Slow everthing
Hi folks
I'm new to Acronis having been a Ghost user for years. I should add I've now distanced myself form any Norton products due to failures and general poor performance. I have in fact found True Image the best of what's on offer at this time. However to the problem at hand.
I have two notebooks (a Tosh and an HP) and a desktop with three internal HDDs and 1 external HDD connected to an eSATA port.
I started by backing up my Tosh to an image on one of the internal HDDs over ethernet (as a mapped drive). For about 40gig of data it took 14 hours. I then backed up the HP over firewire (IP) with about 50 gig of data to the other HDD which took 12 hours (none of these two are the system disks). Finally I cloned the system disk (1 TB) with 480gig of data to the external eSATA drive (1.5TB) which took an astounding 25 hours.
So after reading threads on this seemingly common problem, I am none the wiser. Unless I can find a way to speed things up TI isn't going to cut it for me. I should add I have TI 2010 release 7046. I also have Kasperky IS 2010 installed which is just as big a dogpile as Norton.
Hope someone can help.
Cheers
Thanks Ilya
Sorry for the slow response I've been away.
I've done as you asked.
Just in case its an issue, I said before I had Kaspersky IS installed on the desk top PC. I should add that I have Trend IS installed on my Toshiba laptop and I ran TI from that PC to a mapped drive on the desktop with the same slow response (different installation).
Cheers...
Further update.
I changed the priority setting to max and its a different ball game. My HP took just under 2 hours to back up 46gig to a mapped drive on my desk top (nothing else running other than XP and no other network traffic). Still a bit slow but workable (earlier editions of Ghost would have been under an hour for the same size until they stuffed it) although I concede the network may still be a bottle neck. I'm going to clone my desktop to an eSATA drive and I'll post the results. That should eliminate the network from the equation.
As a comment to Acronis I would suggest that future revisions should set the backup priority to maximum by default and let the user set it back as needed rather than the other way around. My experience with software installations per se is that you leave all the default settings in place until you get familiar with it. This was one example where that doesn't work.
Cheers...
I'm back
Now it gets interesting.
I started to clone my desk top to the eSATA drive. After 135 minutes I transfered 12% of the data. Now I'm not sure if TI transfers ALL the data including unused sectors or weather it only transfers real data. If the former, then it is truly abysmal. 135 minutes to transfer 120GB over what should be close to 3 Gb/s (375MB/s) relates to about 15MB/s if my maths is right. Even if TI is transfering only real data then the rate only goes up by double (30MB/s if the drive is half full).
My understanding of cloning is that its bit for bit. So speed should be maximum.
I'm stumped. I don't have a real method of cloning my system HDD as it looks like it is going to take 16 hours. I'm still hopeful that the Acronis guys can sort this out.
Cheers...
Just for the sake of comparison.
Boot from the TI Rescue CD and perform the same full backup direct to the eSata.
For your test, turn off Validation from within the specific task. Validation can be done later.
Validation is usually done initially to make sure the archive is not corrupt. After you have confidence in the backup process, then Validation can be done randomly--if desired. Validation when booted from the TI Rescue CD is more important than a validation from within Windows. Should you need to restore your system partition or your entire backup to a new disk, it is best done from the Rescue CD.
Your Rescue CD must be tested (before a crisis) to make sure you can perform your backups and your restores when booted from the Rescue CD.
Alternative ISO type Rescue CD programs also available from your registration homepage.
This post may also be of interest. This type Rescue CD will be faster than the Linux based standard or ISO type Rescue CD's.
http://forum.acronis.com/forum/9449
GroverH.
I tried running the process using the recovery boot CD with exactly the same results. 16 hours (projected). I calculated that the image should take about 45 minutes at best, but allowing for overheads I am prepared to wait for double that.
I am still hopeful the Acronis guys can come up with something, if not it will be back to the drawing board. I am however a little disturbed by the number of problems popping up in the forum. It has the potential to shake ones faith.
I guess my biggest issue is that images and cloning must be dependable 100% of the time or the excersize is of no value. I've had a look at a couple of free downloads but I'm just not game.
Cheers...
Hi I'm back
Finaly found the solution. I had a suspicion that the eSATA drive may be the culprit so after many attempts to resolve it, I hoicked the drive out of the caddy and took out one of my SATA 320 gig drives from the PC. I replaced it with the 1.5TB drive out of the caddy and tried the whole process again. This time it looked a lot more promising until TI found some disk errors and refused to continue (I'm not sure why it would do that. Surely it should just jump over bad sectors). So it still wouldn't create a clone or a backup.
I then did the chkdsk/f trick and things started to improve. I now have a functioning system complete with backup and clone facities. I should however comment on the caddy. After getting onto the suppliers website this particular one is a dissmal failure. Its an Astone 481E and there is a truck load of disgruntled owners out there with similar issues.
In closing I think TI is not as fast as it should be but it is usable and I'll stick with it.
Cheers...