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#42842 11/15/09 11:15 AM
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I've just made a disk image using Seagate DiscWizard. (which is basically Acronis TI 'lite')
The process completed without a hitch and resulted in a .tib of 77 gb.
However, it took 24 hours to make.
Does that sound about right you to all the resident specialists here?
I'm running XP, SP3 writing the image direct (via a USB connection) to an external drive.
Many thanks

mglinert #42843 11/16/09 02:03 AM
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Hi Marc,

I recently made an image on one of my drives and it took about 6 hours. Depending on your settings, that probably means that 24 hours is realistic (if verify was happening). I don't know the Seagate program but often the free software does not perform as fast other purchased software. (Well at least according to some sources on the 'net.).

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Noel


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Noel96 #42844 11/16/09 04:10 AM
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Perhaps the lite version is not designed to work from a Priority thread, the assumption being that folks will want to continue with work while the transfer takes place.

It might also be that the code was written before half and one terabyte drives were even out there, too.


--Mac

Mac #42845 11/16/09 04:27 AM
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Thanks for that guys.
The plot thickens a little, as I made a disk image using the same software and the same drive on another desk top and this one took little more than a couple of hours. (there was less data to back up, but not that much less).

Not sure that leaves me any the wiser as to where the culprit is, though :
- the processor itself, which is performing the operation slowly ? Theoretically it is faster than the 2nd PC
- a rogue command somewhere telling the PC to perform the operation slowly?
(there was nothing else running at the time)
- interference from another programme, like an AV (but surely, that would have wrecked the process altogether?

Ah well, as Buddy once said, I guess it doesn't matter anymore.
If that's how long it takes, then that's the amount of time I'll set aside for it.

BTW, there is a fairly standard and reasonable piece of advice which is to test backup images after they have been made.
But surely, if the test fails you're left with a doorstop. THis is why I've never been brave enough to carry out this kind of test.
Any advice from anyone??

Thanks to all

Marc

mglinert #42846 11/16/09 04:40 AM
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Quote:

Than
- interference from another programme, like an AV (but surely, that would have wrecked the process altogether?






That could well be the case.

You should turn all Virus scanning software off before doing the disk copy routine.

Virus Scanning has been known to interfere with the amount of time it takes to do other disk-intensive tasks, for example, defragmenting.


--Mac

Mac #42847 11/16/09 06:25 AM
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I like to test my images, but I try to do so on a different drive than the one from which I took the image. That way, I'm not dead in the water if things go awry. Using the commercial version of Acronis True Image (ATI), I've had no problems creating and restoring images. In fact I did so this morning from an image I made earlier this year and it worked just fine. It was on a USB external drive, and I restored about a 30GB Vista and 25GB XP image (for dual boot); the restore took about 1 1/2 hours. Both OS's booted fine.

24 hours for an image seems excessive to me. Did you try to use maximum compression, perhaps? I know with ATI, you get little storage benefit, but it takes a lot longer to create the image.


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jford #42848 11/16/09 07:40 AM
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Might the process take longer if the disk was badly fragmented? Is the pagesys file generally ignored by the image software?

I do file backup, not image - so I'm not clear on these issues

Cheers


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Ian Fraser #42849 11/16/09 05:54 PM
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Quote:

Might the process take longer if the disk was badly fragmented?




Absolutely.

Mac #42850 11/16/09 09:19 PM
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Finally
Quote:

...(via a USB connection) to an external drive.




A lot of it depends on the USB connection and the speed of the external drive. If you had 77 gigs of data being transferred over a USB 1.0 connection, yeah, it probably would take that long.

Gary


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Gary Curran #42851 11/17/09 02:23 AM
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@Mac – many thanks Mac, will turn off AV and disable Internet connection next time round / yes, I should have defragged first.

@John – thanks John. I was operating at normal compression. So ideally I would need a spare PC to test the backup images. (Isn't that a problem with the software licenses - notably the MS ones, which must know that they are being put back on to a different PC?)
That makes sense, but I don’t have one at the moment. Will have to wait until my next PC purchase.
I would be happy to buy the full version of ATI, but do you know if I could use it on more than one machine?

@Gary – no, it was a USB 2.0 connection, but I think you could be onto something. The drive was plugged into the PC via a USB hub, which is probably not the ideal setup. Another factor for me to correct next time round.

mglinert #42852 11/17/09 02:55 AM
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Legally, you need a license for each machine. I'll just leave it at that...

But, no you don't need a spare PC to test the backup images. You just need a spare disk, or even a spare partition on the current disk. You may have to change which disk is the first disk in the chain (to get the OS to boot), but that's easy enough. That let's you restore without overwriting something important (like your current system).


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jford #42853 11/17/09 06:19 AM
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Quote:

Legally, you need a license for each machine. I'll just leave it at that....




Thanks John. I get the message!

mglinert #42854 01/19/10 07:23 AM
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From what I read (and from a number of sources) the age-old Acronis TI vs. Norton Ghost debate looks set to be a thing of the past.
For those PC users who upgrade to W7, that is.

mglinert #42855 01/20/10 06:33 AM
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Is your hub USB2? If it is USB1 that could make the difference.

I do Norton Ghost and backup on 2 separate USB 2.0 drives. A complete image the first of the month and incremental backups daily for the rest of the month.

The full image usually takes me 3 or 4 hours, and I do that when I can leave the computer unattended for a few hours.

I've replaced drives that either crashed or developed errors in them, and restored them to the last back-up/image. Also, I always back up before installing new software - this has saved my @$$ a few times.

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mglinert #42856 01/20/10 07:09 AM
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Quote:

"From what I read (and from a number of sources) the age-old Acronis TI vs. Norton Ghost debate looks set to be a thing of the past.
For those PC users who upgrade to W7, that is."




Marc, could you clarify what you mean by this?

Thanks, Steve


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Steve G #42857 01/20/10 07:47 AM
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Sorry, happy to clarify Steve.

PC users will be less likely to buy 3rd party solutions for making image backups (Acronis True Image and Norton Ghost are the market leaders in this field) as this function is built into Windows 7.

mglinert #42858 01/20/10 10:24 AM
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I also believe that I read that the Acronis TIB file format (that True Image uses for it's image files) can be converted to the Windows 7 file format. Where Acronis True Image and others still come into play will be for folks that have multi-boot systems and need to backup multiple operating systems using different file formats.

One of my computers right now is running XP-Pro, Vista, Windows 7, and I will probably add Ubuntu Linux to it soon.


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mglinert #42859 01/20/10 04:15 PM
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Sorry, happy to clarify Steve.

PC users will be less likely to buy 3rd party solutions for making image backups (Acronis True Image and Norton Ghost are the market leaders in this field) as this function is built into Windows 7.





I'd bet the rent that people will still purchase the aftermarket stuff and I'm not a betting man.

Ye Olde Hatred of All Things Microsoft is the reason I'd do that.

Competition make business better for all,


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Mac #42860 01/21/10 01:51 PM
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I hope you figured it out!


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