Introducing AX64 Time Machine - hybrid imaging/snapshot software

Okay, this is my contribution for the user experiences survey

So far I'm still in favor for AX64.
In 2 Windows 7 x64 desktops, I can run it every time, no errors whatsoever.

I can make manual snapshot successfully every time I want it (I don't use the auto function).

So far, hot-restore were great, and I didn't need to stop/close anything to make it worked. A few times it didn't work (hung) & I had to do cold-restore, which as I have posted above, used to feel faster than it was recently. However, it always worked.

I'm not very sure about this, but I think there was a time or twice when I experienced a rather serious failure (either during backup or restore) when the computer hung or even restarted suddenly. However, I immediately switched on my "emergency mode," and did another cold-restore to my latest manual snapshot, and then all was well for my computer

I can't be sure about this, because this happened very very rarely, and I can't recall if it was AX64's fault or other software's or even Windows'. Whatever it was, in the end, AX64 saved my system.

My gripes:
- few cold-restore that I had to do, and its feeling of becoming longer
- can't backup my other partition
- can't delete some manual snapshots (this is a confirmed bug), therefore can't merge/consolidate those incrementals
- I think that's all

 

Generally I think it's a good assumption that fewer posts and complaints indicates fewer people with problems. The thing is, it's a good assumption and not measurable in any meaningful way. The supposition that most who have problems post someplace is an unprovable assumption, though possible.

This is always the logic on forums and may be close to true, but we will never know that for certain, not knowing how many just bought/tried a program and left it when it didn't work or never bothered or knew to post (here for example). Just as likely is the possibility that those who simply gave it a 30 day trial and had problems just gave up on it since they weren't out anything. Those who spent money would be more likely to pursue an answer. And, buyers likely are outnumbered by tryers who may be less likely to post anything. But this is all conjecture!

 

Well, I have finally decided to throw in the towel.
As a previous user of RRX, I was so happy to find AX64. My first experiences with it were outstanding. It was just what I was looking for. The safety of imaging with much quicker snapshots. It worked great.
Windows 8.1 changed that. Maybe the merger of the companies also contributed, who knows. I will say the new company has tried to help me but the bottom line is nothing has worked so far. I cannot go this long without backups. It is very ironic that in my efforts to protect my data (RRX and AX64) I have accomplished just the opposite.
I am hopeful that they will workout the restructuring of their new company and resolve all of the issues with AX64.

 

@Jim1cor13
@TheRollbackFrog

Thanks for the explanatiom. I think I can wait until they fix it. If it,s specific to tablets, it must not be on the high priority list, I understand that. But I do miss the luxury of AX64 on Win 8.

 

Thats surprising after the torture you put the program through. Sorry to hear about your experience. Did you report it to the developers? Did you consider going back to a previous version? I have stuck with version 1.3.0.7 as it worked flawlessly for me and I saw others having various issues with the 1.4 series. I would suggest that if previous versions worked for you that you consider going back to one of these versions and let the developers work out the bugs in the more current versions.

 

Hi Pete! A COLD restore failure from AX64 is pretty unusual... you should definitely pass any relevant info back to Isso and the crew concerning that experience (OS, general system config, etc.).

As far as a command line version of the CORE software being silly... I have to disagree with you. I may agree with you on the priorities of such, but definitely not the eventual implementation. If the UI is intended to be as simple as possible for the general user, without all the bells & whistles of lots of strange options, then it should be (as it is currently). But for people who would like to do other things without causing a change in the way it looks at the UI level, a command line version is an excellent way to do that, especially as it pertains to customized scheduling, multiple partition snapshotting/backup, etc.

An eventual COMMAND LINE version would be very useful for the more advanced user community... but WHEN and only WHEN the basic product is considered stable and reliable. At the moment, I don't believe it's reached that stage of development.

 

Hi Pete,

Sorry to hear your issue with cold restore. Do please report any issues to our support e-mail and we'll do our best to get to the bottom of whatever caused your issue. It saddens us what you've said - but I cannot but thank you for all the support you've given over the lifetime of AX64. It really does mean a lot. Froggie, we really owe you a lot! Our unofficial VP marketing dude.

Cmd line version of AX64 is something that has always existed for a long time before AX64 as you guys know it even existed. It was used for testing the core functionality of our imaging engine. It is essentially AX64 without a skin so it wasn't a huge stretch to get a version of it out to those who wanted to try it. We also have customers outside of the Wilder's community in the SME space that have requested such a tool. In the context of development - the CMDLine version was only a few days work.

For the record, AX64 is our priority - no other product. We are working on a major release that will include a revamped quick restore.

Sincerely,

Waj

 

Hi Masterblaster,

I've sent you a mail and thank you for your kind reply.

It's always sad to see old users leave our program. We are doing the best we can and will continue to do that.

As some users have guessed, support requests have reduced quite a bit we are getting more users which is great.

But sad news overall as this community is very precious to the team. When good users part ways with us, it's like parting ways with a good pal.

Best,

Waj

 

I consider it's an unfortunate complication that 8 (and even more unfortunate for 8.1) came out when AX64 is hatching.
Even softwares which are not as system-critical as AX64 can have compatibility problems with these new Windows.

AX64 notwithstanding, I never right away gave my trust for a new version of Windows, that's why for my productive machines I retain Win 7. Before, I stayed with XP for quite some time before I finally moved to 7 (I skipped Vista). When Win 98 came, I waited until 98 SE came before make the switch. Then I skipped ME.

For newer laptops, yes, I have to buy one with 8 inside, and fortunately I can afford not to use AX64 in it, because the laptop's role in my work isn't that critical.

For those of you who have to use 8 or 8.1, hmm, maybe it's a bit too much for the developers trying to fix compatibility problems at the same time for both previous versions of Win (which were already there when AX64 came into being, therefore have always been considered by them) and Win 8/8.1 (which came along AX64's way, and have some different ways of handling computer things).

This is just my speculations of course.

 

Hi Waj, do you have any comments for the questions I wrote in this post?

 

AX64 cold restore speed is similar to other programs.
With fewer incrementals it will perform fast because there won't be that much fragmentation on the archives.
With more incrementals the cold restoration speed can degrade depending on many factors:
a) on how many of the incremental archives there is data/virtual sectors that need to be accesed/restored. (e.g. if you want to restore the 100th incremental the restoration speed will be different if there is needed data on 70 incrementals and different when the data needed resides in 20 of them).
b) fragmentation of the archives (not the source partition). If the archives of the increments are fragmented in houndrends/thousands of pieces the restoration speed will degrade.
c) the size of the archives and the file system of the partition where they are placed. e.g:
-when storing on NAS archives larger than 4gb can degrade the backup/restoration speed.
- if you use a fat32 partition to store the snapshots the backup/restoration speed will be slower than when you use an NTFS partition to store them.

The above are related to all imaging apps and not only to AX64. But usually the larger the number of increments the larger the probability that the restoration speed will degrade and the larger the probability that something will go wrong.

Panagiotis

 

Thank you for your explanation. This is sooo cool

So AX64 cold-restore's speed is no different than others? This isn't that cool, then
Hopefully Waj's response to my questions can bring more cheers

So, in order to reduce it, I can defrag the backups/archives volume?

On the other hand, can an unfragmented volume be restored faster? Maybe because the restore process doesn't have to jump all over the volume (even though the total amount of data to be written is the same regardless).

 

Just tried 1.1.4.48 version out and am giving feedback.

The program installs ok and backs up, cold and hot restore without problem.

The only issue is that the local storage and boot on USB does not work. It just ends up with the mouse cursor on a black screen. I have a USB from an earlier version and that works without problem.

I think this problem started when the local storage option was added. Since then it has been unable to create a bootable media

Hope this helps

I have also reported this to AX

 

I had an odd issue the other day with a restore.

I keep several old copies of AX backups, all manual and consisting of around 5 increments.

I went back to an earlier one and restored the latest one in the tree. The restore was ok inasmuch that the machine booted ok, but I found that some programs were not installed and had to go back and restore the earlier ones in the tree.

Don't know if this was an error in the way that I did it.

 

Impster (isn't it your bedtime?), AX64 was never touted to be anything other than an ordinary COLD restore type tool (standard incremental restorer)... but it did tout HOT imaging which is very different than a standard incremental imager. As Pandlouk says, it's COLD restoration speed is just ordinary (amongst the better ones out there).

No, sir... you have very little control over the fragmentation INSIDE of those backup snaps. It's not a fragmentation problem with the volume the snaps live on, or the snap file itself.. it's a problem with the changes that Windows makes to your system between snaps. If its changes occur all over the protected volume (which they do quite a bit), then the incremental snap will contain volume changes that are scattered all over the place. If this happens, then during the restore, the process must jump around all over the place to restore those changes... this is what creates some extensive time for incremental restores.

The same thing would happen using DIFFERENTIAL restores... but since you're only mapping (1) differential against the baseline, the amount of scattered changes would normally be much less.. maybe. It would be about the same if all the volume changes were unique (unusual for Windows)... if some of the changes were duplicates (data block changed more than once), then less work would be done in the restore process than with incrementals.

Sure... but only if the Windows incremental changes are not fragmented, which is very hard to control. As I see it, the only way to do this would be to freeze the system, defragment the entire surface, then do the incremental. But as you can see from this process, since there would be massive changes from the defragmenting process, the following incremental would be huge... basically neutering the entire incremental backup process. You might as well just take baselines and save them.

You really have very little control over how you and Windows muck with your disk surface between incremental images.

 

Hi DJG05! If the files/programs were in the system image following your last incremental in the tree, they should have been there after the restore. If they were there earlier in the tree but not at the end (deleted/uninstalled, etc.), then they won't be there by selecting the last incremental in the tree.

 

Absolutely agreed, plus one of the easier ones to use. Now, if we could only use the recovery CD to create new images without the program actually being installed like you can with most other imaging programs. I only reason I state that is because it conflicts with another program that I treasure and I have to pick between the two to be installed.

Acadia

 

Yes, and I was dreaming that your answer would be different than this

I have some small understanding on how Windows mucks, but your (& Pandlouk's) explanations gave me a better view on how imaging softwares work.

Thanks Mikey

(Still hoping that Waj & team could do miracles...)

 

Really recovery CD must have an option to create image backup.

 

Yess !
+1

 

Since the last several posts pertain to recovery media it reminds me to ask this question. If any of you have had issues with "cold" restores, exactly what are/is you seeing/happening or not seeing/happening? My hot restores are perfect on x64 W7 SP1 for months and months with v1.3.0.7. I've tried several newer versions and with both CD and/or USB the AX GUI loads but there isn't a cursor visible and despite the illuminated keyboard illuminated (so the keyboard has power) none of its keys function.
As I've philosophized previously, I'm genuinely satisfied with the one or two minute restores of snapshots, especially since I have other boot media and backup options available, but just most curious as to why the USB keyboard and mouse are essentially disabled.
Back when hot restores were an issue, before setting Malwarebytes service to Delayed Start, the desktop would appear to load normally with the cursor visible but the mouse was frozen.

 

Hi Ratchet! If I read you correctly, when you had HOT restore problems, the problem wasn't with the restore itself, the problem occurred when the system was reBOOTed following the restore action (yes?). At that point you had a frozen mouse and nothing would work. You then delayed MalwareBytes from starting up and all was fine from then on.

If that's a good read, your system has some very unusual timing issues associated with startup. There's just no way that MalwareBytes, in its startup phase, can affect the functioning of devices like mice unless there are driver startup issues or similar things. Methinks this same startup issue is what's causing your AX64 RECOVERY MEDIA startup issues also.

Coupla questions... is your mouse using a standard USB hardwire or wireless connection and is it USB2 or USB3, or is it an old PS2-type mouse connection? Also, are you running standard mouse/keyboard drivers that live in Windows or when you added that subsystem to your computer did you install special drivers for that combo (I ask 'cause you mention a special illuminated keyboard)?

Just trying to get a better picture of your system anomalies...

 

Thank you for the reply! You pretty much understood the Malwarebytes issue. I think it was Peterxxxx who surmised that security software might be the issue folks were having with hot restores. Indeed, since I changed Mlbts service from Automatic to Delayed the hot restores have been perfect and that was months and months and months ago.
The keyboard is USB2 Logitech Illuminated, hard wired to the tower. The mouse is MS 5000 USB2 cordless. I'm certain they both have their own drivers. Other than that there really aren't any unusual startup items. I built the PC.
Well, wait a minute, I just thought of something! I have the ASUS motherboard AI Suite II as a startup program. Actually, even during normal boots, the mouse won't work until that loads. My C drive is a SSD drive so we are talking about a second or so. I'll build media, disable AI Suite and check it out today. You may be on to something! Thanks again.

 

If your "Programs & features" option in your CONTROL PANEL shows separate installations for mouse or keyboard software, they should be unINSTALLed. Disabling the AI Suite might not eliminate the special mouse/keyboard drivers... only an uninstall of that suite will do it if no separate installed drivers exist. Give the disable a try anyway.

Unless you're using some strange features of your mouse/keyboard... the Windows drivers should allow them to function as normal devices.