Acronis True Image Performance.
I'm having a horrible time using my computer for anything else when a backup is in progress. It's so bad that I can't even open a browser to get on the internet while a backup is running. I have scheduled backups to run after I leave my desk but I can't schedule all of them to start at the same time and there are only so many hours left to a day after 4:00 PM.
I'd share a system report but, when I tried to generate one yesterday, it didn't complete ... or it didn't indicate it had completed, and then my system froze when I used task manager to end the task. Can I generate a system report using a command line?
Just so you know, I am unwilling to entertain the idea that I must reset Windows 10 and reinstall all of my applications.
What steps should I take to resolve this issue?
Make sure to set "Operation Priority" to "Low." That will give you the best performance, but will make the backups take longer to complete.
Steve Smith wrote:Marjorie, is this a recent development where all was working fine previously? If so, has anything changed such as a change of security applications (antivirus, anti-malware etc)?
Is your Windows 10 system running fine when ATI is not doing backups?
I would recommend doing a Repair Install of ATI 2020 as a first step in case something within the application has become corrupted etc. See KB 60915: Acronis True Image: repairing program settings - for details of how to.
Next, try creating a new backup task of the same type that has been giving problems, i.e. Disks & Partitions backup (if that is causing the issue), and see if the problem is still there or not?
See the following KB documents that may be relevant if this issue is being caused by interactions or conflicts between ATI and any of your security applications.
KB 46430: Acronis Software: Making Acronis Products Compatible with Antivirus Software
All of my scheduled backups were running regularly and successfully before Windows 10 version 2004 was foisted upon me on June 13, 2020. I've worked with Microsoft on a couple things and the operating system seems to have settled down. I've let both of those support people know that this feature update is riddled with undocumented features. <groan>
So, to answer your first question, a ton of things changed with the Windows 10 feature update which I was not permitted to decline. I run both the SFC /scannow and DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth commands daily now. No corruption is ever reported.
There are a couple of smaller scheduled backups that run daily and work as they've always worked, but they are now scheduled to start much later in the day after I'm away from my desk.
I deleted and recreated the larger backup that used to run weekly. It was a Files & Folders backup of parts of the Operating System (C:) drive. I manually started it at 7:45 PM last night, after the other two daily backups completed. I checked the progress before going to bed last night at around 11:30 PM. The ATI progress bar was about 25% green and the notification suggested it would take another 2.25 hours to complete. Even though I'm accustomed to what I lovingly refer to as "Acronis minutes," I fully expected to wake up to a completed and validated backup this morning but, alas, that was not to be. The progress bar was only 50% green and the display indicated that it would take another 11 hours to complete. And this while absolutely nothing else was going on in the environment other than that backup. So perplexing...
I went through the hoops of canceling the backup in progress which, of course, necessitated restarting the computer so I could use it again. When I regained control of the computer, I disabled Acronis nonstop backup, Acronis Mobile Backup Server, and Acronis Mobile Backup Status Server. The remaining active and automatically started Acronis services are Acronis Active Protection (TM) Service, Acronis Managed Machine Service Mini, and Acronis Scheduler2 Service.
I will try the recommendations you've suggested, in the order they are listed, and get back to you with my results.
Nicole Sharp wrote:Make sure to set "Operation Priority" to "Low." That will give you the best performance, but will make the backups take longer to complete.
Yeah, I did that a very long time ago. I've been using Acronis since 2012.
I deleted and recreated the larger backup that used to run weekly. It was a Files & Folders backup of parts of the Operating System (C:) drive.
What parts of the Operating System C: drive are you including in this files & folders backup task?
Does this include any OS owned files and folders, as this type of data is best captured using a Disks & Partitions backup using VSS?
Have you checked the ti_demon logs for this backup task for any indication of it hitting any locked files etc?
Steve Smith wrote:I deleted and recreated the larger backup that used to run weekly. It was a Files & Folders backup of parts of the Operating System (C:) drive.
What parts of the Operating System C: drive are you including in this files & folders backup task?
Does this include any OS owned files and folders, as this type of data is best captured using a Disks & Partitions backup using VSS?
Have you checked the ti_demon logs for this backup task for any indication of it hitting any locked files etc?
I had included Users, Programs, Programs (x86), Program Data, Drivers, and some development folders that I use for Android and website development.
I went through all of my scheduled backups last night and turned off VSS after reading another post in this forum which recommended that.
I found this morning's ti_demon log. The log does not seem to indicate problems. Here are its contents.
================================
2020-06-19T19:42:54:593-07:00 6696 I00000000: -----
2020-06-19T19:42:54:593-07:00 6696 I00000000: ATI Demon started. Version: 24.6.1.25700.
2020-06-19T19:42:54:665-07:00 6696 I00640000: Backup reserve copy attributes: format tib; need_reserve_backup_copy false;
2020-06-19T19:42:54:666-07:00 6696 I00640002: Operation OPTIPLEX9020 - Files started manually.
2020-06-19T19:43:02:022-07:00 6696 I00640000: Backup reserve copy attributes: format tib; need_reserve_backup_copy false;
2020-06-19T19:43:02:023-07:00 6696 I013C0000: Operation: Backup
2020-06-19T19:43:02:024-07:00 6696 I0064000B: Priority changed to Low.
2020-06-19T19:43:11:840-07:00 6696 I000B03F0: <bold>Create Backup Archive</bold><endl/><tabpoint value=30><indent value=4>From: <indent value=10><textcolor value="navyblue">C:\Android\
C:\dell\
C:\Development\
C:\Drivers\
C:\inetpub\
C:\Intel\
C:\Program Files\
C:\Program Files (x86)\
C:\ProgramData\
C:\Users\
C:\Windows\
C:\xampp\
C:\xamppNEW\
C:\xampp-VC15\
</textcolor></indent><indent value=4><endl/>To file: <indent value=10><textcolor value="navyblue">"OPTIPLEX9020 - Files_full_b1_s1_v1.tib"</textcolor></indent><indent value=4><endl/>Compression: <indent value=10><textcolor value="navyblue">Normal</textcolor></indent><indent value=4><endl/>Exclude: <indent value=10><textcolor value="navyblue">System files</textcolor></indent><indent value=4><endl/></indent><endl/>
2020-06-19T19:46:11:849-07:00 8744 I00640000: Writing full version to file: OPTIPLEX9020 - Files_full_b1_s1_v1.tib
2020-06-20T07:31:58:907-07:00 6696 I00640000: The following backups have been successfully created:<endl/>"R:\My Backups\Optiplex9020-Files\OPTIPLEX9020 - Files_full_b1_s1_v1.tib"
2020-06-20T07:32:00:607-07:00 6696 W013C0001: Terminated by user.
Marjorie, I can only state what I said in my last post, many of the folders you are including should never be included in a files & folders backup, they should be only be in a disks & partitions backup, especially C:\Windows which contains many files that could never be recovered due to permanent locks present when Windows is active.
VSS is required to back up many of those folders even in a disks & partitions backup task.
Steve Smith wrote:Marjorie, I can only state what I said in my last post, many of the folders you are including should never be included in a files & folders backup, they should be only be in a disks & partitions backup, especially C:\Windows which contains many files that could never be recovered due to permanent locks present when Windows is active.
VSS is required to back up many of those folders even in a disks & partitions backup task.
That was the new Files & Folders back that I setup after the first one, which was a Disk & Partition backup, began to fail following the Windows 10 version 2004 update. I read your previous post as asking a question, not making a statement. Sorry if I misunderstood.
So, you are now affirmatively stating that I must use VSS snapshots in all of my backups?
So, you are now affirmatively stating that I must use VSS snapshots in all of my backups?
VSS is the default and recommended for all Disks & Partitions type backups where ATI is dealing with locked system files, programs, DLL's etc.
For Files & Folders backups, the default setting is to use VSS without writers, again so that any locked files etc can be captured for the backup.
See the ATI 2020 User Guide: Snapshot for backup section.
Snapshot for backup
This option is for advanced users only. Do not change the default setting if you are not sure which option to choose.
During a disk or partition backup process, which often takes a long time, some of the backed-up files may be in use, locked, or being modified in one way or another. For example, you may work on a document and save it from time to time. If Acronis True Image 2020 backed up files one by one, your open file would likely be changed since the backup start, and then saved in the backup to a different point in time. Therefore, the data in the backup would be inconsistent. To eliminate it, Acronis True Image 2020 creates a so-called snapshot that fixes the data to back up to a particular point in time. This is done before the backup starts and guarantees that the data is in consistent state.
Select a backup snapshot type from the list:
- No snapshot
A snapshot will not be created. The files will be backed up one by one as an ordinary copy operation.
- VSS
Warning! This is the only recommended option for backing up your system. Your computer may not start after recovery from a backup created with a different snapshot type.
This option is default for disk-level and the Entire PC backups, and guarantees data consistency in the backup.
- Acronis snapshot
A snapshot will be created with the Acronis driver used in previous versions of Acronis True Image.
- VSS without writers
This option is default for file-level backups.
VSS writers are special VSS components for notifying applications that a snapshot is going to be created, so that the applications prepare their data for the snapshot. The writers are needed for applications that perform large number of file operations and require data consistency, for example databases. Because such applications are not installed on home computers, there is no need to use writers. In addition, this reduces the time required for file-level backups.
Steve Smith wrote:Marjorie, is this a recent development where all was working fine previously? If so, has anything changed such as a change of security applications (antivirus, anti-malware etc)?
Is your Windows 10 system running fine when ATI is not doing backups?
I would recommend doing a Repair Install of ATI 2020 as a first step in case something within the application has become corrupted etc. See KB 60915: Acronis True Image: repairing program settings - for details of how to.
Next, try creating a new backup task of the same type that has been giving problems, i.e. Disks & Partitions backup (if that is causing the issue), and see if the problem is still there or not?
See the following KB documents that may be relevant if this issue is being caused by interactions or conflicts between ATI and any of your security applications.
KB 46430: Acronis Software: Making Acronis Products Compatible with Antivirus Software
Method 3 (Repair and Install) from the the first link you offered seemed to solve the problems that I was having with the OS drive backup. I took the extra step of running the Acronis VSS Doctor utility before launching the backup.
The type of backup that I setup and ran was a Disk & Partitions backup of the C drive with VSS enabled. It is an incremental backup keeping no more that 2 version chains with cleanup enabled.
In past releases of the Acronis software, one used to have to create an Image backup (sector-by-sector) if the had an expectation of recovering their system after a failure or to use the backup to upgrade the hard disk. So here are my questions about that.
1) Is a Disk & Partitions backup the same as what Acronis experts call a Full Backup?
2) Do I need to also do an Image Backup (sector-by-sector) to recover the system?
Thank you for your patience with me, I'm sorry to seem dense, if I do.
Marjorie wrote:
So here are my questions about that.
1) Is a Disk & Partitions backup the same as what Acronis experts call a Full Backup?
2) Do I need to also do an Image Backup (sector-by-sector) to recover the system?
- Yes, assuming that you select all the partitions for your Windows OS drive (selected by default when using Disks & Partitions).
- No, sector-by-sector is not normally required unless you are dealing with a failing disk drive with bad sectors where this mode can be triggered automatically in response to encountering such errors, or if trying to create a backup image that might later be used to try to recover deleted files for forensic purposes.
To recover successfully and achieve a bootable working Windows system, you should only need to make a Full Disks & Partitions backup of the OS disk drive.
Steve Smith wrote:Marjorie wrote:
So here are my questions about that.
1) Is a Disk & Partitions backup the same as what Acronis experts call a Full Backup?
2) Do I need to also do an Image Backup (sector-by-sector) to recover the system?
- Yes, assuming that you select all the partitions for your Windows OS drive (selected by default when using Disks & Partitions).
- No, sector-by-sector is not normally required unless you are dealing with a failing disk drive with bad sectors where this mode can be triggered automatically in response to encountering such errors, or if trying to create a backup image that might later be used to try to recover deleted files for forensic purposes.
To recover successfully and achieve a bootable working Windows system, you should only need to make a Full Disks & Partitions backup of the OS disk drive.
Thanks again, Steve.
When you refer to a Full Disks & Partitions backup, are referring to the option available titled "Entire PC?"
Now that the software appears to be functioning again, as in it is performing scheduled backups and backup has completed for the OS drive (both partitions but not using the Entire PC option), I'm back to the original problem statement about performance.
This morning, while an Acronis Operation (Files & Folders with VSS no writers) was runnng), I could not open a browser window to get on the internet. I tried both Chrome and the newer Brave browser. Both showed processes in the task manager but no resources were utilized and the task wasn't indicating it had stopped responding. Interestingly, ATI indicated only average resource usage. I attempted to open the ATI App using a right click on the notification area icon to see what stage the active backup was in and that seemed to cause Windows to convulse a few times.
I'd generate an Acronis System Report for you but I tried to do that a few hours ago and, because I forgot that a scheduled backup would be starting shortly, I have no idea if it finished because, as I've said, ATI operations seem to bring the system to a standstill. (Can I generate the System Report using Powershell?)
I do have Speccy installed. I've attached the report for your review, if you'd like.
I honestly don't recall having these sorts of problems with this same machine using Windows 1909, although ATI did make the computer sluggish and less useful. Have you folks tested your software with Windows version 2004?
When you refer to a Full Disks & Partitions backup, are referring to the option available titled "Entire PC?"
This can be the same for systems with a single internal disk but I prefer to click through on the Source panel and then click on the 'Disk & Partitions' option, then select each disk separately, but that is my own preference.
This morning, while an Acronis Operation (Files & Folders with VSS no writers) was runnng), I could not open a browser window to get on the internet. I tried both Chrome and the newer Brave browser. Both showed processes in the task manager but no resources were utilized and the task wasn't indicating it had stopped responding. Interestingly, ATI indicated only average resource usage. I attempted to open the ATI App using a right click on the notification area icon to see what stage the active backup was in and that seemed to cause Windows to convulse a few times.
If you are still selecting the same list of folders, including those belonging to the System such as Windows, Program Files etc, then in all honesty I am not too surprised because you are doing something that users should never do! Please deselect the following folders:
C:\Program Files\
C:\Program Files (x86)\
C:\ProgramData\
C:\Users\
C:\Windows\
If you want to select user data such as Documents, Music etc, then select those folders individually not by selecting C:\Users\.
Your performance issues are caused because many of the files in those folders are locked by the OS regardless of using VSS with no writers!
Have you folks tested your software with Windows version 2004?
We are just users here, so this is not 'our software' regardless of being given MVP status.
Yes, ATI has been tested with Windows 10 #2004, all of my own Win 10 computers have been upgraded to #2004 and are working fine when used as recommended, without seeing any such lock-out performance issues when backups are active.
If you are still selecting the same list of folders, including those belonging to the System such as Windows, Program Files etc, then in all honesty I am not too surprised because you are doing something that users should never do! Please deselect the following folders:
C:\Program Files\
C:\Program Files (x86)\
C:\ProgramData\
C:\Users\
C:\Windows\
No, I had none of this in the Files & Folders backup this morning.
This can be the same for systems with a single internal disk but I prefer to click through on the Source panel and then click on the 'Disk & Partitions' option, then select each disk separately, but that is my own preference.
Okay. Thanks for that answer.
We are just users here, so this is not 'our software' regardless of being given MVP status.
Sorry if I misunderstood your role.
It seems that, since the program is now working, I can mark this topic solved and soldier on.
Marjorie, what are you selecting for the Files & Folders backup that is performing so badly?
If you want to collect an Acronis System Report, then it doesn't need to be done when the task is running, but is Ok for after it has finished as it will capture the logs for that and other tasks.