Non-stop backup and Anti-Virus
I found out last night that the following combo does not work:
1) Windows 10, build 1511.
2) Outpost Security Suite Pro 9.3
3) Non-stop backup in Acronis True Image 2016.
4) Process Monitor from sysinternals.
What happens is that when Process Monitor starts you get the frame of the UI, but no data is listed and what used to be the hourglass keeps spinning. When it comes to Acronis, note that Non-stop backup must have entered the running state. If it still in preparation mode, Process Monitor runs. (What happens if Process Monitor is already running, when Non-stop backup enters the running state, I have not investigated.)
I have just built a new machine with Windows 10. This did not happen on my only Win7 box that had eariler versions of Outpost and True Image. However, I had problems on that machine with situations where all attempts to access the F drive would hang (while other disk would work), and shutdown of Windows never would complete. I was never able to reproduce this at will, so it was difficult to investigate. But I have replaced the F drive twice - and it has it occurred once already on my new machine! Furthermore, most of the files targeted for the non-stop backup are on the F drive.
Thus, I'm starting to suspect that there are some conflicts between the various filter drivers injected by Process Monitor, Outpost and Acronis. I don't expect that anyone here has a solution, but I'm interested if anyone else has any experiences or observations to share.
Currently, I have uninstalled Outpost and installed a trial of Kaspersky. This does not result in any conflict with Process Monitor + Acronis, but I have experienced two lockups already, and more severe than with Outpost. The first was on a virtual machine which eventually came back to normal, but the second was on my physical box,
and I eventually caved in and pressed the reset button. Whether this is related to non-stop backup, I don't know.
One solution I'm considering is to schedule incremental backups for what I now capture with the non-stop backup. Or move to a different backup product. I can't say that the dumb-founded UI of True Image 2016 is aimed to give confidence in the product...
Not sure if this will help and you may have already done this but when it comes to third-party security products it usually helps to exclude applications such as True Image and in your case possibly Process Monitor in the security product so that it will not scan and block those applications from running.
Hello, Erland.
This is indeed reproducible, however it's reproducible without True Image as well. You can verify it like this:
* Install Outpost Security Suite
* Reboot
* Create a VSS shadow copy of the system volume (system restore point)
* Start Process Monitor
I have not been able to reproduce it that way, but the whole thing is moot by now, since the Outpost product is being discontinued after the manufacturer have been acquired by another company. Users with a lifetime license like me were offered to switch to Kaspersky, and I have already done that.
And for my part, I will discontinue Acronis. It is impossible to have a faith in a product which looks like the recent version. The other day, Windows were not able to reboot because some Acronis service was hanging. When I tried to find a file from non-stop backups taken on my old machine, only one of the archives were accessible from Acronis True Image. I was able to find the file by getting it from a differential backup, but it took half an hour to manouvre to find the file.
Sorry to hear that Erland, I, like others, find comfort in applications not changing format too much in appearance so we don't have to relearn the ins and outs of an application. I think you'll find this to be a regular application model, although some do drastically change the look, but don't actually change much of the functionality. When Acronis changed the format from 2014 to 2015 to make it more simplified, a lot of people complained because it was different. You can see why they might not want the outward appearance to be too drastic in the next couple of releases.
Did you read the information about nonstop backup before you configured it? Both of these issues are explained in the documentation.
Although it takes "nonstop" backups throughout the day, each day it then mergest them into one backup so you can only recover from that point in time. Nonstop backup is saved in a proprietary format and is the only back that you can't go into and just copy and paste out of from Windows Explorer which does make it more difficult to retrieve from in that sense.
Using Acronis Nonstop Backup
Acronis Nonstop Backup provides easy protection of your disks and files. It allows you to recover entire disks, individual files and their different versions.
The main purpose of Acronis Nonstop Backup is continuous protection of your data (files, folders, contacts, etc.), though you can use it to protect partitions as well. If you choose to protect an entire partition, you will be able to recover the partition as a whole using the image recovery procedure.
Limitations
- You can create only one nonstop backup.
- With Acronis Nonstop Backup you cannot protect:
- Windows libraries (Documents, Music, etc.)
- Data stored on external hard drives
- Nonstop Backup and Try&Decide cannot work simultaneously.
How it works
Once you start Acronis Nonstop Backup, the program will perform an initial full backup of the data selected for protection. Acronis Nonstop Backup will then continually monitor the protected files (including open ones). Once a modification is detected, the changed data is backed up. The shortest interval between the incremental backup operations is five minutes. This allows you to recover your system to an exact point in time.
Acronis Nonstop Backup checks file changes on the disk, not in the memory. If, for instance, you are working in Word and do not use the "Save" operation for a long time, your current changes in the Word document will not be backed up.
You may think that at these backup rates the storage will fill in no time. Do not worry as Acronis True Image 2016 will back up only so called "deltas". This means that only differences between old and new versions will be backed up and not whole changed files. For example, if you use Microsoft Outlook or Windows Mail, your pst file may be very large. Furthermore, it changes with each received or sent E-mail message. Backing up the entire pst file after each change would be an unacceptable waste of your storage space, so Acronis True Image 2016 backs up only its changed parts in addition to the initially backed up file.
Retention rules
Acronis Nonstop Backup keeps all backups for the last 24 hours. The older backups will be consolidated in such a way that Nonstop Backup will keep daily backups for the last 30 days and weekly backups until all NonstopBackup data destination space is used.
The consolidation will be performed every day between midnight and 01:00 AM. The first consolidation will take place after the Nonstop Backup has been working for at least 24 hours. For example, you have turned on theNonstop Backup at 10:00 AM on July 12. In this case the first consolidation will be performed between 00:00 and 01:00 AM on July 14. Then the program will consolidate the data every day at the same time. If your computer is turned off between 00:00 and 01:00 AM, the consolidation will start when you turn the computer on. If you turn off Nonstop Backup for some time, the consolidation will start after you turn it on again.
Acronis True Image usually saves backup data in the proprietary tib format using compression. The data from .tib file backups can be recovered only through Acronis True Image, in Windows or in the recovery environment.
Acronis Nonstop Backup uses a special hidden storage for data and metadata. The backed up data is compressed and split into files of about 1 GB. These files also have a proprietary format and the data they contain can be recovered only with the help of Acronis True Image.
I tried to access the archives through Acronis True Image.
A possible reason is the fact that some of these archives may be corrupt. On my old machine, everyonce in a while Non-Stop backup would stop and reboot would not help. At one occasion it was due to a file that was over 5GB in size, ehum that's not what I called reliable. But in other cases, it just seemed to be corruption in the archives. Or at least that was what I could make out from the archives. And of course, it could be due to that I was accessing the archives from a different computer they were taken on.
In the blurb you post, I notice this thing about Windows libraries. Wow! I did not know that. I had my Users folder included in the non-stop backup, because that seemed like a reasonable thing to include. As it happens, I don't put my music, pictures there on other discs. Yet, I must say that is an astonishing limitaiton.
I hapened to observe this thread: https://forum.acronis.com/forum/99342. About everyone there seemed to agree that Non-Stop Backup is not usable. And indeed, I switched over to Windows FIle History some time ago. Simpler, less hassle from what I can tell.
And I now I will no longer use Acronis for my full backups, but I'm switching to StorageCraft ShadowProtect SPX. Certainly more expensive, since that is a solution primarily for home users. But I want a backup solution I can rely on.