Windows 7 Windows 7 Backup Takes Forever

[izaktaylor]

Howdy,

I'm backing up about 1.7 TB of data to a network drive, and its taking an extremely long time. I'm running Windows 7 64bit Ultimate. I'm fully up to date. I saw some random article about a hotfix for this issue and downloaded it but I guess I already had it installed as the installation wouldn't proceed, but instead said it wasn't for my computer. Any suggestions? Should I look towards another software backup program?

Thank you.

 

[whs]

What do you cansider an 'extremely long time'. Uploading 1.7GB to the network drive can easily take 5 hours. That, of course, depends on your upload line speed. Make the math.

Why don't you use an external disk. That is a lot faster and safer.

 

[izaktaylor]

External disks are noisy for a computer in a bedroom. Plus I use it for other network storage in the home. Im using a Ethernet connection with a 1Gbps port and cable. The drive has the same network speed. The limitation however is that the router caps at 100Mbps. I guess my question was more geared to Windows 7 Backup having trouble with the massive overhead that supposedly used to/still is a problem. I'm curious if other's experiences are still negative towards the utility.

 

[whs]

I personally would never use Windows imaging - but for different reasons. I want to make sure I can restore my image when needed, and that is not certain with Windows imaging.

 

[catilley1092]

Windows Backup is slow as dirt. The only good thing that I can say for it, is that users has no excuse NOT to backup.

That being said, you need a better backup program. Here's a good, free one. You can do file & image backups with this software.

Link Removed

Todo is a good backup program, considering it's free. Here's another, it's better than Windows Backup also, but the free version only allows imaging, not file backups.

Macrium Reflect FREE Edition - Information and download

Check them out. Note that Todo has a lot of other free software for your needs. Signup for their promos & you'll get a free piece of Pro software from time to time.

Cat

 

[whs]

Windows Backup is slow as dirt. The only good thing that I can say for it, is that users has no excuse NOT to backup.

That being said, you need a better backup program. Here's a good, free one. You can do file & image backups with this software.

Link Removed

Todo is a good backup program, considering it's free. Here's another, it's better than Windows Backup also, but the free version only allows imaging, not file backups.

Macrium Reflect FREE Edition - Information and download

Check them out. Note that Todo has a lot of other free software for your needs. Signup for their promos & you'll get a free piece of Pro software from time to time.

Cat

Absolutely true. I use free Macrium but have also heard a lot of praise for EaseUS. Here is a little tutorial I made on how to deal with Macrium.

 

[catilley1092]

Great Tutorial! Now I have a hunch why my notebook couldn't "see" the external drive via USB 3.0. I could backup fine, but not restore. Thought for certain that it was SP1 causing the issue. That backup was a Macrium image, but being that I had no problems with Macrium, I thought it was the SP. This was in the summer of last year.

So I removed SP1 from 7 Pro, and just so happened, Todo gave me their Workstation 3.5. I used it, it worked both ways, Macrium was the last thing on my mind. I guess because I had just got a $49 piece of software for free. In fact, they just gave me another piece of software this week, EaseUS Todo Backup Central Management Console 4.0, for doing a survey. It's good for 5 PC's. I'm on their mailing list, they give me something at least 2 times a year. I may have to do some simple survey, once I did a snapshot with my webcam, no big deal.

The fact is, I don't pay for backup/partitioning software. Todo gives it to me.

But thanks for the link, I (and many others) had came to the conclusion that it was SP1. None of the hotfixes would correct it. So is this an ongoing issue, Macrium's images won't restore using USB 3.0?

BTW, I'm still using Macrium 4.2 (on my ThinkPad, not the MSI), that's the one w/the USB 3.0 ports, that can't "see" a Macrium backup.

Cat

 

[whs]

The USB3 issue was with 4.2 - I have not tried it on 5.0 because my disks on this system are internal, USB2 and eSata which I use mostely for the images. But I have a laptop (which I rarely use) where I image to USB3. I have to try a restore once.

 

[catilley1092]

I need to try a restore too. If nothing else, see if the process begins. I figure if it can "see" the backup drive, which before it couldn't, it'll be OK.

Being that the notebook is running so well, I'm still going to wait until SP2 is offered for 7 before installing one. SP1 really offers me nothing that I don't already have. Even MS at the time, told potential customers not to wait, that most of what's in SP1, we already have. But if I have to do a reinstall, I'll install SP1, to shorten the list of updates needed.

Cat

 

[izaktaylor]

Thank you for the replies. I've been sorting through them trying to find the right one for me. One thing is that the backup is so huge that its very difficult to do the initial backup. It makes me wish I could copy of folders from my music directory maybe 200GB to my NAS device and then run a backup that would confirm its all there. it seems like most backup software creates an index files that it uses to compare what its already downloaded. What sucks about it though is if I remove files from the backup the software still thinks they are there because of the index file that's created. What I want is software that will detect changes, even to ID3 tag info as I improve and organize my collection of lossless audio and replace whats on the NAS but also delete content that I delete in the source folders. Seems that combination of features is a tall order. I'm trying out Genie Backup Manager at the moment, since I had a free license.... but it seems to have these same issues.

I dunno, im probably hoping for the impossible.

 

[Drew]

My external is quiet.

 

[Saltgrass]

Windows Backup (files version) is supposed to be incremental. It only backs up changes to files. So it should not take that long after the initial backup is done.

If you are using the image plus file backup option, it will image the drive and backup file changes.

If you are backing up to a network drive, it may take longer, as WHS mentions earlier.

What type of connection do you have to the "Network Drive"?

 

[izaktaylor]

I have 1Gb ethernet cables, but they are capped by a router that is stuck at 100Mbps. I went with this router for custom firmware options, so it has it's perked. I'm not sure if my network is even fully taking advantage of the 100mbps though to be honest, and I'm not sure how to test.

*edit* just to be clear, im not using Wifi.

 

[catilley1092]

My external is quiet.

So is mine. I now place my backup drive in a USB 3.0 docking station (works with 2.5 & 3.5 SATA HDD's), and when using it, the only noise that I hear is the small personal desktop fan that I direct towards it for cooling.

Cat

 

[catilley1092]

I have 1Gb ethernet cables, but they are capped by a router that is stuck at 100Mbps. I went with this router for custom firmware options, so it has it's perked. I'm not sure if my network is even fully taking advantage of the 100mbps though to be honest, and I'm not sure how to test.

*edit* just to be clear, im not using Wifi.

My router is also "capped" by the 100Mbps restriction. But the fact is, my ISP service doesn't even provide those speeds. Usually, during downloads, it peaks at 1.6MB/sec, then levels out at 1.2 to 1.3MB/sec.

Speedtest.net is where you can check your bandwidth. But the speed that posted on the test is usually far slower than downloads in real life. The test varies with mine, ranging from 3.0Mbps to 7.0Mbps. Usually, I'm around the 6Mbps range, which is what I'm paying for. If you want to see what you have go here:

Speedtest.net - The Global Broadband Speed Test

Here's mine, faster than normal.

http://www.speedtest.net/result/1810281359.png

Perhaps I'm not calculating the download speeds right, I'm going by what my download manager says, but using different browsers, the results are the same. There is a huge gap in 1.3MB/sec & 6.0Mbps, or so it seems to be.

But I'm not complaining. When Windows 8 DP was released, by 9:40AM EST, I was on my first download, the 64 bit version, afterwards, I downloaded the 32 bit version just to have it. Downloads were completed by 11:30AM. That was around a total of 6GB of data in under 2 hours. Not bad at all, for $41.95/month (EarthLink).

I've even had fast downloads using those 54Mbps network cards. I've downloaded 700MB Linux install disks within 15 minutes with them.

Many of these advertised router specs are in theory for most users, there are 600Mbps routers on the market. But whether the user can actually peg these routers to it's advertised max is a different topic (actually would make a good discussion) altogether. There are probably some bottlenecks across the entire chain.

Cat

 

[KM Richards]

Windows 7 Backup Takes Forever

Use Acronis True Image... it's been perfect every time for me since I started using it back in 2005

I trained myself to keep all my documents on a separate hard drive other than my C drive, so I can use Acronis to restore my C drive (with perfection) in about 8 to 10 minutes.

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi

I just want to add one thought on backing up your data.
This is my personal preference, maybe not yours.

I don't use Windows Backup or any other backup software to back up my data files.
This is just adding another layer of complexity.

I create a backup of my C:\ partition using Acronis (so I can recover Widows if it crashes) but I don't use it to back up any of my other drives. None of my data is stored on my C:\ partition.

I have two internal 1 TB hard drives one just for Data, and my primary Drive is two partitions one for Windows and software and one for more data.

I find it much safer and easier to just copy all my data files to my backup drives.
Initially this can take a while, but later you can just merge folders that have changed with the backup ones to keep them up to date. Granted you have to stay on top of this yourself but I feel more comfortable doing it this way.

I don't have to trust the backup software to do it, or with compressing and decompressing my music, photos, and documents.

The truth is that the additional space I use isn't that much of a problem with drives as big as they are now, (I have 2 TB of external storage spread over 3 drives two 500 Gig, and one 1 TB drive).

The really important stuff is backed up on more then one drive, you can't be too safe with things you can never replace.

Anything I want to recover is right there in it's folder and can be accessed with no other software involved in just a few seconds.

I never turn on my external drives unless I'm using them, so they don't have any unnecessary wear and tear on them.

Mike

 

[whs]

The USB3 issue was with 4.2 - I have not tried it on 5.0 because my disks on this system are internal, USB2 and eSata which I use mostely for the images. But I have a laptop (which I rarely use) where I image to USB3. I have to try a restore once.

Just an update. Yesterday I tried a Macrium restore with the free Version 5 WinPE CD and the USB3 drive was still not recognized. Fortunately my backup disk is in an open enclosure - so all I had to do is to stick it into a USB2 enclosure to make it work.

Lesson learned: with free Macrium 5.0 you can image to a USB3 disk but not recover from it. That can be pretty fatal with a normal 2.5" or 3.5" external disk that you cannot easily take out of the enclosure. That's why I like the open enclosures with bare bone disks. I have USB2, USB3 and eSata models - so I am prepared for all eventualities. And in the long run it is cheaper too because bare bone disks cost less.

 

[izaktaylor]

As for local networking speeds, Speedtest.net won't measure that. I did find a program called Performance Test that can test the speeds between a client and a server, but the NAS cant run it. I tried some of the programs mention in this thread, but a few had trouble locating the network device as a source of backup. Its been three days, but i think my music backup will be done tomorrow morning. I'm trying out Genie backup manager, not sure if I like it though. I would much rather the program did a scan of both the source and the backup for a Mirror backup each time rather then base the backup off of a indexing file. I know its suppose to make it quicker but its a pain in this case.

 

[catilley1092]

Just an update. Yesterday I tried a Macrium restore with the free Version 5 WinPE CD and the USB3 drive was still not recognized. Fortunately my backup disk is in an open enclosure - so all I had to do is to stick it into a USB2 enclosure to make it work.

Lesson learned: with free Macrium 5.0 you can image to a USB3 disk but not recover from it. That can be pretty fatal with a normal 2.5" or 3.5" external disk that you cannot easily take out of the enclosure. That's why I like the open enclosures with bare bone disks. I have USB2, USB3 and eSata models - so I am prepared for all eventualities. And in the long run it is cheaper too because bare bone disks cost less.

Thanks for reporting back on this. I'll simply not run Macrium on my one notebook that I backup using USB3. What they probably want is money, to upgrade to the paid version with additional options & support.

I'll use the EaseUS Todo Backup Central Management Console 4.0 that was given to me by the folks at EaseUS last week for that computer. Haven't actually used it yet, but I need to image that notebook anyway, the last was done over 6 months ago. It's not used that often.

However, on my USB2 computers, Macrium has done a great job. What I like about Macrium that the free Todo 4 lacks, is that each partition is restored separately. This allows for not including a partition that is no longer wanted. With Todo, it's an all or nothing approach. That's fine too, as long as one wants to restore all.

One other thing about Todo, is that Linux (ext3, ext4) partitions takes up more space on the backup drive. Macrium compresses it much tighter, preserving as much backup space as possible. I'll have to find out about the newer version, if that has improved at all.

I use & prefer the bare bone disks also. They are much easier to work with. Plus, in choosing my own drive, I know what I have. Samsung's HD103SJ has a great reputation, I have 1 or storage, and 1 as a drive on my PC. This is the docking station that I use with my backup drives. Very reliable & fast.

Link Removed

The only retail backup drive that I have is a Seagate FreeAgentXtreme 500GB, it does a good job, and has both USB2 & eSATA ports. Has been a stable drive for me for 3 years now.

Cat