Question about external HDD and True image 8

I am really glad I bought True Image 8 (the dutch version). Yesterday I installed a piece of software that would have created a virtual drive. However after booting XP-PS2 I looked at a blue screen. And in safe mode the same story. So I restored my image file and this was only a few days old. I restored some working files I backup every day and that was it! I am back in business.

One question: making an image file from my laptop onlys takes 35 minutes and restoring the image took more than 4 hours! And all that time I did not know what the end result would be so I was rather nervous! Anyway, I use an external HDD of 250Gb (western digital) that works on the USB port. Do you know why this restoring took so long.

 

What mode is your external drive working in - USB Full Speed or USB Hi Speed? Full Speed is usually associated with USB 1.1 (slow!) but can sometimes occur on a USB 2 controller/connected device that's not fully Hi Speed compliant.

Regards

 

I wouldn't know actually. Where can I see this? However it writes the 50Gb of my laptop in 35 minutes to a file of 24Gb when I create the image. That's pretty quick. I was wondering if there could be some USB drivers missing at the moment I had to restore. Because I had to boot from Acronis CD rom. Anyway, it worked! However I thought that maybe there were some tips to increase restoring speed.

 

Based on these tips:
http://www.usbman.com/Guides/checking_for_usb_2.htm

I found out I have "VIA USB 2.0 Enhanced Host Controller"

I assume this applies to all 3 USB ports my laptop has ?

 

Additional info: Just tested copying and restoring a large file (1Gb) with SyncBack that just synchronizes directories. And in both directions (drive C: to external drive H: and external drive H: to drive C it takes the same amount of time (90 seconds). I tested all 3 USB ports and it makes no difference which one I take.

 

It looks like your external HD is working in USB 2 Hi Speed when in Windows mode. However, when you restored your system drive you would have needed to boot into TI boot rescue mode. This is Linux based and my guess is that the associated Linux USB device drivers are not optimised for your chipset. Hence reason for the speedy image creation (Windows) and the tardy image restore (Linux). You might be able to prove that by booting into TI rescue mode and creating an image to your USB drive from there. You'll probably find that the image creation and restore times will then be more or less the same.

Have you got the latest build (796)? If not, download and install the update, create a new boot rescue CD or floppies and try again. You may well find that the latest build contains better device drivers for you hardware.

Regards

 

Good thoughts! I noticed when looking at newsgroups that in Ghost you have to indicate wether you need USB support when creating a boot CD so maybe that is not perfect in True Image at the moment? On the other hand I am using build 791 at the moment so I will upgrade first before I draw conclusions. And before I upgrade I will do the test you suggested and try making an image under Linux (rescue boot mode) and see wether that is also much slower than under windows.

 

Hello simon_warner,

Thank you for choosing Acronis True Image (http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/).

The problem is likely to be in drivers for USB that are included into Acronis Bootable CD. Our Development Team is constantly improving hardware support by implementing new drivers in every build. Please try using the latest one (796) available in http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/support/updates/ after you register at our site http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/registration/

Thank you.
--
Ilya Toytman

 

Thanks. Just downloaded the upgrade to 796. I did a few tests:

Make image file of partition RECOVERY (5Gb)

build 791
under windows: 5 minutes
under linux (rescue boot disc): 17 minutes

build 796
under windows: 5 minutes
under linux:
error message: hub.c: connect-debounce failed port 1 disabled
however was able to make image file: 17 minutes

 

Hello simon_warner,

It seems that currently 17 minutes is the limit for this partition on your hardware. As for the error message, it is known bug in the latest build and is fixed in the next build so please disregard this string.

We will certainly improve USB support in future builds and versions of Acronis True Image.

Thank you.
--
Ilya Toytman

 

Have you the patience to repeat the exercise using the same image but this time restoring it?

Regards

 

Hello Menorcaman,

I don't think it worth doing so. When you create or restore image after booting from Acronis Bootable CD the drivers used are the same so the result is quite predictable.
However, Simon or you may try just in case.

Thank you.
--
Ilya Toytman

 

Not really. I think your suggestions were very good though. So thanks for the help. It seems a problem with USB 2.0 drivers and I hope it will be fixed soon.

I am still wondering wether this problem applies to all users of True Image 8.0 with an external HDD using USB 2.0. If YES, I would have like to know before I bought the product. Anyway, I hope this will be solved.

 

Hello Simon,

Whether you have this problem or not depends on the model of motherboard you use. As soon as our Development Team gets the newer USB-driver it will be included in the new build of Acronis True Image.

Thank you.
--
Ilya Toytman

 

Hello Ilya,

I would do if I had a USB hard drive

Reason for my request was to compare the restore performance of the build 791 Linux UDB driver with that contained in the 796 build. As many of us know, some drivers perform better in one direction than the other.

Kind regards
Tom