Solved Backup Software suggestions other than ACRONIS

PerpetualCycle · Oct 12, 2021

jvickers said:
Well, everyone has convinced me to give Macrium Reflect a whirl. I bought the perpetual license. Acronis is just frustrating me recently. It seems to never do what I tell it to do - like back up my dadgummed hard disks.

In any event, I am over it. It has frustrated me for the last time. I figured you are all greater minds, so I'll make a switch.

I have done hundreds of restores with macrium, never a hitch, and pretty fast. If you have got the paid version, try encrypting. It doesn't cost much, if at all, in backup speed. I think compression dominates the backups speed.

timbobit · Oct 12, 2021

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fdegrove · Oct 12, 2021

Hi,

I think compression dominates the backups speed.

That will depend on how powerful the CPU is.

Cheers, :wink:

PerpetualCycle · Oct 12, 2021

fdegrove said:
Hi,

That will depend on how powerful the CPU is.

Cheers,

I believe it will still dominate over encryption. I have a i9 10900k running at 5.1 GHz all-cores so that is pretty powerful and compression still dominates. I changed from 128 bit encryption to 192 bit and experienced no difference in backup times. Intel has dedicated processor instructions to do encryption that speeds it up significantly (I am pretty sure AMD does too).

timbobit · Oct 12, 2021

If you have the space don't compress; it is a exact copy with less chance of corruption. Yes cpu power will determine the time.

PerpetualCycle · Oct 12, 2021

I wouldn't worry about corruption. Have done hundreds of restores from compressed backups (default medium compression) without any corruption. I don't think there is any evidence that compressed files would be any more susceptible to corruption.

I haven't done any tests on the backup time difference between compressed and non-compressed. Ont the one hand, compressed will write less to the disk and hence the time is reduced by that, on the other hand, compression takes time. I will try this when I get a chance to see which wins (on my setup).

cereberus · Oct 12, 2021

geneo said:
I wouldn't worry about corruption. Have done hundreds of restores from compressed backups (default medium compression) without any corruption. I don't think there is any evidence that compressed files would be any more susceptible to corruption.

I haven't done any tests on the backup time difference between compressed and non-compressed. Ont the one hand, compressed will write less to the disk and hence the time is reduced by that, on the other hand, compression takes time. I will try this when I get a chance to see which wins (on my setup).

I have done tests. Non compressed takes a lot more space and the extra writing time far offsets the time to compress but I accept that may differ on a weak CPU.

At the other end, high compression does not save much space and takes longer.

I have done this on several pcs over the years of varying types but the basic conclusion of (default) medium compression being the optimal solution never seems to change.

pianola · Oct 12, 2021

24c said:
Pre-ordered a MS Surface Laptop Studio and would like suggestions on a backup program. Laptop will have Win 11 pre-installed.

I have been using ATI for years, but don't like their new subscription policy.

I am a very unsophisticated user On all all my computers- laptop or desktop Windows 7 10 or 11 i have installed Rollback RX Over the years it has saved me hours and hours in resolving problems I also use Casper to make clone bootable copies of the whole hard drive. As I mentioned in a previous post I confirm the clone is bootable by using my Hot swap system on my desktop PC

fdegrove · Oct 12, 2021

Hi,

@cereberus

I totally agree. Think you mean "optimal" iso "optional" , right ?

Cheers, :wink:

PerpetualCycle · Oct 12, 2021

cereberus said:
I have done tests. Non compressed takes a lot more space and the extra writing time far offsets the time to compress but I accept that may differ on a weak CPU.

At the other end, high compression does not save much space and takes longer.

I have done this on several pcs over the years of varying types but the basic conclusion of (default) medium compression being the optional solution nevers seems to change.

That is what I have found in the past. Will run some up-to-date tests now.

cereberus · Oct 12, 2021

fdegrove said:
Hi,

@cereberus

I totally agree. Think you mean "optimal" iso "optional" , right ?

Cheers,

yep - darn autocorrect LOL. Post edited.

PerpetualCycle · Oct 12, 2021

I stand corrected. Here you go.

i9 10900k @ 5.1 GHz
Macrium 8 latest version
Macrium Direct i/o
Source: Samsung nvme 960 Pro, destination: 2 x 1 TB SSD raid-0

Non-compressed is faster than compressed (medium)
Encryption takes longer than I expected, about the same as compression
Compression+Encryption takes a bit longer that the sum of compression only + encryption only

EDIT: Sorry for the edits, was having a time getting properly formatted image
Would also note that is about 1 additional second/GB for compression or 1 additional second/GB for encryption

jvickers · Oct 12, 2021

geneo said:
I stand corrected. Here you go.

i9 10900k @ 5.1 GHz
Macrium 8 latest version
Macrium Direct i/o
Source: Samsung nvme 960 Pro, destination: 2 x 1 TB SSD raid-0

Non-compressed is faster than compressed (medium)
Encryption takes longer than I expected, about the same as compression
Compression+Encryption takes a bit longer that the sum of compression only + encryption only

View attachment 9833

Sorry for the edits, was having a time getting [properly formatted image

Thanks for this! It's great information to have. I've been backing up my Windows drive for what seems like hours. I think I picked the slowest USB port I have to do the backup! Macrium 8 is a nice, intuitive program. It's almost too easy after using Acronis for so many years!

jvickers · Oct 12, 2021

jvickers said:
Thanks for this! It's great information to have. I've been backing up my Windows drive for what seems like hours. I think I picked the slowest USB port I have to do the backup! Macrium 8 is a nice, intuitive program. It's almost too easy after using Acronis for so many years!

Oh, I think I see why it's taking so long. I have it compressed to medium. I'll have to poke around and remove those before I back up my media drive.

cereberus · Oct 12, 2021

geneo said:
I stand corrected. Here you go.

i9 10900k @ 5.1 GHz
Macrium 8 latest version
Macrium Direct i/o
Source: Samsung nvme 960 Pro, destination: 2 x 1 TB SSD raid-0

Non-compressed is faster than compressed (medium)
Encryption takes longer than I expected, about the same as compression
Compression+Encryption takes a bit longer that the sum of compression only + encryption only

View attachment 9833

EDIT: Sorry for the edits, was having a time getting properly formatted image
Would also note that is about 1 additional second/GB for compression or 1 additional second/GB for encryption

This rather contradicts my experience but it is probably because you because you have very fast nvme memory. I think a much slower drive would show a different conclusion.

Either way, the times are short enough that I think it is still worth compressing the image due to much reduced size.

CEncryption does add a significant overhead even with your fast CPU. Personally, I do not use it as I only keep programs and OS on my C drive. All data os stored elsewhere.

I use 2 factor authentication on things like bank accounts, so I am not unduly concerned if an image was accessed somehow. In the end each user has to decide themselves.

cereberus · Oct 12, 2021

jvickers said:
Oh, I think I see why it's taking so long. I have it compressed to medium. I'll have to poke around and remove those before I back up my media drive.

You cannot assume choosing uncompressed will speed up backup.

Choosing a usb2 port rather than a usb3 port would have a massive speed impact (assuming a usb3 drive).

Ghot · Oct 13, 2021

cereberus said:
You cannot assume choosing uncompressed will speed up backup.

Choosing a usb2 port rather than a usb3 port would have a massive speed impact (assuming a usb3 drive).

All the backup softwares I've used, say that more compression, slower backups...

cereberus · Oct 13, 2021

Ghot said:
All the backup softwares I've used, say that more compression, slower backups...

View attachment 9860

As I said, it depends on hardware combinations e.g. a fast cpu backing up over usb to an hdd could easily take longer. A slower CPU backing up to an SSD could be quicker.

In the end, the key question is which is more important to you, space saving or speed of backup. You then have to test your hardware combination and decide your preference. I make a lot of backups so space saving is important.

PerpetualCycle · Oct 13, 2021

cereberus said:
This rather contradicts my experience but it is probably because you because you have very fast nvme memory. I think a much slower drive would show a different conclusion.

Either way, the times are short enough that I think it is still worth compressing the image due to much reduced size.

CEncryption does add a significant overhead even with your fast CPU. Personally, I do not use it as I only keep programs and OS on my C drive. All data os stored elsewhere.

I use 2 factor authentication on things like bank accounts, so I am not unduly concerned if an image was accessed somehow. In the end each user has to decide themselves.

Perhaps if you had an old slogger HDD.

I have pretty much all of my data separated as well. Do you have all of your data on another drive? Browser profiles (and any saved passwords) and other such data stored in APPDATA? I have junctions from the profiles to my data partition. I didn't use to have that.

But for me it is a 5 minute background job encrypted and compressed so it is a no-brainer.

EDIT: Well I was being flippant on the slogger. It could be the turnaround point is around 300 MB/s if you estimate from my data. That is about the speed of high capacity disk drives but less than the 550 MB/s of SATA SSD. But this is just hypothetical.

Stigg · Oct 13, 2021

If you haven't used Macrium Reflect before, I would always suggest to try Reflect FREE first so you can get to know it and see if it is what you are looking for. Then, when you finally realize that you love it, I would then purchase the paid version. If not for the extra features, then do it to support the developers of a fantastic imaging application. Because the fact is, you're getting a whole lot of bang for no bucks with the free version already.

Code:

Macrium Reflect FREE Edition v8.0.6161

64-bit:
https://download.macrium.com/reflect/v8/v8.0.6161/reflect_setup_free_x64.exe

32-bit:
https://download.macrium.com/reflect/v8/v8.0.6161/reflect_setup_free_x86.exe