Introducing AX64 Time Machine - hybrid imaging/snapshot software

Thanks, and noted. There are so many of these acronyms now. At one time there were perhaps USA, IBM, NBC and a few others only. Now everything is. Anyhow, hope the damage won't take place in this house. rgds

 

HI
It seems that I also have this BCD Issue.I'm testing Version 665 with two Op.Systems on different SSDs.
When doing a Hot-Restore (even though 'Hotrestore' is checked in the Settings) it reboots, restores, but can't boot anymore ( files are missing...).
A USB-Coldrestore works well......

 

Apaert, Build 665's "Hot" restore will do a reBOOT before restoration begins, it just will no longer load the WinPE operating system it used to for WARM restores. It now uses a LIVE pre-Windows state to do the "Hot" restore.

Missing files... I haven't a clue.

 

Ah, Thanks TheRollbackFrog.
'Missing files means' means : winload.exe couldn't be found...
But now it works..

 

Three years from where it started, and this app is still practically non-functional. Looks like some incompetent devs should have been fired. Backup/restore is not rocket science nowadays.

 

They're not just a simple Backup/Restore app... you are right about those. They are trying to be a DELTA restore app (much faster than FULL restores) and that can be tricky... especially the way they first attempted to to go about it.

As Pete says, Macrium is there... using a completely different principle than AX64.

 

AX64 is trying to be as simple an app to use as possible. Its always been the objective of the developers (Isso and the current team) to make the app as set and forget as possible so that those who know little to nothing, and want to know little to nothing, about their PC and how to protect it, will have a backup app they can use comfortably. This means a definite added layer of complexity beneath the hood.

And lastly,,,,,,,the app works quite well for many, myself included (I use Macrium largely as a backup in case AX64 fails and as noted elsewhere AX64 has not failed me in quite a long time. In short I do not feel that the developers are incompetent or that the app is practically non-functional.

Oh yes, I might add that Ax64 is much faster than Macrium both at the level of taking the snap and at restoring the system (version 1 in my case, I am not sure of the relative time differences for Macrium restores between AX64 v2 and MR6).

 

The biggest challenge will come from Microsoft: now Windows 10 is a service, which means it will continue to evolve, add features, change OS structures, any of which may well renders AX64 to be non-functional. To be honest, unless the imaging app were produced by Microsoft themselves, just like TimeMachine to Apple OS X, then there will be no harmony for Windows 10 and AX64. "Set-and-Forget" under Windows will be extremely difficult to achieve for a third party app for a long period of time. This is not due to technical aspect of reasons, but the fact that Microsoft Windows 10 is a Service.

 

And the bad thing is that average joe will not realize that AX64 stopped functioning at one point, therefore the presence of AX64 will give them a false sense of security, which will be busted until the time comes when a restore is needed. This is even worse than no such imaging app at all.

 

I believe you are overly pessimistic / negative, whatever...

The things you say about Win10 apply to every manufacturer of backup software, so your point is essentially that nobody should use third party backup software but use the stuff that comes with the Operataing System instead (no matter how crappy it might be).

And for AX64 you seem to forget that this is a normal image backupper in the first place, the hot and warm and native restores are a bonus. These bonus features could use some better reliability for sure, but in case of a failed hot restore users can always fall back on the traditional cold restore from a recovery media.


Cheers
manolito

 

I was talking about the "Set-and-Forget" feature/goal that the AX64 devs are trying to achieve. And the pitch point for AX64 is obviously its unique ability to do do real time hot/warm restore within a matter of minutes or even seconds while Windows is running, not the regular backup/restore that every imager can do. As the RBF mentioned, this is the tricky part that most likely will falls short when the OS changes, although such issue most likely is non-issue for regular imagers.

Yes, if you "KNOW" beforehand that a hot/warm restore is going to fail, you sure can do regular full backup/restore. Problem is, you probably have no way to know, especially for average joe. That's why I only do full backup/restore of the OS drive, and store all my data on a second and third drive. I don't see much point doing constant backup/restore of the OS.

 

Why do people add "To be honest..." before saying whatever.
Is dishonesty otherwise to be expected?

 

Well I was disappointed that AX64 hasn't done better that I was hoping over the years.

But I was searching hot restore and hot image, and there is virtually nothing out there for Windows 10 which is what I'm using.

I wanted to try rollback rx, was not happy that is saves to C: But I guess you can't have everything.

So I thought I'd give Rollback RX and Drive Cloner Rx a whirl.

Here is what happened.

Run the software in windows and get this message "get protected disk part info is false"...Can't proceed any further....Tried all compatibility modes with administrator privileges, eve for the shortcut.

Make iso or usb, or cd and boot up with any of these and see the error "Failed to load FLClover Recovery Console. if you know the location you can run it manually - OK or No."

But since my usb mouse and keyboard do not work in the cd or usb or iso boot up environment. I can't click OK, and If I could I don't know what the FLClover is or where it is at.

So RollbackRX seems to work great, but if I have any hopes of Imaging the drive along with the snapshots made by Rollback, I'm out of luck, since Drive Cloner is not working.

Yikes...

 

I wonder if you have any stock tips for us,,,,,,you seem to have a direct line on how the future will unfold.

Regardless, you did not say that the app will not be functional in the future because of Win 10, you said its not functional now and that the developers are incompetent.

I disagree.

 

Mark my word, and remember what I said. After one year, reply to my post again. Certain people is short-sighted, and it's OK.

 

What's your point?
I quote:
"To be honest" is an example of an adverbial disjunct, which indicates the speaker's attitude toward the sentence without affecting the meaning of the sentence. It is often used, consciously or otherwise, to preface a statement that the speaker believes is particularly candid in the present context, possibly to an extent that might cause mild offense.

It's a bit of a set phrase these days, and as is usually the case with set phrases, it's best not to parse it too closely in casual use.

 

I guess you do not know the program you are commenting on so I guess you can be excused.

If a warm or hot restore fails you can do a cold restore using any of the existing snaps as a restore point. You do not need to know in advance that a hot or warm restore will fail so that you can then do a full image (doing a full image before you do the restore but after you have decided that you need to do the restore would be ridiculous). Regardless the exact same comment about knowing in advance of a restore failure can be made for any imaging app out there, one of the advantages with AX64 is that your most recent snap will never be more than 1 hour old. Not many can match this level of protection.

AX64s snaps are stored on a 2nd drive so your point on this is moot. Now if you said you prefer only full images rather than incremental thats a whole different story and if this is the case then AX64 is def not for you,,,,,,,,in no way does this preference for full images on your part mean that all apps that use incremental or differential methodologies are worthless.

Anyway, time will tell if AX64 will work with Win 10 in the future,,,,,,it does work quite well for many/most in the present.

 

And what about the stock tips? Not going to share these?

And I still disagree with your statement that at the present time AX64 is practically non-functional and that the developers of AX64 are incompetent. This was your origional contention, at the time you said nothing about the future.

 

Quit the flaming. Lets use this forum to learn about AX64.

 

You have some point in saying that I don't use AX64, because I consider it to be a inferior product at this stage. Your description of how AX64 works is quite complicated. Are you sure average Joe could use it without any problems? Talking about 2nd drive, are you sure that there even is a 2nd drive in average Joe's computers? Your argument is flawed. You assumed all the backups of AX64 are good. Are you sure about this? You never know whether a backup is good or not until the time you actually try to restore it. This is true for regular imager as well, hence I use at least two imagers to backup my OS drive. Your seem to be very optimistic about AX64. Do you have the balls to use it as your sole imager at this point?
Yes AX64 might be a nice toy for people in this forum, who generally is more tech savvy, but also a tiny group of people.

 

Some people are blind, and that's OK as well.

 

I looked on the website, and didn't see it. Does anyone know the return / refund policy on Rollback RX and Drive Cloner RX?

 

Best Idea...

Sure wish V1 and V2 could be combined to achieve best of both..