Introducing AX64 Time Machine - hybrid imaging/snapshot software

Discussion in 'backup, imaging & disk mgmt' started by Isso, Jan 18, 2013.

  1. Acadia

    Acadia Registered Member

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    Whoa!! Now THAT is impressive. :cool:

    Acadia
     
  2. Scoobs72

    Scoobs72 Registered Member

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    Just had a horrible experience after upgrading to 1.3.7. The install went fine and prompted for reboot. However, upon rebooting Windows would no longer load, BSOD'ing part way through.

    I managed to capture the stop error: 0x0000007B (0x80786B50, 0xC0000034, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)

    My attempt to restore using my last Ax64 backup also went awry. I located the backup folder on my NAS after mapping the network drive, however AX64 would not restore the C: image back to C:. It restored it as the non-bootable D: drive. I suspect I did something fairly basic wrong, but I'm not clear what it was.

    Anyhow, after then trying a start-up repair (which failed), followed by Safe-mode (which also failed), Last Known Good Configuration finally worked.

    Any insight/assistance in resolving the two issues above (upgrading to the new version and restoring C: successfully) would be appreciated.

    Thx

    Edit: I should add, I'm not necessarily blaming AX64 for the BSOD - other 'stuff' had been done to my computer between the reboots that may have caused the BSOD. I'm more concerned about why I couldn't restore my backup.
     
    Last edited: Nov 7, 2013
  3. Isso

    Isso Developer

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    Hi Scoobs,

    Sorry to hear it. The BSOD code basically means that the disk drive or some of the storage drivers failed. In such cases normally Last Known Configuration works.

    I'm not sure what might be the problem, sorry. Could you please collect the logs and file a ticket to help me?

    For restoring to D: drive instead of C: - this is not a bug, the thing is that in Recovery Environment the drives may have different letters. So your C: drive appears like D: and it's normal. Generally if AX64 doesn't warn you that it can't find the original drive, then you can safely ignore the letter and proceed.

    Isso
     
  4. Baldrick

    Baldrick Registered Member

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    Hi All

    Further quick update on v1.0.3.7...have been testing the hot restore with all security apps running (previously switching them off at the time of restore), in my case WSA Complete & KIS 2104(c)...and not only is the hot restore much faster but it now appears to work much more reliably, i.e. not freeze.

    It is still early days in the testing cycle...but so far things are looking good...and that is great news.

    Again, well done Isso.

    Regards, and respect


    Baldrick
     
  5. SpotOn

    SpotOn Registered Member

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    Hey Isso,

    Quick question. Did you ever resolve the "Dual OS" bug that corrupted backups? That issue is a BIG deal-breaker for me.:( I boot into multiple OS's frequently and "re-establishing a NEW baseline" everytime I switch would be intolerable. Other backup software I've tested/used seem to have no problem with this issue... creating "normal" increments/differentials after baseline is established when switching.

    Really hope you can resolve this because I really like the other parts of the program!

    G-Luck!
     
  6. Scoobs72

    Scoobs72 Registered Member

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    Hi Isso, thanks for the response. I'll collect the logs and send them in. With regard to the C versus D drive issue, when the restore had completed and the PC rebooted out of the recovery console, it continued to BSOD during boot up. Are you saying that even though the console showed the restore being made to D: it was actually restored to C: ?

    Thx
     
  7. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    I have a question for all.

    Is anyone running on a machine that has Nvidia Raid 0 on board. If so do you know what chip set it is using.

    Pete
     
  8. Uffbros

    Uffbros Registered Member

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    Surely someone has an answer to this simple questiono_O?
     
  9. MarcP

    MarcP Registered Member

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    You don't happen to also have RollbackRX installed, do you?
     
  10. Stigg

    Stigg Registered Member

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    aladdin said yes.
    But if you are using Windows 8.1, you have to create the ISO on a previous version of Windows and transfer it until they fix the bug for Windows 8.1.

    Follow the discussion on this page.
     
  11. pandlouk

    pandlouk Registered Member

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    Isso and team congrats for the merge.

    The thread is impossible to follow if one misses for a few days and since I did not follow the development the last 5-6 weeks I do not even remember the last post at the time.

    Can someone point me to the latest build and what it fixes? (It could take lots of hours to read all these posts.

    ps. Maybe is time to close it and start 2-3 new threads?
    1 for the updates
    1 for problems/bugs/incompatibilities
    1 for general chatting about the program

    Thanks,
    Panagiotis
     
  12. Acadia

    Acadia Registered Member

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    pandlouk, see Isso's post number 5426.

    Acadia
     
  13. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    Not a good idea.

    Pete
     
  14. EASTER

    EASTER Registered Member

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    This tuned up release is nothing short of spectacular over here. I'm well pleased our fellow 8.1 members also now have for the most part their issues addressed with the possible exception now of Recovery Media missing the 2 omitted files courtesy Micro poop. Isso is sure having to scoop up after those MS changes but all in all and overall, we have a real Champion for the people in him. My sincere gratitude.

    I know this was already fully discussed before but i have a membership question guys. What in your opinions would you do to make full use of this program taken you have a new external drive of 2 TB capacity? Would it be better to assign a series of AX64 backup folders to dock snaps and baselines in or settle for a couple of them only to fill with the chain of say storage A and storage B and let them fill with a reasonable load of incrementals + baseline?

    In essence what i'm getting at is exactly how long can i let the links of this chain stretch before beginning to prune the oldest ones in the string of them. I mean is there any chance of losing reasonable time ratio the farther out that i add to them?

    Thanks in advanced

    Regards EASTER
     
  15. zfactor

    zfactor Registered Member

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    working well here. have no issues with building media. i uninstalled .45 and installed this new one. works great
     
  16. aladdin

    aladdin Registered Member

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    Dear Uffbros,

    Yes, you can.

    You can use EasyBCD on any program that can make WinPE/WinRE ISO, such as imaging programs, partition programs and/or virus programs. However, if you don't have access to more than one computer, than you should make a Boot CD or USB for rainy days, just in case your hard drive ever fails and/or your BCD Store gets corrupt. This CD or USB is only needed in dire emergency as on a regular basis you will have AX64 as bootmenu.

    Best regards,

    Mohamed
     
  17. aladdin

    aladdin Registered Member

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    Dear Panagiotis,

    Welcome back. Since these last few weeks nothing much has happened, only AX64 and RealCopy have merged into one company, but they will maintain two separate programs. Due to this merger discussions, no new version has come out as they were busy with merger.

    The last good stable version is v1120. Before the merger there were v1137 and v1145 were out as beta release but these were supposed to address some specific areas. When Windows 8.1 came out, none of these versions worked and people had BSOD. The latest beta v1.3.7 is to address this BSOD with Windows 8.1.

    The latest beta 1.3.7 works fine on Windows 8.1. However, no one is able to create "Recovery Media" on Windows 8.1.

    Best regards,

    Mohamed
     
  18. michaelwileman

    michaelwileman Registered Member

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    Hi ISSO,
    Its an update from Win 8 through Windows Store.
    I stated i did recovery media on a USB Stick,no problem,seeing the problem people are having burning a CD thought i would try it,i do get error 31,but apart from that all running great.
    When i first upgrade to 8.1 lots of programs would not run,so i did fresh install of Windows 8,put all updates on then upgraded to Windows 8.1 then installed my programs they all then run so 1.3.0.7 was also a fresh install,hope this helps.
     
    Last edited: Nov 8, 2013
  19. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    Hi Isso

    Had my first hot restore failure. It was on my intel raid 0 machine.

    The restore went to 46% and the the system rebooted. Unlike in the past it actually came up and seemed fine. I had deleted a directory of MP3 files and they were back.

    But I was suspicious so I restored with the CD. That found and fixed a lot of disk errors but the restore is currently proceeding normally.

    Pete
     
  20. pandlouk

    pandlouk Registered Member

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    @ Acadia & Mohamed

    Thanks

    Panagiotis
     
  21. TheRollbackFrog

    TheRollbackFrog Imaging Specialist

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    Greetings, Easter!

    Your trailing question above will have many approaches as you will see as members reply. Being a long time Rollback RX user and a current user of AX64 TM, managing "points in time" has always been a fun experience for me... the management is the same, for me, using both applications.

    What POINTS IN TIME are the most important to you? They are always the ones to be preserved. A FRESH INSTALL system build, this build with all relevant applications installed, a point in time prior to a serious system test (application), every 5-min 'cause you produce the most important information in the world? :D

    Whether these system states are preserved as separate reference image files or MERGEd points in time along the same timeline is probably not important unless you decided you need copies of copies. In practice, incremental time management by imaging apps should not have any time related limitations, especially as it relates to a single timeline. If that's the case, then just prune (Delete/Merge) the irrelevant time slices as you move forward. This can be done easily using purely MANUAL snapshot creation/mgmt, or just add the AUTOMATIC capability to watch over your shoulder at the same time. The AUTOMATIC snaps will basically manage themselves, and even if some of the older ones (yesterday, last week, last month, etc.) become totally irrelevant (why would I ever wanna go back to that point in time?), just PRUNE 'em (even though they prune themselves fairly well).

    What you wind up with is a single timeline (at any length) that contains maybe your virgin system build, your build with all necessary installed apps (things to go back to when rebuilding a system), service pack installations, major new application environments (graphics editing, new AV/AM, etc.) eventually leading up to recent software tests (remember, AX64 TM is one of the greatest software uninstallers in the world :blink: ) and maybe your string of hourly (or later to be scheduled by you) data protection snaps... kinda the same way you view your work over the past <n> months. That's what this app is designed to do.

    AX64 TM even lets you use ONE folder for all your systems and their snapshots (hopefully your systems have different names for ease of separation). Although you can't look into that folder and tell much about the snaps, the AX64 TM BROWSER does a nice job of doing that for you and showing you all your available system timelines and their appropriate snap descriptions... makes it pretty easy to navigate.

    Myself, I use multiple timelines in my daily system usage. I start off with a generic system build that includes all necessary applications required for any of my timelines... a true baseline. I then vector off in branches from that baseline. One of my branches is a graphics heavy environment for purposes of editing, modifying, etc. This branch requires a specialized app environment that I don't need in any other branch. Another branch from my baseline is a HoneyPot which I use to test virii, malware and rootkits if I can find them. This environment is paired down extensively to allow for easy infection of the system... and it's a lot of fun :cool: The 3rd environment is just a normal system environment where I do all my documentation and application testing... kinda like a normal system. Each of these branches move independently from the baseline, including app installation, AV/AM, service packs/updates, etc... it's like using 3 totally separate systems. Sure, I could do this with multi-boot, lots of partitions, creepy system mgmt, but doing it as an imaged based solution is an interesting exercise for me... and a lot of fun.

    In the hopefully near future, when AX64 TM allows for easy backup folder management, separate folders would be an idea solution in general for all your specific systems... but time management is purely in the eyes of the AX64 TM BEHOLDER.
     
  22. Scoobs72

    Scoobs72 Registered Member

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    I managed to determine that the AX64 upgrade was not the cause of the BSOD. With everything now hopefully fixed, I'm going to try upgrading again :)
     
  23. stapp

    stapp Global Moderator

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    I had build 1120 on Windows 8. It worked fine.

    I upgraded to Windows 8.1 (with AX64 installed) and of course there was the BSOD issues.

    So the other day I uninstalled AX64 from Win 8.1 using AX uninstaller.

    Afterwards I found a leftover in System32 and in Programs.

    Today I installed build 1.3.0.7. All went well.

    I had my licence number and name it was registered to all ready to input.

    AX didn't even ask. It entered all the details automatically.

    So does AX keep licence and registration details on the disk after uninstall?
     
  24. Masterblaster

    Masterblaster Registered Member

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    I wondered that same thing.
     
  25. TheRollbackFrog

    TheRollbackFrog Imaging Specialist

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    Stapp & MB, I believe all the license details for AX64 TM are managed in your system's REGISTRY... no phoning home (for license purposes) that I've ever seen.

    AX64 used to use the internet, but it looks as though it was trying to connect to an old web site they may have had in place. The current versions I've been using (v1.3.0.7) make no attempt that I can see.
     
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