Introducing AX64 Time Machine - hybrid imaging/snapshot software

DE, AX64 uses both a tracking mechanism to follow disk allocation changes (so it knows what to back up) and a "dirty bit" mechanism to determine if anyone/thing has possibly modified the system while it wasn't looking. That mechanism is violated by unexpected or forced shutdowns, as well as external BOOT mechanisms (BOOT CDs, external OSes, etc.) that may access that protected disk. When it comes back up and is asked to do its thing, it notices the violation and must now remap the drive to insure that its tracking mechanism is back in sync.

It does take a bit of time but will still produce a proper small snapshot when complete. It has to do this to be sure the disk hasn't been tampered with otherwise it'll be out of sync with the storage utilization. It's just a delay, not a concern.

 

From the FAQ:

"What happens if a power failure, forced power off or a system crash occurs?

AX64 is correctly handling those situations so it won't result in any problems. The only side-effect is increased backup time of the following backup, and a warning that the system was shut down improperly. The subsequent backups will be normal."

It's because it tracks changes in real-time, and if the power is interrupted it doesn't know if its catalog is up to date or not. So next time around it scans the disk and checks it against its catalog, then makes an incremental backup as normal. The extra time is in the scanning.

Apparently AX64 will move away from the real-time tracking at some point in the future. This will presumably solve this issue, but result in longer incremental backup times.

 

Spot on Froggie, and I fact I just had one of those 'situations' when I was expecting a sub minute snap of 80Gb, and AXTM detected an outage since the last snap and when into full remap mod...but that still only (i) was an incremental, i.e., of the expected size & (ii) it was relatively quick...I think that Isso & the developers have managed to improve the remap speed as what used to take circa 26 minutes is now down to 18 minutes...

Regards, Balders

 

Hi taotoo

I really, really hope that there is NO move from real-time tracking as AXTM's key differentiator, i.e., speed of increments, will be lost. Hopefully, as Waj has suggested AXTM will remain as is...simple, easy, quick, and for those who want something else in the more traditional vein there will be RealCopy+

@Waj / @Isso

Please keep AXTM as speedy as it is now or speedier ...that is a winner IMHO.

Regards, Balders

 

@Waja. Do you plan some special deals to Thanksgiving or Cyber Monday for both programms? like lifetime license etc. I really like ax64. thanks

 

10x ppl for helping , what was matter to me is "no size increase " when it remap the hd after a sudden shutdown

 

I also hope this does not occur. I'd rather have real quick incremental times. The other is a minor issue that only happens occasionally but slower incremental backups will be a constant irritant. I'd rather not go there but handle the issue with a better error message or something like that but leave this aspect as is because it's a great feature.

 

I agree with the quicker the better, but I'm sure Isso will make the right compromise, whatever that might be. My backups only take 12 seconds, so I could tolerate a little slow down... (btw I'd put speed of restores as a bigger differentiator than incrementals, since other software can make incrementals nearly as quickly as AX64 - symantec system recovery for example. Edit: or was it true image, can't remember now..).

 

Good point, I agree.

 

MarcP, Thanks for passing that along. I wish Waj would share with us also.

 

Arrgh! I won't use Facebook, so I didn't check up on Marc's post.

 

The post was made on Facebook two days ago. As it says, it has both old and new info. This is a different post than the Oct 8th announcement.

 

Pete, that's what I call good sleuthing... great job!

 

Was that Outpost that was causing you a problem?

 

one issue is i see now that when ax64 hits a bad cluster or sector (trying to back up a file that may be in one) it offers no options. i have a drive here that had one single bad cluster (4k in size out of 1tb normally imo if not for anything really important this would still be a useable drive) ax64 got stuck at 81.1% every time with no way to do anything. i could not even close the program i had to manually shut it down, then the pc would not reboot either it was still locked up. i had to manually shut down the pc.

i went ahead and did the same backup with ifw 2.85 and when it hit that spot it showed the error but allowed me to ignore and skip over it. so i have a backup of that drive now that can at the least be explored later with maybe a missing file or two or maybe a corrupt file. but that was okay for me and my friend who's computer this was.

so i still love my ax64 but i do wish there was a way to have some options or someway to do what i was able to with image for windows. i will of course still use it and i love it but it will not apply maybe for someone who is trying to backup a possibly dying drive (even one with only 4k in one sector bad out of 1tb of space)

 

Just purchased a new external Drive, downloaded AX64 and made a back up went fine then installed it, did good and several hours later that it had made several copy's , and the question I would ask will it eliminate previous copy's each hour. Thank you,

 

Thank you Pete. I was wondering since I do have Outpost and haven't seen this particular issue. It is, of course, on Win 8 rather than XP.

 

Hi Max

You obviously have the 'Automatic Hourly Backup' option ticked (in the main GUI). The answer is 'Yes' the auto snaps (this does not apply to manual snaps) are automatically deleted (in fact their content is compared to the prior snap and then merged to reduce the total size of baseline & incrementals) according to a built in schedule which at present the user cannot change.

Please take a look at the following page of the AXTM knowledge base that will hopefully clarify more fully.

http://ax64.uservoice.com/knowledgebase/articles/215929-incremental-backups-and-merging

And please post back if you have any further questions.

Regards


Baldrick

 

Thank you Baldrick, I have been trying to keep up with Q and A about this this fine piece of software being developed , you guys are light years ahead me in computer knowledge, so I am awaiting the finished software to purchase. With this forum I will be able to find information, that I may need. Best Regard