Does backup normally take 5-9 hours to complete?

mjf said:

It's good you have a solution. But I would also take a look at the free Macrium Reflect which is independent of the HDD manufacturer.

Alrighty, will do. But is there a cause for Windows Backup & Restore to be so slow?

thepivotstudent said:

mjf said:

It's good you have a solution. But I would also take a look at the free Macrium Reflect which is independent of the HDD manufacturer.

Alrighty, will do. But is there a cause for Windows Backup & Restore to be so slow?

I don't think you answered my earlier question. With Windows backup are you both an image AND a file/folder backup?
Windows imaging (vhd files) is far faster than the file/folder backup (zip files). On your PC with a USB 2 ext HDD I am not surprised that BOTH an image and a FULL file/folder backup for ~70GB could take ~ 5 hours. Windows file/folder backup is slow!

Try just making an image which is what DiskWizard/free Acronis is doing. In the Backup & Restore screen select "Create a System Image". I would expect it to take ~ 1 hour.

Another point is that you should try to move "large" data (music pics, videos) to a separate partition to keep your imaging partition smaller. Say ~40GB. Word docs, spreadsheets etc are fine in the main OS partition along with installed programs. Back your "large" datadata up separately.

Is Macrium Reflect faster than the Windows Backup and Restore?
On this 500 GB external drive it would take hours, that's because it's been future-implemented to take advantage of USB 3.0 but I have it connected to a USB 2.0 bus and, that's a huge bottleneck there.

mjf said:

thepivotstudent said:

mjf said:

It's good you have a solution. But I would also take a look at the free Macrium Reflect which is independent of the HDD manufacturer.

Alrighty, will do. But is there a cause for Windows Backup & Restore to be so slow?

I don't think you answered my earlier question. With Windows backup are you both an image AND a file/folder backup?
Windows imaging (vhd files) is far faster than the file/folder backup (zip files). On your PC with a USB 2 ext HDD I am not surprised that BOTH an image and a FULL file/folder backup for ~70GB could take ~ 5 hours. Windows file/folder backup is slow!

Try just making an image which is what DiskWizard/free Acronis is doing. In the Backup & Restore screen select "Create a System Image". I would expect it to take ~ 1 hour.

Another point is that you should try to move "large" data (music pics, videos) to a separate partition to keep your imaging partition smaller. Say ~40GB. Word docs, spreadsheets etc are fine in the main OS partition along with installed programs. Back your "large" datadata up separately.

Well actually, My Documents is the largest part of my Drive. I can make seperate backups in Windows Backup and Restore but not in Seagate. And the HDD is USB 2.0 and 3.0 Compatible. And now I might need to get that software you suggested because Seagate is telling me I need to buy something to keep using the software.

thepivotstudent said:

Well actually, My Documents is the largest part of my Drive. I can make seperate backups in Windows Backup and Restore but not in Seagate. And the HDD is USB 2.0 and 3.0 Compatible. And now I might need to get that software you suggested because Seagate is telling me I need to buy something to keep using the software.

WOW - Well fair enough but can you explain why so large??
The free Macrium only does imaging. The paid version does file/folder backup.
You can use Windows file/folder backup + Macrium imaging but with such a large My Documents you may need a more manageable file structure.

My experience is that Windows imaging and Macrium are very close to each other speed wise but Macrium gives some good compression which Windows doesn't. I find Windows image restore faster than Macrium.
If you your ext HDD has USB 3 then use it! makes ~ x3 improvement in speed but have the drivers on a USB 3 so you can install them run the Macrium pe image restore DVD.
Macrium guides you through making the pe CD/DVD but you need to download the 1.7GB Windows WAIK. This isn't a big deal if you have good Internet connectivity.
Alternatively a member has a Macrium pe downloadable ISO.
Macrium WinPE .iso download

mjf said:

thepivotstudent said:

Well actually, My Documents is the largest part of my Drive. I can make seperate backups in Windows Backup and Restore but not in Seagate. And the HDD is USB 2.0 and 3.0 Compatible. And now I might need to get that software you suggested because Seagate is telling me I need to buy something to keep using the software.

WOW - Well fair enough but can you explain why so large??
The free Macrium only does imaging. The paid version does file/folder backup.
You can use Windows file/folder backup + Macrium imaging but with such a large My Documents you may need a more manageable file structure.

My experience is that Windows imaging and Macrium are very close to each other speed wise but Macrium gives some good compression which Windows doesn't. I find Windows image restore faster than Macrium.
If you your ext HDD has USB 3 then use it! makes ~ x3 improvement in speed but have the drivers on a USB 3 so you can install them run the Macrium pe image restore DVD.
Macrium guides you through making the pe CD/DVD but you need to download the 1.7GB Windows WAIK. This isn't a big deal if you have good Internet connectivity.
Alternatively a member has a Macrium pe downloadable ISO.
Macrium WinPE .iso download

It's so large because I use that part the most. I don't download music, picutrues or movies as often as I spend using that library. And if Macrium only does Imaging then I don't need it. I just need a good backup program then. My Netbook...I'm not sure what types of USB Ports it has. All I really know is that my HDD is compatible with 3.0 and 2.0, so my Netbook must be one of those.

You are not answering the questions. You state your backup size is ~ 70GB and that "My Documents" is a large component. It suggests you have a "My Documents" ~20GB+. What is in there because that is enormous.

mjf said:

You are not answering the questions. You state your backup size is ~ 70GB and that "My Documents" is a large component. It suggests you have a "My Documents" ~20GB+. What is in there because that is enormous.

Animating stuff for the most part. School reports and projects, word docs, freeware programs, gaming stuff, and that's pretty much it.