ATI 2017 - Backing Up to External SSD Makes PC COMPLETELY Unusable
Hello everyone,
I am a new user to Acronis and I am having some difficulties doing a verison chain backup of my laptop to an external SSD. First, let me get the specs out of the way:
PC
Laptop: Dell XPS 15 9550
OS: Windows 10 Pro (x64 bit)
Processor: Intel i7 (2.6 ghz)
Storage: M.2 PCIe SSD = 250 GB
Used Storage: ~205 GB
External SSD
Samsung T3 500 GB = Out of the box, nothing done to it.
Whenever I do a backup to my SSD for a custom version chain (1 full, 7 differentials, with auto cleaning options, encrypted) my computer becomes completely unusable & unresponsive because of Acronis. I cannot move the mouse at all, it takes over 4 minutes to register my movement from my trackpad. I have to shutdown my laptop to get control back. Is this common? I don't have a large SSD at all (at least, I don't think) and thus the resources required should be minimal at best. I just cannot believe a backup would be this "intensive" on a pretty high spec'ed PC.
I did some research/googling and I found similair cases from users of older Acronis versions, but most were doing online backups or messing with drivers. I also thought perhaps those issues might not be relevant to the current ATI version. I am not brave enough to start installing/uninstalling drivers/software at leisure, so I hope it is not that/requires that. I can do online backups with no issues (except one of my old backups saying "stream might be corrupted" when I try to update it, but that is probably a server to client sync error which I am not too worried about), but I want to also maintain local backups as well. I had a SSD / OS crash scare (or failure) recently that really kicked my backup and recovery fears into overdrive, so I want to make sure I have a virtually failproof system/process in-place.
I appreciate any help and assitance on this matter. I think ATI is a really strong backup solution and I have heard numerous positive reviews, feedback, and testimonials about it, so I can only imagine I have a setting wrong somewhere or something like that. Let me know if I need to provide any more information.
Please and thanks,
Matt
No, it's not common. I am running it even on a simple 2-in-1 with an ATOM CPU and it's still quite usable during backups. Something seems amiss here.
Is this a fresh Acronis INstall of 2017? Did you ever have an older version you may have upgraded from (perhaps an older trial at some point). Just curious as starting clean may help. If this is "clean", when you installed, did you right click the installer and "run as administrator" (even if logged in as admin)? If not, you may want to do that and complete a "repair" install to see if it helps.
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If not, I have a feeling, but really am not sure just based on this, that VSS may be an issue here. During an online (from within Windows) a VSS snapshot is used to copy locked/system files - VSS is s Windows service that Acronis calls on to do this. As you have a 250GB drive (assuming about 230Gb usable) and approximately 205Gb in use, that leaves you roughly 25GB of free space, which may be in competition with other thigns like the paging file as well. In most cases, even the fastest of SSD's (PCIE NVME) still need some free space to do file caching - you typically want to try and have about 10-20% free space always free for this for best performance...
So, back to VSS...
When snapshotting, VSS copies the locked files into system volume (hidden folder on C: drive at the root). It needs this space to image the data. It's possible that this is filling up the remainder of the drive in bursts as it is snapshotting.
As a possible, work-a-round, you can go into the backup task and change the backup type from the default VSS to Acronis snapshot and see if that helps. Acronis will default to the older snapshot method (proprietyar to Acronis - called snapapi) that was the default backup method in 2014 and earlier versions. At least you can test to see if this helps.
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2nd, not sure what version of 2017 you have installed? Are you using 2017 Standard 8029 or NG 6116? Curious because NG 6116 has system protection.
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Also curious if your local AV could be at issue with Acronis as it may be doing realtime scans of the acronis program and the files it is creating. You may want to whitelist the entire directory where you store your backups, along with
C:\programfiles (x86)\Acronis
C:\programfiles (x86)\COMMON FILES\Acronis
C:\programdata\Acronis
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Also are you doing any mobile backups or using the sync feature or dashboard? If not, you may want to disable those services from control panel >> administrative tools >> services (right click and run as administrator - even if logged in as admin). YOu can stop and "disable" any services you don't need/want. I disable everythign except for scheduler2 as that is the only required one and I don't use mobile backup, synch, dashboard, etc. Another screenshot attached for reference.
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I've got no answers, but I have a few questions.
Can you do standard Windows on the external drive? Create a directory and copy a file? (If not, there's no sense in trying to get Acronis to talk with the drive.)
Does the backup work if you don't specify encryption?
Can you successfully do a backup of a small test file?
Matt, welcome to these user forums.
No, this is not normal for Acronis to consume all CPU resources when doing a backup and has not been my own experience of using the product.
The first point to check is to look at your backup task Options, then open the Advanced page tab and check what you have set in the Performance section - in particular, what have you set for Operation priority - this is set to Low by default but you may have this set on High which would have a much greater impact of other activities on your computer.
Hi Steve,
It was originally at "Normal", but putting I tried putting it to low this morning and that did help a little, but around ~500 mb into the backup, the PC started to really lag. Not completely unusable, but impractical to use. The backup took a little over 4 hours to complete (which seems strange both are SSDs of a very respectable read/write speed.)
No, it's not common. I am running it even on a simple 2-in-1 with an ATOM CPU and it's still quite usable during backups. Something seems amiss here.
Is this a fresh Acronis INstall of 2017? Did you ever have an older version you may have upgraded from (perhaps an older trial at some point). Just curious as starting clean may help. If this is "clean", when you installed, did you right click the installer and "run as administrator" (even if logged in as admin)? If not, you may want to do that and complete a "repair" install to see if it helps.
----------------
If not, I have a feeling, but really am not sure just based on this, that VSS may be an issue here. During an online (from within Windows) a VSS snapshot is used to copy locked/system files - VSS is s Windows service that Acronis calls on to do this. As you have a 250GB drive (assuming about 230Gb usable) and approximately 205Gb in use, that leaves you roughly 25GB of free space, which may be in competition with other thigns like the paging file as well. In most cases, even the fastest of SSD's (PCIE NVME) still need some free space to do file caching - you typically want to try and have about 10-20% free space always free for this for best performance...
So, back to VSS...
When snapshotting, VSS copies the locked files into system volume (hidden folder on C: drive at the root). It needs this space to image the data. It's possible that this is filling up the remainder of the drive in bursts as it is snapshotting.
As a possible, work-a-round, you can go into the backup task and change the backup type from the default VSS to Acronis snapshot and see if that helps. Acronis will default to the older snapshot method (proprietyar to Acronis - called snapapi) that was the default backup method in 2014 and earlier versions. At least you can test to see if this helps.
----------------
2nd, not sure what version of 2017 you have installed? Are you using 2017 Standard 8029 or NG 6116? Curious because NG 6116 has system protection.
----------------
Also curious if your local AV could be at issue with Acronis as it may be doing realtime scans of the acronis program and the files it is creating. You may want to whitelist the entire directory where you store your backups, along with
C:\programfiles (x86)\Acronis
C:\programfiles (x86)\COMMON FILES\Acronis
C:\programdata\Acronis
----------------
Also are you doing any mobile backups or using the sync feature or dashboard? If not, you may want to disable those services from control panel >> administrative tools >> services (right click and run as administrator - even if logged in as admin). YOu can stop and "disable" any services you don't need/want. I disable everythign except for scheduler2 as that is the only required one and I don't use mobile backup, synch, dashboard, etc. Another screenshot attached for reference.
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Hi Bobbo,
The install is fresh. I installed Acronis in Februrary of this year. I have never heard of them before this year (and thus did not have any of their products.) My laptop is only ~6 months old. I get asked via an admin prompt "Do you want Acronis to make changes to this PC?" and always hit yes, on startup. I will try doing a repair this weekend. As for the version I have installed, I am not sure how to find that out. I just know it is the 2017 version.
My AV does not interfere with it. I checked that after the 3rd reboot. :)
I am trying to free up space, but most of it is used by the numerous SDK's I have for my software development environment. I wanted a complete backup first before I start cutting things away, in case I make a mistake on something.
As for mobile backups, I only do those via my MacBook Air and they do NOT sync to my XPS 15. I have only used the backup feature on Acronis, I have not touched the others yet.
Thanks,
Matt
Matt, how much free space do you have on your source SSD drive? That can make a difference even with SSD's as they need around 20% free space ideally to work effectively.
The other advice, as per Rob's comments, is to disable any Acronis Services that you are not using, such as Mobile Backup, Sync Agent, Non Stop Backup so that these do not take up unnecessary CPU cycles.
Matt, how much free space do you have on your source SSD drive? That can make a difference even with SSD's as they need around 20% free space ideally to work effectively.
The other advice, as per Rob's comments, is to disable any Acronis Services that you are not using, such as Mobile Backup, Sync Agent, Non Stop Backup so that these do not take up unnecessary CPU cycles.
I have 43 GB free. I cleaned out some old files. I have disabled those services, as far as I can tell.
I've never seen anyone post that Acronis news admin access after booting. You're the first for me.
based on that though, I'd say there's an issue with the install that might be the root of the problem.
for starters, I'd redownload the latest installer from your account. Right click it and "run as administrator" even if you are logged in as admin. You need to do this to ensure full admin access for the install.
if it's the same version, you'll be given the option to repair, which I would try first. If your installer is newer than what you have now, then proceed to upgrade and see if that helps.
EDITED (originally typed on a cell - sorry).
Note that you may need to stop those other services and set them to disabled if you don't want them running after the repair or upgrade.
I've never seen anyone post that Acronis news admin access after booting. You're the first for me.
based on that though, I'd say there's an issue with the install that might be the root of the problem.
for starters, I'd redownload the latest installer from your account. Right click it and "run as administrator" even if you are logged in as admin. You need to do this to ensure full admin access for the install.
if it's the same version, you'll be given the option to repair, which I would try first. If your installer is newer than what you have now, then proceed to upgrade and see if that helps.
Perhaps I was not clear. When I said "startup" I meant "at the user prompted startup of Acronis..."
I think I might have found the problem though. When I choose the "backup recovery" option in the backup creation's advanced settings and pick one of my NAS drives, the whole software will crumble when it tries to backup using that configuration. Regardless of internet connection speed even. I tried 5 different internet configurations: my own private wifi which gets around 50 Mbps, my own private land line which is around 70 Mbps, my work's wifi which is around 15 Mbps, my work's hard line which is 50 Mbps, and a 100 Mbps line at my work data center....ALL of them failed.3 The program should compensate for this, or not?
I like many of the features of Acronis, but if it can accomplish its primary purpose then I cannot see myself continueing using a system that might break down at any given time. - Doing further research indicates there might be some errors in what I want and what Acronis True Image can provide, I might want to be looking at Acronis Backup Advanced (or Advanced Backup...)
Hello Matt,
The issue with backup to Acronis Cloud could be caused by the specific task's metadata - catalog of backup contents. You said once that one backup to Cloud job works fine, while the other fails. If the failing backup task contains the data that you no longer need, you can simply delete the task. However, if you need it, please submit a ticket, we would help you fixing it. If backups to Cloud fail no matter if they are newly created tasks or previously created, we would also be glad to help you, do not hesitate to contact us.
Regarding the computer performance problem during backup to the Samsung SSD - please check the CPU usage in Windows Task Manager before and after starting Acronis backup to the external drive. During the first few minutes, when preparations are made, CPU usage may be low, but when the real data transfer from source SSD to the destination SSD begins, the CPU usage may become close to 100%. If it is the case, then the issue with the system slowdown when doing local backup is caused by optimizations made in 2017 version of Acronis True Image. Unlike the previous versions, 2017 tries to maximize the backup speed by all means. When the real speeds of 1) reading the source, 2) transferring data to the destination and 3) writing the .TIB file allow (all are high enough), like in your case (fast SSDs), True Image fully takes advantage of them, tries to create the backup very quickly, at very high transfer rates and the bottleneck of data processing becomes the CPU - despite being an i7 processor, it is just not capable of handling the incoming data flow, analyzing it, compressing it into a .TIB file and sending to the destination.
If you did video conversion in the past, when there was little to no GPU-acceleration, CPU-intensive jobs were similarly making the entire computer responding very slowly.
Backup tasks that run at lower pace (slow USB, NAS, Acronis Cloud destinations) are limited by the USB/network connection speed between source and target, the data is processed at considerably lower rates and the processor is perfectly capable of doing its job, leaving you with lots of resources for other tasks.
Developers know about the request for an option for throttling the CPU usage, but there are no estimations when it could be implemented.
Regards,
Slava
Thank you Slava! I am sad to hear this is a known bug with no estimated patch arrival time, but I might be able to work around it (do backups late at night or only when I am not working on my laptop.) There are many great things about Acronis True Image 2017 that I still have yet to discover and perfect. Interestingly enough, the cloud syncing backup error also occured on my other laptop (MacBook Air), leaving me to believe the Acronis Cloud Server's backup got corrupted. Doing another full backup to Acronis Cloud on my Dell XPS 15 worked and has not failed yet, so that is good. If I have any more issues, I will try submitting a support ticket! :)
Hello Matt,
When a backup becomes inaccessible due to its metadata corruption (a service file, usually under 100 MB in size), it does so on all the computers with that particular backup, because backup's metadata is automatically synced across the computers. All the rest of the backups remain healthy and unaffected though - the issue with metadata is never spread to other backups.
I thought I would elaborate on how we approach issues with backups failing due to corrupted metadata. First we check the metadata for consistency. If the check shows that it is corrupted, then we look up a healthy reserve copy of the metadata in the program data files and on Acronis servers. If we found it - we simply recover it from a healthy copy and the backup becomes accessible once again with all the backed up data untouched. If no healthy copy is found - we attempt to fix the damaged metadata. Success in fixing the corrupted metadata usually means getting back full access to the backup archive at cost of loosing one or more "slices" - backup versions, recovery points, that were affected by the corruption. Finally, the necessary measures are taken to prevent the issue from occurring in the future.
There are some screencasts on our YouTube channel. If you are new to Acronis software, I would recommend watching these two small recordings: about setting backup options, and restoring the entire system.
Regards,
Slava