Introducing AX64 Time Machine - hybrid imaging/snapshot software

Isso... yet another question.

While messing around with the system partition from without, I then tried using the AXTM Recovery mechanism to restore (I expected trouble based on your comments earlier).. so much for that

Exactly what is it that AXTM needs to find for the "to be restored" partition when it says... "Ca't find a suitable partition for restoration."

What needs to be there for it to find the one it needs to restore?

I noticed that the Recovery environment NEVER tells you exactly what disk/partition it is restoring (a l'il scary for me)... probably because it found something that meets what I'm asking for above.

Any help, greatly appreciated...

 

CyberMan,

No, sorry I didn't check it yet, but Rainwalker did TRIMCheck test here and confirmed that TRIM doesn't work, so looks like indeed RBX disables it.

However as soon as I get some time I'll hook up a SATA analyzer and will check it for sure, although TRIMcheck test leaves little hopes that I'll see any TRIM there...

Isso

 

Froggie,

Good question. Since I planned this software to be as easy to use as possible, AXTM doesn't ask the user which partition to restore to, instead it tries to find it automatically using volume path or partition unique ID.

If nothing is found, it means that the original partition is missing or has been resized/moved. So it returns "cannot find suitable partition" error.
Later, when we add more features there will be a dialog for selection of the target partition.

For RBX on SSD problems - I'm not sure why it's happening, but it certainly has no connection with AXTM

 

I've had a look at this software. Looks very promising. A couple of things I want to mention from initial testing:

1. Is the progress bar when backing up/restoring meant to go up in rounds of 0.1%? The first backup takes a while, which is to be expected, but after 20 minutes it was at 3.9%. This later increased at a faster rate.

2. I did a restore very similar to the video example on the website. It worked; either by copying the required files or complete system restore, which took seconds. The only thing that I was alarmed about was that a blue screen with dialog appeared before Windows restarted. It was only up briefly so didn't get all the text, but seemed to reference IRQ. Is this to be expected?

 

Tony,

1. You are right, the progress is not monotone, it's slow at the beginning and fast at the end, we are working on correcting it.

2. No, blue screen is not normal, even if your system works fine after that. I would like to check if it's AXTM fault or not. Please see if you have C:\Windows\MEMORY.DMP file and if possible zip and upload it somewhere and PM me the link. Thank you

Isso

 

Sorry Isso, but I don't have that file to send to you. I encountered an issue with Windows Update not connecting to check for updates. I have since re-imaged the system and will test again with a later build. Obviously, if it happens again, I'll look for the memory.dmp file and send it.

I should point out I have tweaked Windows Services so not all are running. I'm not sure if this will have affected operation of the software when rebooting after a restore process. I wouldn't have thought so since that error screen happened before starting Windows. I could be wrong, of course.

 

Thank you Tony. For services - I don't think that it's the reason. Something must be related to drivers, and all I'd like to know if it's our driver fault or a third party driver.

Isso

 

Isso... another quick question.

If I have added appx. 6gB of new data to a SSD-based system, then decide I want to return to the snap before the 6gB of data creation, what happens to that 6gB as far as the SSD is concerned? Is it eliminated, via Windows & TRIM, during the recovery process, or does the SSD have to manage it until Windows re-uses those previously allocated blocks?

Thanks!

 

Nothing happens. Remains there until is rewritten by the OS (a common "problem" with all imaging apps).
If you want to trim your free space you can use SSD Tool - free space trimmer (it allocates the free space and then deletes the allocation = windows sends trim commands for those sectors).

Panagiotis

 

Thanks Isso & team, I'm joining as tester,
I'm currently using a newer Intel RST(e) RAID ROM - 2xSSD's
I do have trimsupport/RAID, my BIOS isn't officially supported/released.

Just want to let you know that all is good with AX64 even on such setup.
I don't know any other program capable of what AX64 just achieved on my rig, pretty amazing.

 

Panagiotis, thank you for answering Froggie's question! This gives me an idea to send TRIM command to unused space after we are done with the restore.

And thanks for mentioning the free space trimmer. By the way, most of the SSD manufacturers normally include their own tools with "TRIM on demand" functionality. And often it's better idea to use those, because not all SSDs have standard TRIM implementation, some of them use vendor-specific commands that only their utilities are aware of.

Isso

 

Hi Bionic,

Thank you, and I'm happy to hear that it works fine for you. One question: did you try restore from recovery media? Does it recognize your RAID drive? Thank you

Isso

 

I had AX64 installed today and normally use IFW or Macrium for imaging but can check it straight away, no problem.
I have doubt's but we'll see soon

 

Isso are you going to send trim commands for the entire free space or for the removed data?

By the way how is the name of AXtrack(*).dat generated? Is it random, because every time I uninstall/reinstall AX64 it gives me a different name.

thanks,
Panagiotis

 

I just wet my pants, 'It Worked!' PE recovery - 2xSSD/RAID - Intel 520 Series 120GB.
Yes, it's all there and recognized.

Trim also functional with my raid, I did mod my BIOS for that to actually work.
Not just pretty amazing, I'll say pretty damned amazing.

Now, besides snapshot/restore from windows I've now tried PE recovery with these builds.
1.0.802 - This PE would not initialize at all.
1.0.800 - This PE would initialize but not recover.
1.0.796 - This PE would initialize and recover just beautifully.
I did repeat procedure four times and worked every time using PE 1.0.796

 

Was that with v10 of RX Froggie?

 

Panagiotis, I didn't think about the details, but I think both approaches would work fine.

Yes, AXtrack name is random.

 

Bionic,

Thank you very much! This confirms that automatic recovery media building worked fine before, but we broke something in build 800. Will look into it.

Isso

 

Isso... always another quick question.

Does putting up a new Build require complete de-installation of the old?

Thanks!

 

No, you can just install over the old one. In fact, that's the preferred method, because uninstallation removes the settings file. So you will need to setup the backup drive and take the first full backup again if you uninstall.

Isso

 

At last it looks like we will be having TRIM in RAID after all. I've been waiting for the official OROM that supports this for ages, I hope Intel will be able to make this feature officially available for X79 systems too.

Bionic, are you aware of any modded ROM for Asus P9X79 Pro that enables TRIM in RAID? All I have found so far is this page: http://www.overclock.net/t/1244232/asus-asrock-bioss-with-updated-raid-orom

Any X79 links/workarounds would be greatly appreciated!

 

All these ideas and contributions flying around makes this thread really exciting guys. I love the fact that Isso takes in all those suggestions. It will help AX64 maturing into a optimized program containing features that people want/need, rather than being a program whose design and implementation is limited to the developer's single vision (as is the case with many other software).

This thread just shows how much is being missed by developers who don't communicate with the users of their software!

 

Froggie, when you had this recent problem with RX, was it with RX v10, or with 9.1? I haven't bothered to upgrade to 10 yet: I don't think that there are any relevant new features there for me anyway, and being so new there will be bugs.

Quite frankly HDS have been cooking it for a long time now, so I was expecting many new features and some drastic changes in the program's approach. Overall I have found 10 to be quite dissapointing so far, considering the time they have put into it.

 

CM, I used v9.1, both versions 2012May and 2012November, which are "supposedly" TRIM friendly. I'm staying away from v10 at the moment 'cause of all the negative feedback and problems (new) being experienced by early adopters.

The inability of the SSD-based system to install RBrx (after it had been on there a short time back) has me really puzzled... the only major change was the addition of AXTM. I'm pursuing this on a "bit" level to try and find out what the problem is. The HDD system reinstalled just fine (it also had AXTM on it) but of course I can't test TRIM on that one

At the moment, on both of those ALPHA systems, AXTM is my "time machine" of choice.

 

CM, it'll be up to respective hardware vendor updating accordingly
I do think trim/raid will be an official solution quite soon.
Current solution is DIY (not all can).

In January,2010
http://forums.comodo.com/bug-reports-ctm/ctm-with-ssd-disks-t49485.0.html
This was my first time I've started reporting failures to some software vendors.
CTM was then Rbx knock-off, I've also reported similar failures to horizon datasys.
EaseUS is yet another vendor I've reported to but they simply ignored facts and trim.
Rbx today uses a workaround but I'm not pleased with them, for one I cant even install v10.

I'm very glad I've found this thread, I reckon some names.
Now this being a hybrid version, preliminary tests are better than I could whish for.
Best of both worlds is bundled in this package, I think Isso & Co is about to please lots of SSD owners (and HDD).