Defrag disk while Nonstop Backup turned on
My data is on Drive D, which is protected by Nonstop Backup which has its backup file on an external hard disk. Can I defrag the D Drive without turning Nonstop Backup off?
Hello all!
Thank you for your questions and thanks a lot for the answer, bodgy.
That is correct - we can use the Nonstop backup while running the defragmentation, but it is strongly not recommended due to the new full backup will be created.
We are creating the snapshot before proceeding with the back up itself, and assigning hash values for sectors. After that we verify the checksum created with the sector on the drive, and should it be different (changed) - we back it up. During the process of defragmentation you are actually rewriting the sectors, thus on verifying we identify them as changed and create the newer backup.
It takes a lot of space. so usually we advise to turn off the Nonstop backup during defragmentation process.
Should something seems confusing - let me know, I will be glad to clarify!
What about with w7 by default being setup to auto defrag every week. NSB should be able to reconize when this happens and pause until defrag is done. I'm wondering now if that isn't what messed up my nsb storage the first time because it ran for several days.
Hello all!
Thank you for your questions and thanks a lot for the answer, bodgy.
That is correct - we can use the Nonstop backup while running the defragmentation, but it is strongly not recommended due to the new full backup will be created.
We are creating the snapshot before proceeding with the back up itself, and assigning hash values for sectors. After that we verify the checksum created with the sector on the drive, and should it be different (changed) - we back it up. During the process of defragmentation you are actually rewriting the sectors, thus on verifying we identify them as changed and create the newer backup.
It takes a lot of space. so usually we advise to turn off the Nonstop backup during defragmentation process.
Should something seems confusing - let me know, I will be glad to clarify!
Won't the hash values of the defraggmentes files be changed, then picked up as changed files when NSB is turned back on?
Hello,
Let me clarify this situation for you.
Greg is right - defragmentation will surely change hash values of all files in your system, and our Non Stop Backup can consider all files as changed as well. Thus it will create a very large backup. this case is related to all usual backups - we always recommend to run Full backup after defragmentation, since creating incremental \ differential backup may confuse the product, since all files were changed after defragmentation.
It's strongly recommended to turn the Non Stop Backup off before the defragmentation.
Additionally to this, you are welcome to ask me any other questions concerning Acronis, and I will assist you further.
Regards,
What's the point in automating things when you still have to go around shutting stuff off before the timer starts something? NSB needs to reconize when windows is starting defrag and pause itself until windows is done. This is just common sense design. A lot of people wont even know auto defrag is on by default with w7. This is another flaw in nsb.
I hadn’t used NSB as I haven’t trusted any but the most basic parts of the program. From what has been said on the forum I am very pleased that’s what I did, though even here I had problems that need workarounds every back up!
But the issues with NSB show how totally useless the reviews have been for this program, everyone I have looked at have said what a good thing NSB is, either they had it working for a short time as some here or never even opened the box! Even more as Timothy Lenz has pointed out what’s the point as its a really flawed concept if its is unable to cope with the defaults of W7 let alone those of us who use programs like Diskeeper!
At an earlier time/post I agreed with others that what was needed was a really safe/stable backup program not one with bloat of add ones that lead to problems and remove the core ability to really do the main job of image creation and restore if needed. It also shows how useless those doing reviews really are as a guide to how good products actually are!
Here's a question maybe someone who knows can answer. When you log off in w7, does nsb go pause? I have noticed that when I restart the computer, even if I let it set for awhile at the login screen, once I log on, then nsb does it's starting nsb followed by normally a quick backup. If I just log out and then log back in, nsb just says turned on right away. If it pauses while logged out, then problem solved because windows runs defrag at a time when I'm not on.
Dear Timothy and John7!
Thank you for your comments and feedback, we really appreciate that.
We can surely request the feature for NonStop Backup to recognize when Win7 starts defragmentation and freeze for that moment - but that won't be a great help. When defragmentation is running hash values are changed, so anyway NonStop or any other kind of backup of any other software will recognize files as new and back them up to the new huge file. The scheme is simple:
Defragmentation "changes" the sectors -> Sectors are recognized as new -> "New" sectors are backed up.
This is fair not only for the NonStop Backup, but for all the types of backups of any software based on analyzing the hard drive sectors state. Thus, as Alexander already mentioned, we advise to run the full backup after defragmentation not to confuse the product.
Unfortunately NonStop backup is not suspended in case you are logged off. The reason is trivial: its service is running from the system account, and since system is not down, service is still working as well. Thus it's not turned off or suspended - and it may cause several issues with the product in case defragmentation is running.
I entirely understand how inconvenient it is and will surely request a feature that will allow to automatically suspend NonStop backup at the beginning of defragmentation. Currently I would advise you the following workaround:
- Turn off automated defragmentation in Windows 7
- Schedule defragmentation and NonStop backup to run at different time.
In order to turn off or reschedule the defragmentation in Windows 7 please kindly do the following:
- Go to Start -> Run -> dfrgui. This will take you to the defrag menu.
- Choose Configure Schedule as shown on the Menu screenshot
- Please either uncheck "Run on Schedule" option (in case you would like to turn it off) or specify any suitable plan by choosing proper frequency, days and time. (see Settings screenshot)
With the help of these instructions you can easily reschedule defragmentation and NonStop backup never to meet each other and run without any issues.
I would appreciate if you could kindly share your concerns and questions with us - just leave a comment here, and we will definitely help you.
Meanwhile I will forward your feedback and suggestions to our Development team so that they could be aware of the problem and could take an action on it.
Thank you in advance for cooperation.
Won't be able to work on this for a few days. have to read over it more latter. But:
"# Schedule defragmentation and NonStop backup to run at different time."
NSB runs all the time. Scheduling would be to pause which doesn't seem possible now.
When you say do a full backup after defrag, right now acronis does a full drive backup once a week. But even if it was set to run after defrag and nsb restarted then, doesn't nsb use it's own data to decide what needs updating? So nsb would still do full update also.
How do i toggle non-stop off and on from command line ? I want to be able to shut off during full backup scheduled tasks, and then turn back on after full drive image is complete . Any clues ?
Which is right? These forums posts which recommend against it and said it will cause constant full backups (unacceptable as Windows recommend defragmentation each week) or the following Acronis KB article which contradicts these posts and explains how they are completely compatible - that NSB works on file level and that is fine because defrag works on sector level. Please get some true experts in here to answer:
"8762: Acronis True Image Home 2010: Nonstop Backup and Defragmentation
Created - Feb 23, 2010; Updated - Mar 30, 2010; Access Level - Public
This article applies to:
Acronis True Image Home 2010
Acronis True Image Home 2010 Plus Pack
Acronis Backup and Security 2010
Description
Acronis Nonstop Backup is performed on the file level, while defragmentation runs on the sector level.
Acronis Nonstop Backup and defragmentation are fully compatible and do not interfere.
It is safe to run Acronis Nonstop Backup and disk defrgamentation at the same time.
More information"
I didn't find mention of this issue in the documentation--I could have missed it. If I did miss it then perhaps it should be made more apparent. If it isn't in the user documentation, then it should be added. My defrag software runs in the background, which means nonstop BU is nonstop.... arggg.
I tried NSB for my data files and diskeeper pro stoped working! I deleted the job and its OK again. Though it was data Volum Shadow Copy was dedtected by DK and stoped when the job was removed. Somthing is clashing with the two as I did have NTI Shaddowe running but is has major problems with Win 7 though non at all with Diskeeper!
I am surprised that there has been no official response to Heartspeace from Yana ?