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

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  1. Posts : 19,516
    W11+W11 Developer Insider + Linux
       #21

    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.
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  2. Posts : 4,666
    Windows 10 Pro x64 21H1 Build 19043.1151 (Branch: Release Preview)
       #22

    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!
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  3. Posts : 2,716
    Windows 10
       #23

    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.
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  4. Posts : 1,621
    Windows 10 Home
       #24

    " 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 :) Set any lower than High, then depending upon on just low MR priority was set, other stuff sure will hamper MR :)
    After Jimbo's successive post, I want to thank him for the I/O reminder!
    Last edited by RolandJS; 13 Apr 2018 at 15:50.
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  5. Posts : 11,247
    Windows / Linux : Arch Linux
       #25

    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
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  6. Posts : 158
    W10
    Thread Starter
       #26

    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?
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  7. Posts : 19,516
    W11+W11 Developer Insider + Linux
       #27

    provlima said:
    Why is SATA seemingly on the way out if it handles data so quickly?
    Because it's a bottleneck for even faster storage chips and controllers.
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  8. Posts : 11,247
    Windows / Linux : Arch Linux
       #28

    provlima said:
    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 Some more history for you : !!!

    It wasn't that they would have been forgotten - but at the end of WWII the USA and GB almost came to blows against each other !! and there was absolute paranoia about this new technology - cyber cracking, cryptography and electronic switching - the basis for computers. GB was way ahead of USA in this area at that time so a lot of the stuff people like Flowers did had to remain as Govt secrets -- some of the work done at Bletchley Park in England has only been recently released.

    Bletchley Park | Home

    How many Brits even know that in 1940 the UK actually invaded part of Iceland -- rather to the bemusement at the time of the locals I have heard though - eventually the base was handed over to the USA where it remained a NATO base for many years -- now it's the main International airport at keflavik.

    Invasion of Iceland - Wikipedia

    Anyway enjoy the history lesson.

    As for the topic in question -- RAID 0 will speed up your backup by over 50% - the problem with any sort of optimised file compression for taking the backup on Windows is the appalingly hideous performance by today's standards of the NTFS file system.

    SATA like all electronic developments is just another step into finding better and more efficient both in speed and power consumption ways of delivering performance. Anybody remember old IDE drives with those big grey ribbon things !!! thank goodness those are obsolete now (although if you have some really old desktop computers you might still see those).

    Cheers
    jimbo
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 158
    W10
    Thread Starter
       #29

    "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."

    what is meant in easier to understand terms what the above means. Pls explain the term I/O and how do I configure the "I/O" to maximize the speed of the backup???
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  10. Posts : 4,666
    Windows 10 Pro x64 21H1 Build 19043.1151 (Branch: Release Preview)
       #30

    jimbo45 said:

    As for the topic in question -- RAID 0 will speed up your backup by over 50% - the problem with any sort of optimised file compression for taking the backup on Windows is the appalingly hideous performance by today's standards of the NTFS file system.

    SATA like all electronic developments is just another step into finding better and more efficient both in speed and power consumption ways of delivering performance. Anybody remember old IDE drives with those big grey ribbon things !!! thank goodness those are obsolete now (although if you have some really old desktop computers you might still see those).

    Cheers
    jimbo
    hmmm...

    I've written quite a lot of compression and cryptographic algorithms in the past and the filesystem IO is the least of a concern when it comes to overall performance. Just comparing calculation speeds of crc, md5, sha1, sha256 and sha512 shows that there is a HUGE difference and the biggest thing that matters is the CPU speed and RAM IO depending on how the buffer is implemented. If we start to compare this to compression algorithms then the difference is even bigger.

    NTFS is quite fast considering it's a journaling filesystem. Comparing NTFS and EXT4, there's minimal differences.
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