Extremely slow backup to LOCAL NAS
So...I am attempting to make the first whole-computer backup of my present system to a local NAS. The size of the files on our HD are less than 300 GB, yet Acronis 2016 is taking almost 2 days to do the job. Why is this so slow, and how can I speed it up? What can possibly be making this so slow?
The operating system here is Windows 10, and the computer is a quad-core Intel with 8 GB of RAM on a Gigabyte motherboard.
Inquiring minds want to know.
Ken

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NAS backups are impacted by network speed, connection type and all hardware involved.. If using wireless, try a wired connection. If wired, are you getting gigabit speeds or 100mb? What's your NAS device? How many devices are connected to it at the same time? Is it streaming media to other systems at the same time? I'm using a WD Mycloud 4tb and am able to backup a 70gb OS in about 8 minutes but am hard wired and have a confirmed gigabit physical connection from pc to switch and from switch to the NAS. Others with slow backups have often been trying this wirelessly. Others have found that their NAS may have its own security software that scans the files as tgey are written which slows things down. Others have found they're only getting a 100mb connection somewhere on their network which slows everything down. You may need to do some network troubleshooting or NAS troubleshooting. Do you have the latest NAS firmware? What are the NAS cpu and memory utilization before the backup and during backup?
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Bobbo_3C0X1 wrote:NAS backups are impacted by network speed, connection type and all hardware involved.. If using wireless, try a wired connection. If wired, are you getting gigabit speeds or 100mb? What's your NAS device? How many devices are connected to it at the same time? Is it streaming media to other systems at the same time? I'm using a WD Mycloud 4tb and am able to backup a 70gb OS in about 8 minutes but am hard wired and have a confirmed gigabit physical connection from pc to switch and from switch to the NAS. Others with slow backups have often been trying this wirelessly. Others have found that their NAS may have its own security software that scans the files as tgey are written which slows things down. Others have found they're only getting a 100mb connection somewhere on their network which slows everything down. You may need to do some network troubleshooting or NAS troubleshooting. Do you have the latest NAS firmware? What are the NAS cpu and memory utilization before the backup and during backup?
Bobbo_3C0X1 wrote:NAS backups are impacted by network speed, connection type and all hardware involved...
Yes. BTW, I have been an IT Professional since about 1970...
Bobbo_3C0X1 wrote:If using wireless, try a wired connection.
Wired.
Bobbo_3C0X1 wrote:If wired, are you getting gigabit speeds or 100mb?
GigaBit
Bobbo_3C0X1 wrote:What's your NAS device?
LaCie 4 TB
Bobbo_3C0X1 wrote:How many devices are connected to it at the same time?
One.
Bobbo_3C0X1 wrote:Is it streaming media to other systems at the same time?
No. The only operation taking place is this backup. Furthermore, I have the same issues with a new USB 1 TB drive: horribly slow backups.
Bobbo_3C0X1 wrote:I'm using a WD Mycloud 4tb and am able to backup a 70gb OS in about 8 minutes but am hard wired and have a confirmed gigabit physical connection from pc to switch and from switch to the NAS. Others with slow backups have often been trying this wirelessly. Others have found that their NAS may have its own security software that scans the files as they are written which slows things down.
None of that here.
Bobbo_3C0X1 wrote:Others have found they're only getting a 100mb connection somewhere on their network which slows everything down. You may need to do some network troubleshooting or NAS troubleshooting. Do you have the latest NAS firmware?
Yes.
Bobbo_3C0X1 wrote:What are the NAS cpu and memory utilization before the backup and during backup?
Haven't checked.
In order to check whether or not the problem is centered in Acronis 2016, I will now attempt to make a full-system backup to a new internal 320GB HD I just installed. POH 157. All drives have been checked thoroughly with Seagate/Acronis drive software.
Ken
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The NAS is a LaCie 2big Quadra USB 3.0. It has an ethernet port which I have connected to our local hub. I am going to do some "maintenance" on the LaCie NAS using an USB-3 cable to see if that will make any difference.
I am now attempting a full-computer backup via Acronis 2016 to my local 320 GB HD, having excluded that drive from the full system backup list. Time to completion is somewhat over 2 hours, which is far more reasonable than 2 days would be.
Ken
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Thanks for taking the time to answer all of the questions. As you're having a horribly slow time backing up to a USB drive as well, I'm inclined to say it's something local to your system, but would be hard to diagnose without being able to physically check the system. What do your Windows System event logs show? What do your ACronis backup logs show (you can try FTRPilot's logviewer app - see below in my signature).
I've been backing up with Acronis since 2013 and have used it on a multitude of different systems (I work in an IT office too and we refresh more than 100 systems a year, plus backup, image and deploy OSes routinely when issues arise). I also write backups to a variety of different sources (NAS, USB and internal). Can't say I've experienced slow backups unless there was a network issue or a physical issue somewhere along the line.
Did you select "entire pc" as the source instead of "disks and paritions"? If so, it may be trying to backup much more than you're expecting it to. If there are bad sectors on the source drive, it may be reverting to a sector-by-sector backup even though you have not configured it to do so - this could be quite lengthy on large drives.
Perhaps try another trial version of a competing product to see if the slow behavior remains or not. Mabye it is Acronis - mabye it's not. If it we're me, I'd start with another application and see if the behavior can be repeated. If it can, then you know it's not the software. If the other appliation works better, then you have another option to consider.
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Hmmm...well, backing up to an internal HD took around 2 hours. Backing up to an external 1TB drive via USB-3 is NOW taking almost the identical length of time (I didn't write down when I started, but at 50% left it has only 50 minutes left to completion).
At this point, it looks as though I have an NAS issue.
Exploring...
BTW, LaCie is not particularly helpful in this matter... :-(
And, now that I think about it, the issue with being slow to backup to a USB-3 drive was several years ago with a much earilier version of Acronis backup.
Gee...well, I AM 74 years old and my memory isn't what it used to be. Probably never was, for that matter.
Ken
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Well, glad that internal backup and USB backup are in the realm of satisfactory! I don't know much about the Lacie's - but even my WD MyCloud has given me trouble. Some of these "home" Nas devices are just underpowered with minimal CPU and/or memory. On the WD's, the built in TWONKY server constantly scans new files as they're being added and it is a real CPU hog on the NAS. I actually inherited mine from another Acronis forum member due to poor performance that he wanted help with testing. It was down right adbysmal to start with. I seem to have gotten it pretty stable, but it still suffers from poor performance at times and a reboot usually helps out, but has to be done from time to time. When it is working at full speed, it is pretty darn fast - almost as fast as a local backup to an internal SSD which is pretty amazing. When it's off though, boy is it.
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WELL, Young Fellow, let me tell you what has happened here since my last post: 1) I discovered that this NAS which our middle son sold me some time ago is actually a La Cie 2big NAS, and Seagate supports it. Weird. :-0! 2) I updated the firmware in the NAS, found the correct software needed to access it, downloaded that and installed it, made some needed changes to the NAS' file system (BTW, the software/firmware is a version of UNIX), formatted the NAS (4TB Raid 1), attempted yet another back up to it via Acronis and the entire backup process took less than 20 minutes.
So, now I am reasonably happy...and waiting for another dynamite explosion to clobber me between the eyes.
Ken
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Excellent! Glad it's ironed out and appreciate the feedback and honest reply. Stay clear of the dynamite!!!
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