gone. Then I went into Devices but saw that they were there. I clicked on their properties and saw that their drivers were all Faronic (Deep Freeze) drivers.

Hmmmmm. On a hunch I uninstalled Deep Freeze and sure enough, all of my drives were back. Upon checking the Disk Management > Devices again, I saw that all drivers were now Microsoft. Somehow having Faronic drivers had hosed my external drives. But why did it wait until now to happen, I've been using DF for about 9 months? Did uninstalling those other two programs, ShadowProtect and Seagate's DiskWizard (older version of Acronis), have anything to do with it?

Who knows, but for the time being I am keeping DF off my system, I hardly ever used it anyway and I want nothing to interfere with my testing of AXTM.

I want to repeat that this has nothing to doing with any incompatibility, in fact, AXTM was not even on my system yet.

Acadia

 

isn't that what I said?