Introducing AX64 Time Machine - hybrid imaging/snapshot software

I had been wondering about this and has put off trying the program, also I have never liked the Rollback type programs. This it seems is different.

It would seem at the moment that this applies only to the system drive. That I treat as sacrificial since I always keep clean images available. Data is more important to me (on another partition). Will this be covered soon?

Very impressed with how quickly you have developed this program and the response you give here.

 

Pratzert, when uninstalling Rollback, the process needs to re-integrate all the changes into what is considered the "current image." Deleting snapshots only helps if the data in the snaps has disappeared (been deleted) along the way... otherwise the data in the deleted snaps gets re-integrated into the later snap making it even bigger than originally taken. This re-integration process at uninstallation is very time consuming, and on some systems with a lot of (large) snaps, it can take a looooooong time.

As you'll see, it's very FAST! Why? 'Cause it doesn't have to re-integrate anything into the current system... the current system is already present. In Rollback's case that's not true.

It's not mandatory, but it creates the same requirement as defragging under Rollback. Both Rollback and AXTM snapshot disk surface changes, not file changes, albeit AXTM uses a completely different method. As you can picture, when you defrag a disk, the surface changes drastically as file blocks are shifted around to eliminate gaps and/or position certain files near the faster area of the disk. This massive surface reorganization will cause the next snapshot (Rollback or AXTM) to be very large due to the massive surface changes. Large Rollback snaps are a real problem, especially during re-integration, but they do work. Large AXTM snaps are just that... a large snapshot, but it works just fine when needed, just adds some time to "snapping back" or restoring a system when required.

 

TheRollbackFrog,

THANK YOU! That is very enlightening explanation of how RB works as opposed to AX64.

No wonder it took so much time to uninstall RB.

I was pretty much wasting my time deleting snaps.

I really should have been doing an uninstall reinstall more frequently or at least creating a new base line (which would have been easier).

Now, with AX64, that is not a concern nor a bother.

I can also state, absolutley, that the response to questions and problems has been exponentially faster with ISSO and other users here than any experience I ever had with Horizon.

AX64...... It just keeps getting better and better......

 

YES... and NO

Let me clarify... AXTM allows you to jump around within snaps and when you do this, LIVE Windows is used in the process. The LIVE Windows contains the needed information that AXTM uses to move between snaps very quickly.

When you re-image to the pre-AXTM state, that information is not available any longer so LIVE Windows can do nothing for you. BUT, at any time, you can use AXTM's RECOVERY MEDIA, along with those saved snapshots, and return to any system state (snapshot) that is contained in those save sets, just like your favorite imaging program. Moving to a particular snap under LIVE Windows is very fast, doing so under the RECOVERY MEDIA takes more time as a complete system restore needs done based on the data in the saved snaps. it's just like using the imaging tool you mentioned in your post.

 

Don't kid yourself... if you think about it, Rollback needs to do the exact same thing when creating a new baseline as it does when unINSTALLing to the CURRENT SYSTEM IMAGE... no time is saved in the long run, just a bunch of smaller unINSTALLs

You actually got a response from HORIZON...

I think many of us here, even most with specific machine configuration problems using AXTM (how can there not be with so many machine differences on the planet), feel the same way as you do. Isso and his team have done an excellent job in creating this hybrid application and have followed it up with some of the finest ALPHA tester/BETA tester/customer support I've ever seen. It's a pure pleasure working with a technical team such as this... I actually feel like I'm part of the team!

Wait a minute! I AM!! Isso made me a "unofishul" PR guy a few weeks ago.

Buy it (when it's ready)... you'll like it!

 

Like it. It suits you!

And the product is great tooooooo...

 

Hi TheRollbackFrog,

Thank you very much for your reply. I'm already playing around with it. I have a question, tho. When booting from Recovery Media, I get 2 options:
1) XP usb boot sos
2) XP usb boot

What's the difference? and also, I already tried booting from both options but it takes a while for the screen to show something, it may be my old hardware but eventually it reboots and starts Windows normally. I haven't seen the actual cycle to see exactly what it does because, like I said, takes a long time and I can't stand staring at a black screen

Has anybody else seen this behavior?

 

I've never seen that. It looks as though your BiOS thinks that USB stick has (2) booting modes. I would use Option #2 to be safe.

That doesn't sound like the proper behavior. Your system should BOOT from the USB stick and you should see some sort of Windows BOOTing screen. I know with XP, AXTM does something special to produce the RECOVERY MEDIA but I'm not sure what. At that point you should be in the same "Browser" window tha's offered in the live Windows program where you would select the backup folder and the snapshot to restore then hit a RESTORE button. Then you should see the restore process.

Hopefully, Isso will shed some additional light on this issue.

 

Hi TheRollbackFrog,

Thank you again for your prompt reply. I will try to see if formatting my USB stick as NTFS makes any difference. The AXD file is not that large, it's only 4.65GB so it fits into my 8GB USB stick. Who knows? I'm gonna test the regular rollback procedure now without the Recovery Media and see if everything goes smooth.

Will wait to see if Isso has seen this before.

Thank you again man. You should be a AX64 forums moderator.

 

A first 20GB system partition's backup with AXTM took 12mn, quite fast.
Backup size ~10GB, as good as Acronis.

 

Is there any way to backup a drive that's a removable media? I can't choose one in the "select drive to backup" dialog.
On one of my PCs I only have a very small system drive with just Windows 8 on it. All the other data (even programs, user data etc) is on removable media and that's what I want to backup to a NAS.

 

Hi ISSO

Seems the latest version is proceeding efficiently as expected
but am closely as always watching for any serious deviations that might need brought out for development review.


Like to take a moment to add yet another note of thanks (as others) to your collection of them for your ambitious determination and steady work in introducing and perfecting this welcome new innovation thats sure to be a success.

Your PM from December 18 couldn't have been more timely given my own transition into new territory with x64 Win 8. This TM app is trumped my long held favorite FD- ISR in enthusiasm over it. Keep up the good work my friend.

Regards Easter

 

Hi pratzert,

As Froggie mentioned, the uninstall process of AXTM is much simpler than RBX, because AXTM always keeps your drive in a stable state, and there is no need to mess with it. Basically uninstall just deletes the AXTM binary files.

Isso

 

Isso, do you have anything to write regarding this question and bug report?

 

Thank you HermitGeek,

For locking the drive: AXTM doesn't lock the drive, but instead uses VSS snapshots to take backups. That's why the other programs should work fine, and can even take backups concurrently with AXTM. I'm talking about programs that properly make backups with the use of VSS as suggested by Microsoft. The programs that use "hacks" like RollbackRX are more picky and may not work, or may prevent the other backup programs from working.

I'm pretty sure WHS will work fine with AXTM too. If you encounter any problems, please let me know.

Isso

 

as far i can tell, no issues with AXTM on Win8 pro x64.

 

Froggie, thanks a lot for your help!


Isso

 

Dear Mohamed,

Great idea, thank you! Updated

Isso

 

Zero3K, thank you for your help!

VAASTU_MANI, I replied via email

Isso

 

Hi David,

Unfortunately at the moment the program is limited to a single partition only. Later we'll add multiple partition support.

Isso

 

You're welcome.

 

Hi Isso, hopefully you can look at my post #1232

Thank you.

 

Hmm, just noticed Froggies signature. Mine now looks too boring to me, any other ideas?

Isso

 

atomomega,

I've never seen this behavior, sorry. Could you please zip and upload the contents of the recovery media somewhere and send the link to info@ax64.com? Thank you!

Isso

 

Good to hear it, thanks guest! Try restores - you'll be surprised with the speed.

Isso