Introducing AX64 Time Machine - hybrid imaging/snapshot software

Well, I feel for the development team. The loss of a key player not only impacts the intellectual capacity of the team, it can really impact their emotional resilience when facing things they're stuck on.

But I feel more for all of us who are in varying states of limbo regarding whether our dear AX64 will reach true stability/reliability for us across the board.

 

Hi guys!

Thought I'd hop in here and ask a question, if you don't mind. I provide support for home users and very small businesses. Need a tool for them like Apple's Time Machine. Something they could set and forget, because let's face it, most of them haven't a clue at all about their computers.... that's why they have me.

For my Mac customers it's pretty easy. Hook up an external drive or Time Capsule and set and forget. For Windows it's not so easy. I've looked for solutions before and have a few customers who I've hooked up with Macrium Reflect of Windows 7 imaging. Recently I've been setting up Carbonite with it's local image backup feature. My current favorite, but a little pricey.

I've made this search before in years past and the closest I had seen was the Genie product. Never impressed enough to try it. I was quite excited when I found AX64's Time Machine and read the opening post in this thread and the entire first page, then realized there were 9,751 posts in two years!

Anyway, my question: is this program stable enough to recommend and install for non-savvy users, i.e. set and forget until needed?

 

infotime,

I suggest you start a new thread about this matter. Can you describe what Time Machine is doing? Is it making images or creating a clone?

 

Are you saying no because a) you don't think the software is stable or dependable enough? Or b) because you don't think something like that should be set to autopilot?

 

I would concur and say no, there are still many issues, for instance in some cases on my system, snapshot creation stops at random, I have to kill the task TMApp.exe, and restart Time Machine, delete some old snapshots. In same cases it works but most of the time I have to create a new backup chain (perform a new full backup from scratch, it takes time and HDD space). I would go for Casper, almost as fast for incremental backups, rock solid, until TM gets reliable.

 

Anyone tried the Acronis True Image 2015 NonStop Backup lately? It used to be quite slow and it had issues when it was introduced in 2007, maybe this has changed?

Cheers
manolito

 

Well... WSFfan has posted some INTERESTING INFO in the Macrium forum. AX64 may just have lost its "almost" edge.

 

Sounds good but I do not see it on the Macrium web site. Is it a beta?

 

It's "coming soon" according to their Facebook page. They're building the hype machine.

 

Thanks for the clarification Marc, does sound very nice. Too bad TM had so many delays along the way, they had the field to themselves for a while and now, it appears, there is another player.

 

It was originally scheduled for end of December... now by end of this month.

 

In other words, end of this week.

 

Haven't tried 2015, but quite liked the 2013 version. I found it good for file versioning (nice file browser and also integration with windows explorer). Didn't use it long term for partition/disk imaging - in fact can't remember if it lets you restore those from a non-stop backup, though have a feeling it did (not a delta restore of course). What bothered me the most (apart from the UAC prompts) was several minutes of disk activity on the backup disk after every boot (apparently defragging).

Now off to look at Macrium v6... can't beat a bit of competition!

 

I purchased AX64 a little over 1 ½ years ago back when Isso was a one-man show.
To be honest, today I see not much real progress since then. Yes, we are on another beta but is this program really any better today than it was when I purchased it?
After 1 ½ years shouldn’t this be our of beta? Shouldn’t the problems be fixed already?
IMO, this company does not have either the technical skill or financial resources to make real progress and finish this.
It reminds me of a great utility I purchased a while back, JV-16. If you go to that site, it has all the appearance of an active company. They are taking orders but the business is closed.
I am thinking the fat lady is singing here. Sorry Isso, but since the sale of your company, not much has progressed..

 

I know there's not been much progress in some respects, but .528 has been flawless since it came out. Zero issues. I've not tried the hot restore but the warm happens in 10 minutes 15 at the most and that's fantastic in my world. Quicker would be better, but honestly what's 10 minutes to restore a HD? I do hope they move forward, but this version is working perfect for what I want and need and I'm very glad I bought it and would do so again in a heartbeat.

 

Hey, no fair. I just bought their v5.3, figuring it had to go to 5.4, 5.5, etc until maybe next year (vs next month) it would go to v6 and would have to pay all over again!

 

AX64 version 2_0_0_548 beta . expired last night,

AX64 version 2_0_0_528 dos-not work on my system nether dose any other version of version 2.

And Version 1 Wont restore version 2 backups.
I held out for a longtime waiting for AX64 to come good but no more...
So today I am buying Macrium pro It may be slow but at-least it works.
And if they have the DELTA restores in Version 6, Who would want AX64...

 

Same here! And just when i need to return a backup.

 

Any idea when MR6 is going to be released? No info on this upgrade on their site at all...

 

See HERE in the Macrium forum...

 

Hm, I think I have to monitor that forum also, regrettably.
So sad.