Drive Snapshot new system restore

Discussion in 'backup, imaging & disk mgmt' started by osip, Feb 24, 2010.

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  1. pdf

    pdf Registered Member

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    Yes my capture is form VMware, then edited in photoshop :)
    I noticed some ocations where is you do not check ""Automatic reboot even on error" the system wont reboot, but continue booting after the restore is done, then i got the BSOD and all those disk errors.

    Another issue i came across it the system waiting for a key to be pressed after restore, even with the reboot option checked.
     
  2. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    pdf,

    Did you have good results most of the time? I did. Only occasional failures and only with the mal-aligned partition. I'm going to delete the image of the mal-aligned partition as it was only a test image.

    I forgot to ask. In BING, Work with Partitions. Select your Win7 partition, hold down Left Shift and click Properties. Any message about the file system ending in an incorrect position?
     
  3. demoneye

    demoneye Registered Member

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    new 1.40 26 feb released ...:)
     
  4. n8chavez

    n8chavez Registered Member

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    With the newest version I do not get any BSOD. However my keyboard does not yet work when reimaging active partitions, but I do not have any of there errors I had before. I just need to remember to not have it automatically reboot and cold-restart after the restoring is done.
     
  5. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    What is the latest build?
     
  6. n8chavez

    n8chavez Registered Member

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    1.40.014557
     
  7. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    Thanks. I've been using that one.
     
  8. pandlouk

    pandlouk Registered Member

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    I just tested it on windows 7 and I had similar problems with Brian K.

    "No automatic reboot" completes fine and does not give any error.

    "Automatic reboot on success" completes fine but then instead of rebooting gives an error and continus in entering in windows... the result is to corrupt some files.

    "Automatic reboot even on error" completes fine but does not reboot unless a key is pressed manually.

    Panagiotis
     
  9. pajenn

    pajenn Registered Member

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    Standard serial keyboard, or wireless USB keyboard or another keyboard that requires a special driver?
     
  10. raakii

    raakii Registered Member

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  11. osip

    osip Registered Member

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    I updated and tested again with the feb 26 release... safe mode start up menu again followed by the chkdsk...After this fully restored and no problems. I guess the start up has to do with the key reboot, will try next time with other boot options. I find it after 2 tests reliable and will from now on use it as my main image prog, a winpe version is also available if needed if win refuses to start up...So, 2 options for restore, in win or outside win, that's the ultimate...The best image sw absolutely.
     
  12. pdf

    pdf Registered Member

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    @Brian K There you go:

    11.png
     
  13. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    pdf,

    Thanks. All OK there.
     
  14. raakii

    raakii Registered Member

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    Hello,is there any way to change(i.e reduce) the 10 sec wait for "aborting the restore"?


    Thanks
     
    Last edited: Mar 1, 2010
  15. pajenn

    pajenn Registered Member

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    I'm experiencing a weird doubling of backup speeds.

    Generally it takes most backup programs about 30 minutes to do a full backup of my laptop's system partition (45 GB, two-thirds full) onto an external hard drive. Then recently the backup time got cut in half when I made the backup from BartPE directly (this was with Acronis, ShadowProtect, Macrium) - previously even offline backups took 30 min. Online backups with Acronis still take 30 minutes, but I just tried Drive Snapshot and it can do it in 15 minutes like the others in offline mode. This is with the "Always use VSS and abort if VSS fails (--ForceVSS)" advanced option chosen.

    I installed the trial version on 2 other laptops and the same thing happened - backup time was half of that of Acronis True Image Home. I also have a desktop computer with Macrium (and ShadowProtect trial which just expired), they already made these fast (10 min) backups so Drive Snapshot didn't improve on that.

    So thumbs up for Drive Snapshot, and if anyone knows how I can get Acronis to perform at that speed during online* backups, please let me know. (I like the incremental backups and try & decide features with Acronis - otherwise I'd just switch Drive Snapshot completely).

    *online as in system partition is active because I booted to it.
     
  16. Raza0007

    Raza0007 Registered Member

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    You did not mention the compression level you used with these utilities, as the backup and restore speed is directly dependent on the compression level of the resultant image file.
     
  17. demoneye

    demoneye Registered Member

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    v1.40 mar 1 2010 is out :)
     
  18. pajenn

    pajenn Registered Member

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    I'm using default compression. Both Acronis and Drive Snapshot produce backups that are about 16 GB in size.

    I attached a pic of the backups - the difference between the modified and created time stamps shows the time it took to make the backup. The options I'm using with Snapshot are displayed in separate pics. The backup location is a 1.5 TB external hard drive so space is not an issue.

    fwiw, recently I've been using MyDefrag and PageDefrag to arrange/defrag files.
     

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  19. Raza0007

    Raza0007 Registered Member

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    Maybe the problem is with Acronis itself. I have only ever used Acronis 3-4 times with mixed results. It does not have a good reputation among users. Among the other more reliable utilities like Paragon, Shadow Protect, Macrium, Drive Snapshot etc, I have observed that the backup time is almost similar, give or take 4-5 minutes. It actually depends on the level of compression each utility uses. For example, a full backup of my system partition using the default (normal) compression of Paragon results in a file size that is on average 400-600 MB smaller than the default (normal) setting of ShadowProtect, but Paragon takes 4-5 minutes longer than ShadowProtect.

    So, if Acronis is taking twice as long to do the same job then there is probably something wrong with Acronis itself.

    Also, VSS has no role in backup speed as VSS is only used for the initial few seconds to create a snapshot. After the snapshot is taken, VSS's role terminates and from then onwards it is just the backup utility itself.

    I know, this does not answer your question on how to increase the backup speed of Acronis, but maybe it can not be increased, as it is a function of flawed design by the Acronis programmers.
     
  20. pajenn

    pajenn Registered Member

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    Then there's something wrong with Drive Snapshot's default backup mode as well because it takes as long or longer than Acronis.

    That is, if I choose the advanced option "Use VSS only if exchange writer is involved (default)", Drive Snapshot takes at least 30 min if the partition being backed up is active. I just ran it to make sure, and it took 40 min because I started with several browsers and other applications open. (But then I shut them down and switched to my desktop to get a comparable backup time to Acronis).
     

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  21. Raza0007

    Raza0007 Registered Member

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    In its default setting Drive Snapshot only uses VSS if you are using Exchange server, otherwise it uses the classic approach, where a kernel mode driver is used, which sits between the file system and disk driver and intercepts the read/write requests. Read here under "How it works and the magic"

    It is something similar to "Paragon Hot Processing" technology present in Paragon softwares. Read here about Paragon Hot Backup

    I am assuming that on your system, the classic way takes more time to complete a backup than the newer VSS approach. Are you using VSS with Acronis? I do not use Acronis so I do not know whether they offer an alternate Hot processing technology too. If they do then you can get fast backups on your system by switching to VSS with Acronis.

    I mentioned your system because with Paragon, on my system, it takes the same amount of time, whether I use VSS or Paragon Hot Processing.
     
  22. LittleDude

    LittleDude Registered Member

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    Acronis affected Drive Snapshot's backup speed on my system. Uninstalled and reinstalled a few times to confirm it was the culprit. On XP SP3 the backup time is very similar but with Acronis installed DS took 4 times longer than usual.
     
  23. pajenn

    pajenn Registered Member

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    Acronis True Image does not have an option for that afaik. However, when I run Acronis from a BartPE/XPE stick it's as fast as Drive Snapshot in VSS-mode. (Again, it wasn't that fast in the past on BartPE/XPE, but then one day it was and I don't know what caused the speed up).
     
  24. pajenn

    pajenn Registered Member

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    I observed the doubling of backup speed on 3 separate laptop computers. Each had Acronis installed so your observation may explain why Drive Snapshot's default (non-VSS) backup speed was slower than in VSS-mode, but it still wouldn't explain why Acronis is twice as slow. (On the fourth machine, Acronis was not installed and backup speed did not double - I have Macrium Reflect Free installed on that computer which backs up the machine at comparable speeds to Drive Snapshot). I mean Acronis is a top-tier backup software brand so I cannot believe that their program could be twice as slow as another backup program on three separate machines, or twice as slow compared to itself when run from BartPE/XPE on my main laptop.
     
    Last edited: Mar 3, 2010
  25. mata7

    mata7 Registered Member

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    great great news, i hope one day IFW Can do this wiht out have to create bat file
     
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