Introducing AX64 Time Machine - hybrid imaging/snapshot software

I'm not an EasyBCD user but AX64 has configured your UFD as a direct BOOT device, not an ISO which is what I believe EasyBCD usually boots to.

If you can find the "F" key that allows you access to all your BOOTable devices following the OEM logo screen, strike it during the Logo screen (once a second or so). At this point selecting this UFD should work just fine.

Maybe another EasyBCD user (Alladin?) can chime in here...

 

OK Frogmeister
I will try the "F" option tonight.
Thanks.

 

Hi Frogie,

Microsoft has added Boot Configuration Data (BCD) Store since Windows Vista. The BCD Store allows to have more than one operating system during boot up.

EasyBCD is nothing but a simple editor which allows to view and modify data in BCD Store. The bootrec.exe command rebuilds the BCD Store.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/gg463059.aspx

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc770770(v=ws.10).aspx

Best regards,

Mohamed

 

Hi Masterblaster,

Either you can use the "F", "F12" or the "ESC" option, depending on the computer you have.

However, if you want have dual or multiple booting system, meaning you want to have Windows and AX64 to be available on bootup, then you need to build a WinRE ISO of AX64. Un-compress this ISO and it will create a directory of the ISO with the same name. You can use WinRAR or 7-Zip to un-compress this ISO.

Move the directory to another partition/disk and one time use EasyBCD to add the "boot.wim" of AX64 to the BCD Store. You will now have dual booting system, with Windows and AX64.

In future, when there is a new version of AX64, make a new ISO, un-compress and replace the new directory with the old directory. No more need of EasyBCD as the BCD Store already contain the entries for AX64.

Best regards,

Mohamed

 

Wow, If this what is required for users to take advantage of AX64, the average user will be totally lost.
Utilities cannot be this complicated to use. Thanks for your help though.

 

Nooo... it's not that complicated. If you wanna multi-BOOT your system from a boot menu, then there's a li'l work involved. If all you wanna do is pick another device to BOOT from, your PC's mainboard usually gives you that option through a FUNCTION KEY when booting.

If you gimme your computer's make/model, or if a homebuilt, your mainboard's model #, I'm sure we'll find the FUNCTION KEY needed to access this capability... it's really pretty easy. Sometimes, manufacturers will document that F-key on the LOGO screen... something for SETUP and something else for the BOOT MENU, that's the one you're looking for.

 

Thanks for that info, do you defrag when using ax64?

 

How much backup data does AX64 keep?
Does it purge anything or does it just keep growing?

 

My system volume is on an SSD so I do not defrag.

When I was using a spinner, I would stop my AUTOMATIC hourly AXTM snapshot, defrag my disk (not very often, though), rename my current "AXTM" snapshot folder to "AXTM (date-date)" which would save my snaps if needed in the near future, then restart the AUTOMATIC function in AXTM. During the RESTART, AXTM would not see its "AXTM" folder any longer and would create one and snap a new BASELINE. After a short while I would delete the dated AXTM folder that I renamed to get rid of the storage.

 

If you use the AUTOMATIC hourly mode, AX64 will "manage" your backups for you including the necessary purging (done during an automatic DELETE <MERGE> function) that's required to keep your backups to a minimum.

If you decide to only use MANUAL snapshots, purging will occur when you DELETE a snapshot while in the AX64 BROWSER window (you CANNOT do this from the Windows explorer... it will BREAK the backup chain). A DELETE is actually a merge function that will eliminate any storage that's unique to that snapshot, and merge what's relevant forward to the next newer snap in the chain.

You can even quasi re-baseline your backups in the following way...

If you have a BASELINE and 4-snaps, you can DELETE recent-1 (which will merge relevant data to the RECENT snap), then recent -2, then recent -3 then the BASELINE. When you're done, you will have only the current snap available and it will contain all relevant data. I do this quite often followed by an EDIT of the RECENT snaps description to reflect that this is really my new baseline.

 

Thanks TheRollbackFrog.

 

This is not nec with AX64 as you can assess the file directly from the AX64 browser and copy it. Then open Explorer and paste it wherever you wish. THe ONLY difference is that if you mount the snap (which will be as a virtual drive) you would copy the file from within Explorer rather than the AX64 browser and then unmount the drive.

 

Isso, can't we have an option/setting to select the default fast restore method?
e.g.
Choose method for fast restores:
1. Using the native restore
or
2. Using the winPE
If a user uses an internal or a usb drive to store the snapshots would choose the 1st or the 2nd depending which is faster on his system.
If a user uses a NAS to store the Images, he would choose the 2nd.

a native restore would need 2-5 seconds to start instead of 30-40 seconds of the PE.

Panagiotis

 

Thanks Peter

 

Thanks

 

Hey guys, I haven't kept up with this thread since mid-October and I don't feel like reading through 50 back pages to get an answer (sorry, I'm normally good about this sort of thing but just don't have the time).

Has AX64 been updated with Windows 8.1 support? Any other notable changes? Where can I get the latest build? (I checked ax64.com/other/ but it seems like it has the same builds from two months back...)

Thanks guys, it really sucks not to have the capability to install anything you want and just rewind whenever you want. I've been a Mac convert for the last 10 years and between OS X's Time Machine, 10.7/8/9's file versioning and VMWare's Snapshot ability, I've been spoiled. (Especially using Windows through VMWare; Snapshot is the best thing since sliced bread!)

 

hi

just a silly question, my pen drive is detected as a drive in windows xp...and it does not show while i am using it in ax64 time machine for creating recovery media...

how can i detect a pen drive as usb drive rather than a hard disk?

vaastu

 

The currently latest release can be found here: http://www.ax64.com/beta/ and it has support for Windows 8.1 however it has issues while trying to create the recovery media, this is because Microsoft removed two of the needed files in Windows 8.1.

I have the same issue with my USB flash drive in Windows 8.1, it's more of an issue with certain USB drives though rather than the operating systems. I don't know how to make it look like a USB drive rather than a harddrive but what you could do is create an .iso recovery media and then use YUMI to write it to the USB.

 

But just how much data does AX64 keep before it purges?
Is it measured in amounts of data or time?

 

Stigg, this FAQ article from the AX64 knowledge base should help you understand the basics of AUTOMATIC merging...

http://ax64.uservoice.com/knowledgebase/articles/205407-how-the-automatic-merging-works

 

AFAIK you can't. Apparently a fix for this is unlikely to be forthcoming. You can manually burn an iso file to the pen drive using isotousb or similar, or you can create a cd instead.

 

Vaastu... as Tatoo has suggested, a general fix for this from either Microsoft or the UFD manufacturers will probably not be forthcoming.

"Reputable" UFD manufacturers have begun producing UFDs with firmware that advertise themselves as FIXED DISKs rather than REMOVABLE DISKs. Since this is a single BIT buried in the device's firmware, manufacturers will be highy unlikely to offer "tools" to allow this to be changed. A few years back, LEXAR produced such a tool but it only worked on LEXAR UFDs and some others but not all (just tested it on a CORSAIR with no luck).

This new firmware revision (it's only a single BIT) is required, along with some decent speed, to take advantage of a new Windows 8 functionality known as "Windows To Go," which is available in the Windows 8 ULTIMATE platform. Other than that, it's not needed for any other Windows 8 functionality.

Based on these new FIXED DISK configurations, many apps that previously wouldn't work with FIXED DISKs will now have a problem with these "new" UFDs... like USB RECOVERY MEDIA creation under AX64 TM. There's really no easy way around this... either find an old UFD that you know isn't configured this way (very hard to figure out), or have AX64 LLC reconsider their media creation methods.

I know AX64 eliminates FIXED DISKs from RECOVERY MEDIA creation due the the fear of a gentle user accidentally selecting the wrong disk and obliterating their data on that disk... a real fear for gentle users. But that fear has to be dealt with or soon no one will be able to create UFD RECOVERY MEDIA (directly) from AX64 TM.

I would recommend AX64 LLC consider either looking deeper into the device definition to see if it's a USB-based disk or not, then checking to see if it's multi-partition or not (most UFDs are not built that way), then offering a selection ability for all in that category with some sort of "Are you sure?" window jumping into your face. Some sort of "fix" like this is probably inevitable.

 

Thank you, TheRollbackFrog.