Back ups takes ages! Why?

[offwego]

I've got really fed up with Acronis True Image as software for backing up my
data as it always seems to get corrupted. I thought I would try MS's
in-house facility but it takes ages. It takes all night!! Am I getting
something wrong or is this just what I have to put up with? Can I schedule
it to run automatically?

Thanks.

 

[offwego]

....sorry. I'm running XP Pro SP3. I have auto updates turned on.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I've got really fed up with Acronis True Image as software for
backing up my data as it always seems to get corrupted. I thought
I would try MS's in-house facility but it takes ages. It takes
all night!! Am I getting something wrong or is this just what I
have to put up with? Can I schedule it to run automatically?

...sorry. I'm running XP Pro SP3. I have auto updates turned on.

Great - tells us nothing.

Backing up to *what*?
Backing up *how much*?

 

[TaurArian]

I've got really fed up with Acronis True Image as software for backing up
my
data as it always seems to get corrupted. I thought I would try MS's
in-house facility but it takes ages. It takes all night!! Am I getting
something wrong or is this just what I have to put up with? Can I
schedule
it to run automatically?

Thanks.

Well, try another product, for example Paragon -
Home and Office, Small Business & Medium and Large Business Utilities for
hard disk management etc
http://www.paragon-software.com/

For a list of products see:
http://www.paragon-software.com/products.htm


--

TaurArian [MVP] 2005-2010 - Update Services
http://taurarian.mvps.org
======================================
Disclaimer: The information has been posted "as is" with no warranties or
guarantees and doesn't give any rights.

 

[DL]

Corruption of an Acronis image is often as a result of hd / memory problems
You need to test both your hd & memory
Your hd maker will have a free bootable test utility
www.memtest.org provides a free bootable memory test utility

 

[offwego]

Many thanks for all the posts:

Shenan,

I back up to an external hard drive (WD Net Center). When Acronis True
Image works, the initial back up was a full system back up (about 100Gb) and
I then did daily 'differential' back ups (about 5 Gb each). Using the MS
in-house version I just backed up 'my documents' which was about 80GB. I
hope this helps?


Tour,

Thanks for the tip. I'll check it out.


DL,

Thanks for the web address. I checked it out but found myself in more
complicated territory than my skills and knowledge allow for! ..but you say
my HD manufacturer may have a utility to use? I back up to a Western Digital
Net Center.

 

[DL]

WD will have a bootable test utility to test your HD
You download the utility & create the bootable floppy / cd then boot with
that floppy / cd
(Same for memtest)
If Acronis is failing then your pc has a problem either memory or drive

 

[Richard Urban]

I've got really fed up with Acronis True Image as software for backing up
my
data as it always seems to get corrupted. I thought I would try MS's
in-house facility but it takes ages. It takes all night!! Am I getting
something wrong or is this just what I have to put up with? Can I
schedule
it to run automatically?

Thanks.

If you have corruption on either of your drives Acronis will balk during the
backup or recovery. It fails when bad sectors are detected. Those same bad
sectors may be causing the backup program that is part of Windows XP to take
so long.

Check both your drives for errors.

 

[offwego]

...thanks for the posts. So I could use MS's 'check disk' utility for my 'c'
drive and the WD download DL suggests for my external hard drive?

I have asked WD in the past and I'm sure I can't run check disk for my ext HD.

 

[offwego]

....just got a response from Western Digital. They can offer no way of
checking my external hard drive and if there is a fault there is no way of
fixing it, apparently! I ran 'scandisk' on my 'c' drive and picked up one
bad sector that was repaired.

 

[Rick Merrill]

...just got a response from Western Digital. They can offer no way of
checking my external hard drive and if there is a fault there is no way of
fixing it, apparently! I ran 'scandisk' on my 'c' drive and picked up one
bad sector that was repaired.

You probably should run scandisk again, then if clean, run defrag.

 

[offwego]

....will do.

I ran a defrag last night after my first Scandisk but will try the Scandisk
and defrag again if you think it's a good idea.

 

[Rick Merrill]

...will do.

I ran a defrag last night after my first Scandisk but will try the Scandisk
and defrag again if you think it's a good idea.

Once in a while a corrupt sector will contain a piece of a fragmented
file. Running checkdisk or equivalent a second time will repair this
and similar other possible problems, but the odds are low that you
really need it. (Oh, and if you have NTFS you probably do not need to.)

 

[offwego]

Many thanks for your help. I was surprised that Western Digital have no way
of checking their drives! Thanks for the advice on my PC's (NTFS) hard drive.

 

[Rick Merrill]

Many thanks for your help. I was surprised that Western Digital have no way
of checking their drives! Thanks for the advice on my PC's (NTFS) hard drive.

....

I think you mean that WD does not distribute s/w for users. They do
check the drives upon manufacture (obviously) and mark some sectors
to be skipped.