CurtBrunk Posted May 30, 2007 Report Share Posted May 30, 2007 I do 2 incremental backups using Retrospect's grooming procedures to 2 different USB 2 drives; work and home. About 2 months ago, Building snapshot started running slower and slower. It now takes over 2 hours to build the snapshot, for a system running XP Pro, Retrospect 7.5 fully updated, on a laptop's 80 gig hard drive, 62 gigs used, that backups on average 1.7 gigs per backup, to a 320 gig hard drive, that is grooming, and a 180 gig hard drive that is also grooming. Snapshots used to take approx 7 minutes. How can I get back to a normal time for building snapshots? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CurtBrunk Posted June 5, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 5, 2007 Is it possible that NOD 32 is slowing this down. It checks files as they are being copied and has cought some Trojan Horses, but that shouldn't cause the snapshot to take so long, still, grasping at straws... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhwalker Posted June 5, 2007 Report Share Posted June 5, 2007 Perhaps you are thrashing. Try adding more memory so that the working set can be held in physical RAM. See also this related thread: Building Snapshot takes forever Russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CurtBrunk Posted June 6, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 6, 2007 I have 1 gig of RAM and am not running any other programs, still slower than molasis. Turned off all security, files flew by at beginning of Build Snapshot, when all were done, still took over 3 hours to complete. Any other ideas? Do I need to do snapshots, if I rarely if ever restore just one file and use it instead just for catastrophic failure, which I believe, means the snapshot has to be rebuilt anyway? If I stop doing snapshots, can I still use Retrospect's grooming? Is grooming causing the problem? Basically, I do personal backups of an 80 gig hard drive, that incrementally backup only a couple gigs a time, and looking at this post makes me think Retrospect has no real solution, not to mention that their tech support policy is silly - more money to pay for a single incident than the program costs?!?! - which makes me want to switch backup solutions, so, besides Retrospect, what is best? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lunadesign Posted June 6, 2007 Report Share Posted June 6, 2007 Something doesn't seem right....some questions/thoughts: 1) Are you using USB1 or USB2 drives? You may want to make sure your the computer hasn't reverted to the slower USB1. 2) To rule out your physical device, you may want to try using Windows Explorer to copy a largeish file from your computer to the USB drive just to make sure you're seeing the expected performance. 3) Can you paste the operations log from your most recent incremental? 4) What grooming options do you have turned on (in your backup set)? 5) If Retrospect is actually doing a groom during your backup, it will say so in the operations log. 6) What flavor of Retrospect are you using (is it Retrospect Professional)? 7) To answer your question about snapshots, they're kind of a fundamental part of the process. I don't think you can get rid of snapshots. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CurtBrunk Posted June 6, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 6, 2007 Thank you for this. For sure, USB2, computer warns me if it drops down, plus the actual backup portion of the backup happens very fast as does the going through files portion of the Building Snapshot Log: + Normal backup using Home Backup 11.06 at 6/5/2007 9:28 PM To Backup Set Home Backup Set 11-06... - 6/5/2007 9:28:33 PM: Copying Local Disk (C:) 6/6/2007 2:34:49 AM: Snapshot stored, 193.1 MB 6/6/2007 2:35:08 AM: Execution completed successfully Completed: 798 files, 1.5 GB Performance: 627.0 MB/minute Duration: 05:06:36 (05:04:13 idle/loading/preparing) Exit at 6/6/2007 2:35 AM + Retrospect version 7.5.370 Launched at 6/6/2007 8:01 AM + Driver Update and Hot Fix, version 7.5.10.104 Note, the actual backup of files and comparing the files (where names flash on the screen very quickly) took about 5 minutes, and yet 5 hours later the Build Snapshot actually completed. I do note that it says it was "idle/loading/preparing" for 5 hours of that time. Preparing happens quickly, a minute or so. I'm not sure what idle is, as my computer's CPU is being used 100% for almost all of that time, as well as the hard drive continually being accessed. And not sure what loading is, but what is on the screen for 5 hours is "Building Snapshot." I use Retrospect's Grooming policy. Sometimes it grooms, but for example with this one, it did not because I did a recycle backup two days ago, thinking that might help, and so am far from full, and either way the groomin has always happened quickly when I do see it happening. Lastly, if snapshots are so important, why is there an option to turn it off? Thank you again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhwalker Posted June 6, 2007 Report Share Posted June 6, 2007 Quote: I have 1 gig of RAM That's about 1/2 of what you should have for the amount of files you are backing up with Retrospect. Russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CurtBrunk Posted June 6, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 6, 2007 Oops, I meant 2 gig. Sorry. Plus, been doing backups with my configuration for over a year with no problem, these problems started about a month ago. The only difference I can think of is went from Norton to NOD32, but given that the problem is in Building Snapshot, I can't imagine how they would be interacting. Still, you never know... so I'm trying to figure out how to disable it during the next backup. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lunadesign Posted June 6, 2007 Report Share Posted June 6, 2007 I would definitely try with your AntiVirus protection off. That said, it shouldn't create 5 hours of delay. Older versions of Norton defininitely slowed my backup down but the latest one seems much better. On the volume that you're backing up, can you let us know the # of folders, # of files and overall size (in MB or GB)? (The numbers you get from Windows Explorer's properties dialog are perfect) Also, when you go to backup, what Security Options do you have configured? You might try experimenting with turning those off just to see if that's causing the delay. (I wouldn't leave them off, however). I didn't know you could turn off snapshots - I can't see how the system would work without them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CurtBrunk Posted June 7, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 7, 2007 Antivirus off, no difference. not quite sure how to get you the folder & file count you want, I have about 750,000 files when I do Antiviral scans and one of the disks I back up to is a 320 gig drive, with 98 gigs used, 222 free. The other one is 180 gig, with approx. 90% used as Retrospect is grooming to make room each time. Both drives have identical slow down problems. I turned all security Options off, it has not helped. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CurtBrunk Posted June 12, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 12, 2007 Had my first normal backup in months. Only difference was that I have had 2 Updates that I have tried to install for months, with no success; generally the installer said I was trying to install a Logitech program that was older, or the same as, the one I had installed (btw tried to get Retrospect Tech support to help me on that one too with no success). Finally this time, I simply pushed the button to ignore the updates and the snapshot took a couple minutes. The two may not be related, but... Any ideas as to what the heck is going on - even if you're a Retrospect Tech Rep - would be greatly appreciated. Thanks too to those who tried to help here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lunadesign Posted June 12, 2007 Report Share Posted June 12, 2007 Sorry for the slow reply....out of town for a few days. To get the folder and file count, go into Windows Explorer, right click on the folder corresponding to the volume (ie, C:) and select "Properties" from the pulldown menu. The properties dialog that displays may take a while to finish tabulating the counts. What I'd be curious to see is the values listed for the "Size" and "Contains" to see how many folders, files and total MB on your soure volume. Regarding your first normal backup in months, what happened the next time you ran the backup? Did you get another normal backup or did it revert to the 5 hours of idle/loading/preparing time? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CurtBrunk Posted June 13, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 13, 2007 As for the home backup, only took 6 minutes: + Retrospect version 7.5.370 Automatically launched at 6/12/2007 9:10 PM + Driver Update and Hot Fix, version 7.5.10.104 + Normal backup using Home Backup 11.06 at 6/12/2007 9:10 PM To Backup Set Home Backup Set 11-06... - 6/12/2007 9:10:19 PM: Copying Local Disk (C:) 6/12/2007 9:16:55 PM: Execution completed successfully Completed: 1741 files, 1.7 GB Performance: 628.3 MB/minute Duration: 00:06:35 (00:03:53 idle/loading/preparing) Exit at 6/12/2007 9:17 PM The Work backup was also much quicker, but still took longer than it should have - 42 minutes: + Retrospect version 7.5.370 Automatically launched at 6/12/2007 4:00 PM + Driver Update and Hot Fix, version 7.5.10.104 + Normal backup using Retrospect Work Scheduled Backu at 6/12/2007 4:00 PM To Backup Set Retrospect Work... - 6/12/2007 4:00:18 PM: Copying Local Disk (C:) 6/12/2007 4:42:38 PM: Snapshot stored, 183.7 MB 6/12/2007 4:43:02 PM: Execution completed successfully Completed: 835 files, 1.7 GB Performance: 572.6 MB/minute Duration: 00:42:43 (00:39:45 idle/loading/preparing) Exit at 6/12/2007 4:46 PM As to "Used Space" it says: 74,024,919,040 bytes 69.8 GB "Free Space" 22,128,603,136 bytes 20.6 GB "Capacity" 96,153,522,176 bytes 89.5 GB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CurtBrunk Posted June 13, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 13, 2007 Bummer, in looking at the logs, I noticed that Home Backup, the first log in the previous post, was set to not take a snapshot, which likely explains the quickness. I am still ahead of where I was, given that the work backup only took 42 minutes, but that still seems way too long for what used to happen, so I still seem to have a problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john alphaone Posted June 15, 2007 Report Share Posted June 15, 2007 I have the same problem with 7.0.249, Win XP Pro SP2, NOD32 I do a nightly backup of system drive and data drive. The system drive takes longer and longer each night whereas the data drive sails through. A recycle backup is done every 10 generations, so that's not the problem. Whilst the system drive backup is being prepared the SYSTEM task shows 50% CPU, i.e. it's taking up one side of the dual core processor. Here is the log from yesterday: + Normal backup using Backup 2 at 14/06/2007 20:00 To Backup Set Backup 2... - 14/06/2007 20:00:16: Copying Local Disk (C:) 14/06/2007 21:03:33: Snapshot stored, 113.0 MB 14/06/2007 21:03:48: Execution completed successfully Completed: 250 files, 202.1 MB Performance: 466.3 MB/minute Duration: 01:03:31 (01:03:04 idle/loading/preparing) - 14/06/2007 21:03:48: Copying SATA1 (E:) 14/06/2007 21:06:22: Snapshot stored, 29.8 MB 14/06/2007 21:06:32: Execution completed successfully Completed: 184 files, 1.2 GB Performance: 1507.2 MB/minute Duration: 00:02:44 (00:01:57 idle/loading/preparing) and here is a log from February + Normal backup using Backup 1 at 05/02/2007 20:00 To Backup Set Backup 1... - 05/02/2007 20:00:16: Copying Local Disk (C:) 05/02/2007 20:11:41: Snapshot stored, 105.4 MB 05/02/2007 20:11:53: Execution completed successfully Completed: 1067 files, 239.1 MB Performance: 358.5 MB/minute Duration: 00:11:36 (00:10:56 idle/loading/preparing) - 05/02/2007 20:11:54: Copying SATA1 (E:) 05/02/2007 20:14:43: Snapshot stored, 30.2 MB 05/02/2007 20:14:52: Execution completed successfully Completed: 21 files, 824.8 MB Performance: 1124.7 MB/minute Duration: 00:02:58 (00:02:14 idle/loading/preparing) The C: drive backup has gone from 00:11:36 to 01:03:31 in four months. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CurtBrunk Posted June 16, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 16, 2007 Baed on what you're saying, NOD32 may be the problem. If you check with them and get info please let me know, I'll do the same. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retrospeck2004 Posted August 6, 2007 Report Share Posted August 6, 2007 i have exactly the same problem. i have to stay every evening about 1-2h longe and my girl is really getting angry about it. so i really need to find a solution fast. i also have nod32 but i am not going to change that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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