Windows 10: Why is 275GB macrium image backup taking over 3 hrs to create & verify

Discus and support Why is 275GB macrium image backup taking over 3 hrs to create & verify in Windows 10 Backup and Restore to solve the problem; Cannot find policies option in properties [img] You're right clicking in the wrong spot. Need to click where the red circle is in the pic. On... Discussion in 'Windows 10 Backup and Restore' started by f14tomcat, Apr 5, 2018.

  1. f14tomcat Win User

    Why is 275GB macrium image backup taking over 3 hrs to create & verify

    f14tomcat, Apr 10, 2018
    #16
  2. jimbo45 Win User

    Hi there
    speed of CPU actually doesn't play a huge role in this -- the I/O device capability is the limiting factor here.

    However even with spinners you ought to be getting around 300 Mb/s or around 80 MB/s. So do the maths -- 800 MB will take around 10 secs, 8GB around 100 secs and 800GB will take 10000 secs or around 3 hrs.

    If you are using USB2 or really slow spinners say 30 Mb/s then you are going to take a long long time -- on the macrium log it should give you read / write I/O rate. Without that we can't say if you've got a mega problem or not.

    just start Macrium up again from within Windows and after it's done the recovery and small partitions note what the I/O rate is when it's backing up the big partition -- you can cancel it after say 5 or 10 mins once it's settled down to a reasonably constant I/O rate. Divide by 4 the Mb/s rate shown to get MB/s.

    Cheers
    jimbo
     
    jimbo45, Apr 10, 2018
    #17
  3. f14tomcat Win User
    Only point I was making about the CPU is if you were running an i3 @2.4Ghz with lots of compression, it would be a factor. Never said huge..said large.
     
    f14tomcat, Apr 10, 2018
    #18
  4. jimbo45 Win User

    Why is 275GB macrium image backup taking over 3 hrs to create & verify

    Hi there
    @f14tomcat
    even on an i3 that´s not an issue

    Over my years with computers the biggest bottleneck to throughput has been hideously slow I/O.

    So many people just don't realize it -- but even a so called lowly i3 processor has more compute power than the entire computing / electronics industry combined might of Germany, Japan,USA + allies and Russia in 2nd world war combined !!!.

    I often complain about UK here but the unsung real hero in this was a person called Tommy Flowers who worked for GPO ( Post office in UK at that time a Govt organisation) -- he invented electronic switching but at his own expense and his stuff was never allowed to make public domain until foreign newspapers published some of his stuff after the war (WWII)

    Tommy Flowers - Wikipedia

    Everbody with any interest in History has heard of Bletchley park where people were employed to decrypt German Enigma machine code -- initially done mechanically via things called Bombes (no typo that is what they were called) -- Flowers invention speeded up the process absolutely dramatically.

    After the end of WWII there was a lot of problem between USA and GB on this technology -- not even sure if today it's been settled between the 2 most steadfast allies on the planet.

    Anyway if you are interested :

    Bletchley Park | Home

    Also great stuff from NASA in 1960's with Voyager satellites -- now still sending stuff back to earth at edge of interstellar space -- at incredibly slow bit rates -- you have to admire those early pioneers though.

    Voyager



    Any capable intel processor would merely be idling at average I/O speeds on slow HDD's -- and as for IDE -- you might just as well use paper tape flexowriters -- remember those !!!

    https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=pa...W4j3FvbrPg8kM:.

    Cheers
    jimbo
     
    jimbo45, Apr 10, 2018
    #19
  5. cereberus Win User
    Speed of cpu does have a big impact. You are forgetting you have a really powerful pc. On my old ASUS laptop, it maxes out at 100% CPU for ages.
     
    cereberus, Apr 10, 2018
    #20
  6. Also would like to add that regular hdd I think you refer too as spinners are not all that slow if you have a SATA III hdd on a SATA III port. I have two nearly identical drives, one that is SATA III on a SATA II port as my old motherboard only has two SATA III ports. The one on the SATA II port is like molasses compared to the even larger spinner on the SATA III port.

    I had the one being slower now in the SATA III port until I added a new larger hdd for backups. I wanted my backup restore to be faster so I put it the new hdd on the SATA III. I can say for 100% sure, the difference in speed is major for the two. I know how fast the other one was on the SATA III port before I got the new one. It is not SSD fast by any means, but the SATA III will make a major difference even if the spinner is 5400 rpm. It does for me.
     
    Access Denied, Apr 10, 2018
    #21
  7. RolandJS Win User
    OP asked about background programs and utilities earlier. Yes, such can add time to the backup & verify process -- I'm guessing that Windows "time-slices" rather than really doing several things at the same time. During serious backup routines, I will turn off any EZ-to-turn off stuff, disconnect from The 'Net and turn off AV/AM, and so on.
     
    RolandJS, Apr 10, 2018
    #22
  8. f14tomcat Win User

    Why is 275GB macrium image backup taking over 3 hrs to create & verify

    My surface Pro 3 is not quite that bad, ~90%, and hot!

    *Wink
     
    f14tomcat, Apr 10, 2018
    #23
  9. CountMike New Member
    As far as I have noticed, MR is using only one core/thread during backup which could make problems with dual core system as obviously system uses (at least) another core for own uses. Amount and speed of RAM can also make influence. Last but not least is I/O speed. Read (of source disk) and write (of target disk) are never same as their benchmarks suggest and usually far from manufacturer's specs.
    SATA interface is not playing much of a role. Even SATA2 controller doesn't get saturated even with fastest SATA3 HDDs. It may look like it is faster with SATA3 disks but that's only because they are newer and inherently faster than older ones.
    Speaking of MR backup speed, it takes 2 - 3 times longer to verify than to actually write .mrimg file.
     
    CountMike, Apr 11, 2018
    #24
  10. I see absolutely no issue in the 3h time taken to make a 275GB image backup and verifying it on an USB3.0 spinner drive using a laptop.


    That is what I would approximately expect. It also depends how fragmented the drive is and how full it is, which slows things down A LOT!
     
    slicendice, Apr 11, 2018
    #25
  11. Helmut Win User
    The OP has nothing wrong with speeds. It is rather similar to what I get.

    Just Imaged my HDD, that was 320 GB, the Macrium image about 250 GB. It took 2½ hr including the verify. That was to WD Red drives probably similar.
    Whilst it was running it said about 400 Mbs ±20% just about all of the time. That was in line with the Network box and the drives the lowest speed in the route.

    " Can some running background programs affect the time? "
    Very much doubt it as Macrium takes top priority by default.

    Why Image the whole lot, why not - Simple and straightforward, almost no thought required.
     
    Helmut, Apr 11, 2018
    #26
  12. RolandJS Win User
    " Can some running background programs affect the time? "
    Very much doubt it as Macrium takes top priority by default. -- Helmut

    +1 Helmut, if MR is set to High, definitely background/foreground stuff really does not hamper MR.
    Thanks for the gracious reminder *Smile Set any lower than High, then depending upon on just low MR priority was set, other stuff sure will hamper MR *Smile
    After Jimbo's successive post, I want to thank him for the I/O reminder!
     
    RolandJS, Apr 12, 2018
    #27
  13. jimbo45 Win User

    Why is 275GB macrium image backup taking over 3 hrs to create & verify

    Hi folks
    @Helmut
    @RolandJS
    @slicendice

    I repeat what I have said again -- on the whole it's NOT CPU speed that's important here - but how the I/O is configured.

    I recently copied over 400 GB from a NAS type server running as a VM on Windows 10 Pro host with only a Celeron 2.4 GHZ dual core cpu -- approx equiv to an i3. It completed in around 70 mins. Target HDD was a self powered 2 TB WD passport USB 3 external drive.

    Here's a link to the post with the speeds etc. No SSD's involved either.

    RAID 0 Risky but for speed absolutely well worth it - Windows 10 Forums

    The application also verifies on the target HDD as it copies the data so doesn't also need a separate verify step.

    If you've got slow HDD's the try RAID 0 -- but do have backup as on any HDD in the array failure will cause you to lose the whole kybosh.

    Over the years I've found a bottleneck in computers is invariably slow I/O rather than lack of CPU compute power or RAM (assuming those 2 items are adequate - as they are on modern computers).

    cheers
    jimbo
     
    jimbo45, Apr 12, 2018
    #28
  14. provlima Win User
    Very interesting conversations and even learned about a little history
    Postal worker Tommy Flowers stroke of genius changed the course of history. These are men largely forgotten by history......

    Why is SATA seemingly on the way out if it handles data so quickly?
     
    provlima, Apr 13, 2018
    #29
  15. CountMike New Member
    Because it's a bottleneck for even faster storage chips and controllers.
     
    CountMike, Apr 13, 2018
    #30
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Why is 275GB macrium image backup taking over 3 hrs to create & verify

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