Extremely slow restores and backups (to the cloud)
Hi all,
I'm working on a laptop that's decently fast, though, I think had a failing HD (no SMART errors, but anyway), as it was extremely slow at times. I replaced the 2.5" SATA HDD with a 2.5 SSD (SAmsung Evo 860). The system backup was about 200 GB, to the Acronis cloud via True Image 2020. The restore took FOREVER, about 4-5 days. It progressed continuously, never appeared to lock up, but it was stupid slow. At first I thought it was the computer, but after the restore finallyc ompleted, the computer is much faster.
However, I updated TI to version 2021. That went normal speed, all downloads very quick, etc. However, I'm running another backup, it's incremental so it's putting perhaps 8 GB into the cloud right now, and it is again extremely slow. The data rates report from 171Kbps to 2.5Mbps, 2.5 being my raw upload max here. But then it also jumps upwards of 7.3Mbps, implying it's using some good transmission compression.
But the bottom line is that this rreally apepars like the ACronis cloud itself is the issue. I ran Windows updates, MIcrosoft 365 updates, a Java and some iTunes software updates - all these went full speed on both download and observed disk performance. But Acrnois, is just super slow, the restore itself was particularly disheartening. Anyone have thoughts on that? Maybe THIS is why the ACronis business products' cloud storage costs 8x as much as the consumer version? :)
Concur with Steve here. Local backups are superior for recovery purposes.
Enchantech wrote:Concur with Steve here. Local backups are superior for recovery purposes.
+1
I have not done a restore from the Cloud since beta testing of either ATI 2016 or 2017 (probably the former). It worked without any problem. But is was on my HP Slate tablet, which only has 32Gig of storage so there was not much to restore. My recollection (which after all this time could be completely unreliable) is that it appeared to do a differential restore rather than a full download - that was inferred by quick restore time (at the time I had a 100/2 Mbps internet connection).
Hi guys.
Well, it would appear this is an Acronis problem. After the restore completed, the laptop was full speed, no issues. Had the super slow restore been a problem with the hardware, I'd expect to see similar issues once it booted but it was vastly improved over when it had the HDD.
Now, granted us IT people agree local backup is faster but this isn't a bandwidth problem (Edited: with my connection I mean), in that my speeds here aren't the issue and neither was the computer hardware. The only question is, was this issue the norm for Acronis Cloud (consumer version at least) or was it one of those situations where the connection started off slowly, and the bandwidth management logic at either the laptop end (booted to USB restore media) or at the ACronis server end didn't have the wherewithal to adapt and increase the speed dynamically, so perhaps it held some awful 200Kbps link for the entire 4 or 5 days. I don't know, but I do know that right now the Acronis Cloud (consumer version) is not reliable, based on this one incident. I'd of course want to test it again to find out if it's always like this, but taking 4 or more straight days to recover a 200 GB system image essentially makes this product highly underiable.
Obviously local backups are faster but that's not a realistic proposition for mobile users, and/or for single users that are not at an office. TI is positioned as a consumer product so nobody in that space buys NAS (Edited: quality NAS that is). Then you have crazy people like myself that have like 4 NAS units on seperate networks, and I'm just a single IT consultant haha :)
But anyway, cloud-based backup/restore is the only viable options for mobile users these days, local USB drives are not at all convenient, reliably connected when the backup is scheduled, etc., so cloud is the only option. Thus, it needs to perform better. Darnit Acronis! :)
I'm surprised nobody has done any test restores on here? I hope by the time I can do this next, I'll remember to post my results on here but that could be months away. I've used Acronis Backup and done lots of cloud restores, and that works as expected using full bandwidth. But that Acronis Cloud add-on costs nearly 10x as much as the exact same amount of space offered in True Image's version of Acronis Cloud, so I'm willing to bet the real issue is bandwidth throttling.
FYI I"m going on like 4 hours sleep so I realized in reviewing my post that I'm like "this is the way it is", but I just mean to say that in my experience, certain things are what they are. Nobody spend $700 on NAS at home if all they havec is a laptop, and that kinda thing. Easier to say this here than to reword the whole post. :)
Most users of the True Image product only use the Cloud storage for folder/file storage/recovery purposes. I hear what you are saying for the mobile traveler but unfortunately, that is not the majority of the user base here, at least from my perspective.
Users here tend to have laptop PC's to which they attach large USB 3.0 HDD's for backup storage. NAS devices are NOT the norm at all. Most of the MVP's here do run NAS devices and some of us have more than one, myself included in that. We are not your typical user of the product however.
I recognize that mobile devices have become small and light having only one storage option. If it were me in this situation I would purchase a large capacity USB 3.0 flash drive to take along holding a recoverable full backup file and run frequent differential type backups for that full during my travels. Flash drives can now be had in huge capacities and are well suited for just this scenario.
In my experience the issues are with the configuration of the Acronis servers. From my quick skimming of the thread you appear to not to have had the problem of disconnection from the server caused by spurious claim internet connection is lost - the problem is that there is a two way process with some of the heavy lifting being done by the local PC and this can result in no communication with the server for significant time, or the failure of the server to provide any response results in the local PC assuming the connection is lost. It comes down to an inappropriate server configuration. To my knowledge Acronis has been aware of this issue for several issues but have not seen fit to fix it. It has nothing to do with connection speed - I have seen it with a 100/5 Mbps connection, and even with a 96/36 connection.