Paragon 2011 Free Now Takes Too Long to Backup

[Todd Sauve]

Hi Everyone,

I have Paragon's Free 2011 Backup program, and also Seagate's free DiscWizard program. Both have always worked reasonably well for me, requiring only about 5 or 6 minutes to do a disc image of my Patriot Inferno 60 GB SSD drive (only around 25 GBs of data) to a Samsung 1TB drive running in an external enclosure, fed by eSATA.

But ... since June 1, 2011 the backups have been excruciatingly SLOW to run. In fact, my usual 5 minute run is now around 2 hours and 20 minutes!!!

Has anyone else run into this strange behaviour lately? I thought it might have been a Windows 7 Update that messed something up, so I uninstalled the only updates that have arrived since June 1 (a few MS Visual C 2005 updates) but this has not made any difference. :sarc:

Any help is much appreciated.

 

[Todd Sauve]

Since I posted this message, I have done a fresh backup with EaseUS Todo Backup 2.5.1 Free and also did a restore using the Linux boot disc. It worked PERFECTLY!

It took about 25 minutes to backup, which is slow in my opinion (though much faster than Paragon or Seagate lately), and only 11 minutes and 13 seconds to restore. This program also lets you schedule your backups, which is exactly what I wanted. So, until I can get some accurate feedback on why Paragon and Seagate have freaked out on me, I will be using this free EaseUS Todo program.

PS Win 7 did a complete image backup with its own Backup and Restore program tonight at 4 am. This consumed all of 10 minutes from beginning to end, and created an image file 21.6 GB in size. Thus it is clear that the only image backup programs that are running truly slow are the Paragon and Seagate versions. The EaseUS Todo program took around 25 minutes, and is probably slow as well, but not 2 1/2 to 3 hours slow like the former two! :shock:

Does anyone else have an SSD with about 23 gigs on it, which they are using Todo to image? How long does it take for you?

 

[theog]

Try Windows 7 backup, my takes 90 sec aday.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/675-system-image-recovery.html?ltr=S
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/663-backup-complete-computer-create-image-backup.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/648-restore-backup-user-system-files.html

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
If you REALLY value your data -- not only your system -- for example consider how much it would cost to recover all your music / photos / critical documents etc -- I'd invest in a PROPER commercial backup program rather than use the freebies which are hobbled anyway.

Commercial Backups allow in particular most of the following features

1) Automatic scheduling
2) Incremental backups (only Backup CHANGED data)
3) Backup DATA / Directories / Folders
4) Backup to DIFFERENT devices
5) Backup to Network drives
6) SPAN MULTI VOLUMES ==> with large volumes of data to backup this IMO is a real feature worthwhile having -- the freeebies never allow this feature
7) Backup / restore to DIFFERENT volume sizes
8) IMAGING as well as data backups -- (although freebies usually have this feature)
9) Mount Backup image so its browsable via Windows Explorer etc.
10) Compression can be selected
11) Backup can be split into pre-determined sizes -- useful for example if you are backing up to 4.7GB DVD's etc.
12) Restore IMAGE to DIFFERENT HARDWARE - great for deploying Windows to other machines
13) Don't rely on the V.S.S service (Volume shadowing service)

Since home versions of these backups only cost around 45 USD at the most it seems to me totally ludicrous that people DON"T have one of these programs as a matter of course.

The cost of losing your data is usally MANY MANY times the cost of a decent backup program - assuming you could even recover it.

Forget all the freebies and get something more "Fit for purpose".

I favour Acronis but there are loads of others including Macrium (non Free version) or BRU BACKUP on Linux -- great if you are running a Linux server -- this will also backup Windows stuff too.

Incidentally another irritant with the freebies (including Windows backup) is that they all rely on using the VSS - Volume shadowing service. This is mega annoying also --and requires a certain amount of available storage to be available before it will work. Now if you've ALREADY got a storage problem and you want to backuyp stuff before increasing Partition size / deleting stuff you don't need online then you could have problems running the backup in the first place.

Commercial versions don't rely on the VSS for making backups.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Todd Sauve]

Try Windows 7 backup, my takes 90 sec aday.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/675-system-image-recovery.html?ltr=S
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/663-backup-complete-computer-create-image-backup.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/648-restore-backup-user-system-files.html

Thanks theog. I do use the Win 7 backup but find it unreliable. Sometimes it just won't find the backup image and then won't even let me navigate to it manually! Talk about adding insult to injury!

 

[Todd Sauve]

Hi Jimbo,

I am seriously considering Acronis 2011. I have Seagate's DiscWizard and with that they offer a 40% discount on Acronis 2011. So for $30 I guess I can't go wrong. I'm just a tight wad because I don't have much money (I live on a disability pension).

Some of the free programs offer a lot of what you list in the paid programs favour.

 

[SIW2]

Hiya Tood,

Yes you are right.

The free apps. may have all you need.

Strange that both Acronis (Seagate) and Paragon are mysteriously taking much longer than they used to.

Easeus is very slow in comparison to almost all the others.

I don't know what has changed on your system to cause that.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi Jimbo,

I am seriously considering Acronis 2011. I have Seagate's DiscWizard and with that they offer a 40% discount on Acronis 2011. So for $30 I guess I can't go wrong. I'm just a tight wad because I don't have much money (I live on a disability pension).

Some of the free programs offer a lot of what you list in the paid programs favour.

Hi there

At times 30 USD might seem to be a lot of money -- but in comparison to LOSING data you have to consider whether it's money well spent.

I agree some of the freebies offer SOME of the features in my list but generally not all.

See what you need and then decide but IMO that 30 USD would be a real worthwhile investment.

While not a financial Forum - what I would do for example every time you have a few cents as loose change just put it into a jar --eventually when it reaches 30 USD get the program -- you probably won't notice the 30 USD if you save it that way.

We all have to be VERY careful with money these days but sometimes the cost of NOT doing something costs far more in the end than initial pain of spending the original amount in the first place.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[SIW2]

Not sure Jimbo.

I actually have the Paragon Virtual Server - which they gave me.

I think that is about $1000.

Recently, I haven't used it. I have been using the free B&R11 instead - at first just to see what it was like - but have I kept using it as an experiment - to see what it would be like just having the free version.

Of course, there is a vast number of extra options in the paid app. - an enthusisat or a business may want them - but many people will be just fine with free version.

 

[whs]

I transferred an old Vista from an HDD to an 80GB Intel SSD. Then I took an image with a newly installed free Paragon of the SSD (about 40GB of data) to an external 2.5" USB attached disk. That took about 50 minutes. I also took an image with Macrium. That took about 30 minutes. I have not done any recoveries yet.

 

[SIW2]

Macrium goes at High Priority by default - you can slide it down to medium - then it is about the same speed as Paragon.

There is no 'fast' switch on Paragon is because it checks the drive and filesystem. That means there is much less likely to be an issue with a backup image. They could make it just rush ahead regardless - but they chose the safe route.

 

[Todd Sauve]

Macrium goes at High Priority by default - you can slide it down to medium - then it is about the same speed as Paragon.

There is no 'fast' switch on Paragon is because it checks the drive and filesystem. That means there is much less likely to be an issue with a backup image. They could make it just rush ahead regardless - but they chose the safe route.

Yes, Paragon's free program has saved my bacon probably a dozen times. When it works, it works great. When it doesn't--well, you had better have one or two other programs running on the same machine or you will be crying the blues big time, just like Jimbo says!

 

[whs]

Macrium goes at High Priority by default - you can slide it down to medium - then it is about the same speed as Paragon.

There is no 'fast' switch on Paragon is because it checks the drive and filesystem. That means there is much less likely to be an issue with a backup image. They could make it just rush ahead regardless - but they chose the safe route.

That makes a lot of sense. Although I have to say that I never had any problems with my Macrium images. But maybe I was just lucky.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
the features I use a lot which aren't readily available in Freebies are

1) Concurrent Multiple backups -- I generally make TWO independent backups just in case one doesn't work or the media gets damaged or lost. Using HDD's I think this is a sensible strategy as while HDD's are generally reliable -- I've probably ever had 2 failures in the whole time I've been using computers -- you can GURANTEE 100% that the one time you really NEED your backup the backup will fail if you only have one copy. I have far too much valuable data to risk that in comparison to the cost of the HDD.

2) Backing up selective data on to specific USER specified file sizes -- for example I can say split the backup into 700 MB sizes so I can send several CD's to a colleague for example -- the restore will be put on to the 1st CD and is BOOTABLE.

3) Incremental backups -- I do an incremental daily and a full one once a week.

4) Restore to UNLIKE hardware - great for testing different configurations -- agree this won't be of use for "general purpose users"

5) Automatic Partition re-sizing -- can restore an image say from a 38 GB partition to say a 90 GB partition without having to go through hoops and whistles with 3rd party apps etc.


6) Backup to Network drives.

BTW SWI2:

You don't ever IMO need to pay for the "Server" version of these products -- you can manage very well with the Desktop version --only costs around 40 USD for typical products. If you have a Linux server just use BRU BACKUP or equivalent to backup the server AND CLIENTS.

Just fire up a Virtual Linux server -- it can backup real Windows clients too --save a fortune on "Server" type software.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Todd Sauve]

OK, now we're back to normal again, so to speak!

I uninstalled the Todo Pro 2.5 version and reinstalled the Todo Free 2.5.1 version. Then I did a disc cleanup on my C drive, the 60 GB SSD. This got rid of 800 MB of dumped system memory files (from BSODs when the PC did not wake from Sleep mode properly--a chronic problem with SSDs) and some other much smaller things. Then I ran the drive image program and Todo Free completed the task in only 8 minutes 53 seconds!

To see if this was really for real, I then ran the Seagate DiscWizard program and it completed in 5 minutes again!!!

I don't know why this is all working properly again but I'm sure not going to complain about it!

I suspect that perhaps the 100 MB Win 7 Restore partition got too close to its critical used space level and acted like a spanner dropped into the gears.

One odd thing about the Todo backup is that it also backs up the Pagefile, a completely empty 3.5 GB file in my case, and that is probably why it takes a few minutes longer than the Seagate DiscWizard program which doesn't do that. Neither does the Paragon version.

Anyway, the Paragon 2011 Free program is going in the dumpster. Its boot disc will simply not activate my mouse and it has become much too hit or miss on whether or not it will restore the image. You simply can't have that kind of behaviour from an image backup and restore program.

Thanks to everyone for their help! I really appreciate all of you folks' input!