Introducing AX64 Time Machine - hybrid imaging/snapshot software

Discussion in 'backup, imaging & disk mgmt' started by Isso, Jan 18, 2013.

  1. bgoodman4

    bgoodman4 Registered Member

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    WEll, not specific testing but given what the different programs do your protection is as good as or better than SD. If malware cannot install itself then it cannot be a threat which is exactly what AppGuard is there for (by the way AppGuard also protects the MBR). A malware package may be downloaded to the PC but it cannot install itself and when you revert to the previous snap the downloaded package would be gone.

    Where things get better with the combo noted above than with SD is with the anti-logger. SD will not prevent malware from installing on the PC while in shadow mode and accessing your contacts and possibly passwords etc. To me this is a big shortcoming of SD and its why I added anti-logger to my protection setup when I was using SD. Sure, once you rebooted and closed SDs Shadow mode all malware would be gone but that does not prevent it from acting in the mean time. So, with the above combo even if, somehow, malware were to be loaded onto the PC without needing to be given permission to install (that is bypassing AppGuard) no data could be written and sent to any where you would not want it sent to. Then, once you reverted to the snap prior to the incident, the PC would be clean.

    It took me a bit of time to get over not being able to use SD but given the choice between SD and AX64 I have to say that for me AX64 wins hands down. Really, no contest.
     
    Last edited: Jun 28, 2013
  2. bgoodman4

    bgoodman4 Registered Member

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    Yes, that is my understanding.
     
  3. djg05

    djg05 Registered Member

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    Just installed 1094. Am now able to image the 3rd partition. Do find there is a great performance hit of around 50% CPU. Makes it difficult to do anything else.
     
  4. puff-m-d

    puff-m-d Registered Member

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    50 % Discount at BitsDuJour

    Hello,

    I just wanted to remind everyone that today only AX64 Time Machine is available with a 50 % discount on BitsDuJour -http://www.bitsdujour.com/software/ax64-time-machine
     
  5. twl845

    twl845 Registered Member

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    Installed new v1.2.1094. Again, flawless installation. :cool:
     
  6. atomomega

    atomomega Registered Member

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    Hi Isso,

    Is this a necessary update? I mean, critical? The thing is that I won't be home 'til monday so I can't reach my dad's and my mom's PC's 'til then, both are set to take hourly backups. I just want to know if chances are that they experience any trouble?
     
  7. mata7

    mata7 Registered Member

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    hello iso, im trying to delete or merge and got this error every time that i try, this is after upgrade from 996 to 10.994

    NVM everything is working now, for some reason if i Right-click on the backup and select delete i got that error, but if i select the backup and click on the top big delete icon it work fine
     
    Last edited: Jun 29, 2013
  8. stapp

    stapp Global Moderator

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    I made my first back up of Win 7 64bit yesterday to drive 'G'

    I made and tested the recovery media which showed the back up drive to be 'I'

    Today I updated to build 1094 and made another backup. Back up drive showed as 'G'

    I got message in AX window ''External volume modification detected. Backup will take longer than usual''

    Will this happen after each time I use the recovery media disk ?
     
  9. MarcP

    MarcP Registered Member

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    Your snapshot shows you have build 1090.
     
  10. twl845

    twl845 Registered Member

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    Hi Stapp, I got that message just after installing the update and then doing a backup, so I am assuming the message is a result of the update. It's nothing to be concerned about though. Backups usually take about 4 minutes.
     
  11. silver0066

    silver0066 Registered Member

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    V1094

    The Skip network does not work from the Recovery USB. The Skip gets greyed out but still tries to find the network.
     
  12. mata7

    mata7 Registered Member

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    ya i take that snap before upgrade my mistake
     
  13. djg05

    djg05 Registered Member

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    Hi Stapp - good to see you on this.

    See my note a page or so back about that message. Seems that no one else has noted it.
     
  14. djg05

    djg05 Registered Member

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    I am having problems with this. Don't know whether it is 996 or 1094.

    I have made a series of incremental backups installing various programs, then backtracking to uninstall them. Probably have done about 3 or 4 restores to earlier versions. Each time the machine has run slower than before. Boot ups taking an age to complete and sometimes never achieving. In the end I ended up with a "Disk read error" message at boot up (Win 8/64 Pro).

    I have had to run Chkdsk on the C: drive which took close on a hour to complete. Now had to restore a backup from Active@ to get the machine to work correctly again.

    Don't know if it is directly down to AX or something else going on. Will wait to hear before doing anything more.
     
  15. pandlouk

    pandlouk Registered Member

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    Hi Isso,

    I had deleted the initial logs but managed to replicate not the merge error but the inability to merge or restore. After the first merge AX64 browser does not allow me to delete/restore or mount the images. Only backups from the main program work.

    I attached the log and I'll try to replicate the merging error again.

    Panagiotis

    update: I just tried with the latest version 1.2.0.1094 and the same thing happens there (I tested only on xp). If a user deletes/merges the baseline then the "AX64 backup browser" deactivates the buttons mount/restore/delete. It seems a bug (and a nasty one).
     

    Attached Files:

    Last edited: Jun 28, 2013
  16. Kapiti

    Kapiti Registered Member

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    Updated to version 1.2.1094 over the top of version 1.2.1090 and everything seemed to go smoothly.
    After playing around with the new version I decided to restore to an earlier snapshot. The restore started normally but at 4% complete, the whole computer froze. Waited for 15 minutes to see if the restore would continue and when it didn’t I soft booted the computer, as expected Windows wouldn’t load. Used the recovery CD to restore with successfully.
    Prior to updating to 1.2.1094 I had restored numerous times from within AX64 without a problem.
    I’ve now gone back to version 1.2.1090 and I’ll wait see if anyone else have this problem before updating again.
     
  17. pandlouk

    pandlouk Registered Member

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    How much time it takes to perform an offline restore on your pc?
    What you described above is very similar with an online restore when a dirty bit is present. The first time I saw it I also thought that the system had frozen but it wasn't. It performed a full image restore (not only the changed sectors) and then rebooted but as in your example the % count was frozen.

    Panagiotis
     
  18. Kapiti

    Kapiti Registered Member

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    Typing fsutil dirty query C: in CMD I get “Volume C: is not dirty.
     
  19. pandlouk

    pandlouk Registered Member

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    Not the partition's dirty bit, but the AX64's dirty bit. If AX64 thinks that something interrupted its monitoring system it uses an internal dirty bit which it instructs it:
    a)when imaging, to perform an incremental by scanning the whole partition for changed sectors instead of relying in its internal monitoring.
    b)when restoring, to perform a full restore (restores all sectors) instead of a fast one(only the changed sectors).

    @Isso
    You must really add a warning of the dirty bit existence when a user wants to perform a quick/online restore. It will save a lot of users from trashing their systems by forcing a shutdown, when in reality AX64 is performing a full restore.

    Panagiotis
     
    Last edited: Jun 28, 2013
  20. Kapiti

    Kapiti Registered Member

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    I waited 15 minutes, surely that should be sufficient time to do a full restore? Macrium Reflect takes around 7 minutes to do an offline restore on my computer.
     
  21. Isso

    Isso Developer

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    Guys,

    I just uploaded new version 1.2.1096 to www.ax64.com that fixes the merging issue - please update ASAP, it was a critical bug. Panagiotis, thank you for your help! Please confirm that it's fixed. Thank you

    Sorry for not answering, these two days turned out extremely busy, I'll answer all questions soon.

    Isso
     
  22. twl845

    twl845 Registered Member

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    Hi Isso, I installed v1.2.0.1096 and made a back up that took 3 minutes. Then I attempted to merge a backup that failed earlier under v1.2.0.1094 and it was successful this time. Tomorrow I'll make another backup and then restore to the backup I just made to see if that's successful, as I'm sure it will be. :) :thumb:

    Update: Did as I said above. The restore took 5 minutes. Then I deleted the backup I just made before the restore, and it said Merged instantly. It don't get no better than that!
     
    Last edited: Jun 29, 2013
  23. Kapiti

    Kapiti Registered Member

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    Updated to 1.2.1096 now I'm getting "merge error c1000102 code 2".
     
  24. ratchet

    ratchet Registered Member

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    I now own a license and serial number. I've saved them but I do not want to install/use AX64 quite yet. How long can I keep this license in moth balls before I have to use it? Thank you!
    Also, let me verify one thing. I've made a baseline backup on Monday (#1). Wednesday I've decided I want to try some software so I backup again (#2). I don't like the app so I recover to the Wednesday snapshot (#2) that was made just prior to the installation of the program tested. This recovery will be quick because of the small difference between before and after, correct? Lastly, if I delete the base (#1) from the storage drive to conserve space, will (#2) become the new base. Essentially, this is how I envision I would use this program. Thank you again!
     
    Last edited: Jun 28, 2013
  25. manolito

    manolito Registered Member

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    There are still issues with merging in version 1096. I now get the error code C100001E code 2.

    With version 1094 merging worked just fine on my Win7-32 laptop ...



    Cheers
    manolito
     
    Last edited: Jun 28, 2013
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