True Image is MUCH slower on my new computer

I'm using True Image 8.
On my old laptop (a 3-year-old Compaq with Pentium 4 and 750 MB RAM), it would take me 15 to 20 minutes to restore the hard disk's image.
My new laptop is much more powerful (a new Dell inspiron with Pentium M and 2 GB RAM), yet it takes me 2 hours to restore the disk image.
Creating the disk image doesn't take significantly more time, just restoring it.
I don't understand why.
Two possible "explanations" that come to mind:
- one is that my new hard disk is bigger. The old hard disk was 30 GB. The new hard disk is 80 GB (however, I have tried partitioning the disk, and it seems to take about as much time restoring the image to a 30 GB particion on the new computer!)
- Dell has a proprietary resotre option (to restore factory settings from something that seems like the "safe zone" on a CP/M partition of the hard disk. I'm wondering whether this may be affecting the speed.

Any ideas about what to do?

 

This is the way TI8 works. The drivers don't support the new hardware and everything defaults to USB1 type speed. The Dell restore and diagnostic partitions have nothing to do with the slow speed.

I have a new Inspiron 6000 and have the same problem as you. So, I created the BartPE CD with the TI8 plugin and I can backup and restore my 60GB drive in under 5 minutes.

You should give it a try. The time saved is worth it.

 

Bobdat is correct. However, if you want to restore your system to a new hard drive, be sure to make an image of the entire hard drive including the two Dell partitions. This will ensure that the Dell proprietary MBR can be restored. Save that image. After that, you only need to make an image of the C partition.

If you have to replace the hard drive, first restore the image of the entire hard drive which will restore the Dell MBR and the Dell partitions. Then restore the most recent image of just the C partition.

 

Hello zeno,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

First of all, please make sure that you use the latest build (937) of Acronis True Image 8.0 which is available at: http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/support/updates/

To get access to updates you should create an account at:
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/my/
then log in and use your serial number to register your software.

Please also check each partition of your hard drive by Windows utility:

- For Windows 9x please use Windows menu Start\Run
then enter the command "scandskw" and test all drives.

- For Windows XP please use Windows menu Start\Run, then enter the command
"chkdsk c: /r" "chkdsk d: /r" for every your disk.

Please note that you will need to reboot your computer in order to scan the system partition.

If the problem still persists after installing the update and checking the hard drive then please provide me with the following information:

- What operating system is installed on your laptop?

- Where do you store your images?

- How much time does it take to create\restore an image from under Windows?

Please use the latest build (937) of Acronis True Image 8.0.

- How much time does it take to create\restore an image when booted from Bootable Rescue CD?

Please use Bootable Rescue CD created using the latest build (937) of Acronis True Image 8.0.

- What is the size of the actual data that you are imaging?

- What is the size of the resulting image archive?

Thank you.
--
Alexey Popov

 

For Bobdat

Thank you.
I did the Bart PE.
It takes time to load PE... but then it restores my partition in 18 minutes when I use the image that's stored on a portable hard drive connected by USB.
On the other hand, when I use Bart PE to try to restore from another partition of my hard disk (the one that's in the computer) Acronis says it would take 2 hours.
This would seem to confirm that it is a matter of drivers.

 

For jmk94903:

Thanks. I hadn't thought of that.

I guess I could also the following:
- (1) save one image of the original disk with the 2 proprietary Dell partitions
- (2) then delete these partitions from my hard drive and make an image of my updated c: partition with all current programs
- (3) if I ever need to go back to the factory settings, I would restore the original image of the disk -- described in (1)

Does it seem right to you?

 

For Acronis Support (Alexey Popov)

My operating system in Windows XP sp2 - on this computer as well as on the older computer where I am doing the restores much faster.

- I have tried build 937 as well as snapAPI. It still says it would take 2 hours to restore the image from my USB2 removable hard drive (and 3 to 6 hours to do so from another partition of my hard disk).

- On the other hand, I have also tried BartPE. Then it only takes 18 minutes to restore from the USB2 removable drive (not counting time to load BartPE, and to get Acronis to the point where it is actually restoring). If I try to restore from another partition of my hard drive, it says it would take 2 hours.

- Creating images is not a problem. It takes something like 15 to 20 minutes (I don't have the exact time because I didn't try it again today).

- Size: there's 7.6 GB of files on a 13.6 GB partition. The image is 6.5 GB on a 12.2 GB partition. Note: the archive is split into 16 different files, each of which fits in a CD (650 MB).

ALSO:
I tried CHKDSK and it doesn't seem to be doing anything.

 

Zeno,

Once you partition your HD the Dell restore option becomes unusable. I'll find the reference if you want. You may as well delete the restore partition.

 

Looks like the restore "can" be used, but it's not easy.

"Troubleshooting the Restore Process
The Dell-specific Ctrl+F11 process is supposed to completely automate the restoration process, returning the hard disk to the state it was in when Dell shipped the computer. However, overwriting the MBR by using a boot manager, "fixmbr", "fdisk /mbr", installing from a Windows installation CD, or assorted other means will break Ctrl+F11, rendering the system unable to boot the Restore partition. Furthermore, changing the partitioning by adding, deleting, or resizing partitions will fail DSRcheck's assessment, so even if Ctrl+F11 works, the restore process will abort without attempting to restore the Ghost image."

http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/index.htm

 

For Brian K:

Thanks.

So I understand it wouldn't work to try the dell restore on a disk I add partitions to.
I'm assuming it would work if I started by deleting the additional partitions before trying the dell restore.

 

Dell PC Restore only works as long as there have been no changes made to your original Dell hard drive, as Brian posted earlier. Any repartitioning or other disk geometry changes made by you will cause a change in the hard drive's master boot record and Dell PC Restore will detect that change and default to a permanently inoperative state.

Now, if you made an image of your complete, original hard drive BEFORE you repartitioned then you could restore that image and your Dell PC Restore Would work. Otherwise, if your images all contain your repartitioning changes then Dell PC Restore will never work again.

If that's the case, you can try the hack posted above but it probably won't work at this point. If it doesn't work, you may as well delete the 3Gb Dell PC Restore partition and use that free space for something else.

In reference to your earlier comments about how long TI8 estimates it will take to restore an image, disregard all those estimates. They are usually wildly inaccurate. If you want to find out how long it takes to restore your image with the BartPE CD you'll have to actually restore it. My experience is that it usually restores in the same amount of time as it took to create the image in the first place although the TI8 time estimates show a much longer time, sometimes hours when it really completes in 10 minutes.

 

You can add "Activate Acronis Startup Recovery Manager" to the list of things Brian posted that will break the Dell's Control+F11 recovery feature.

Regards

 

Hello zeno,

Please create Acronis Report and Linux system information (sysinfo.txt) as it is described in Acronis Help Post.

Please also do the following:

- Launch Acronis Report Utility once again and select the "Create Bootable Floppy" option;
- Insert a blank floppy disk in the A: drive and proceed with creation of the bootable floppy;
- Boot the computer from this diskette and wait for report creation process to finish;
- Collect the report file from the floppy;
- Rename the report created from under Windows to report_win.txt and report created using the bootabale floppy to report_diskette.txt.

Could you please also boot from the Acronis True Image 8.0 (build 937) rescue disc once more and press F11 key when the "Starting Acronis Loader..." message appears?

After you get the "Linux Kernel Settings" prompt, please remove the "quiet" word, click on the OK button and wait for # prompt to appear. Please insert a diskette in a floppy disk drive. Then issue the following commands:

cd tmp
mkdir mntdir
mount /devfs/floppy/0 mntdir
cat /proc/bus/usb/devices > mntdir/usb.txt
umount mntdir

Collect the usb.txt file from the diskette.

Send all the collected files to support@acronis.com along with the exact model of your external USB hard drive and the link to this thread. We will investigate the problem and try to provide you with the solution.

Thank you.
--
Alexey Popov

 

I've got the same problem und will give you some of my data:

-win xp professional sp2
-images stored on western digital passport (external hd, 40 GB)
-create image takes less than 30 minutes
-restoring needs about 4 hours - that's not funny
-latest build aof true image 8.0 installed
-about 45 GB are imaged
-size of .tib is 28 GB
-laptop: ibm thinkpad t43p (2668-h8g)
-60 GB hard disk - 7200 U/min

- no problems using true image on desktop computer



It would be very gentle if you could solve that problem

p.s. please excuse my english, i'm german.

MfG

 

the problem could be solved by creating a boot cd with bart pe on it. now restoring the image is done in about 18 minutes.

thanks to acronis support