Backup takes hours and hours

[Robert]

Hi, new forum user here. I am using BR 16 to backup a 1 TB SSD Win 8.1 system to an external 5 TB hard disk connected via USB 3.0.
After 14.5 hrs it wasn't finished, so I cancelled it because I needed to shut the system down.

I have used BR 15 free before to backup the same system to the same external drive and it took less than six hours. Still very long, but bearable because that is shorter than a workday.

This morning I started another backup, now without compression. After eight hours the program says it will need another hour and twenty minutes. Seven hours ago it had said it will be finished in 44 minutes. But this happened yesterday, too: The longer the backup process continued, the longer became the announced time to finish it.

Is this a bug? If not, what can I do to fasten the process?

[Robert]

I just checked the time stamps on my older backups again and the backup usually took ten hours, not six, with both BR16 and BR15free. But 10 hrs is much less than >14.5 hrs.

[Robert]

And one more detail: drive usage of the system is 80% or 800 GB. Backup drive has 1.8 TB free space.

[Robert]

Still no takers? Ok, here is the math. From my former backups I can see that BR15/16 writes one 4GB-chunk every five minutes. 800 GB will be written in 200 chunks. 200 x 5 are one thousand minutes. One thousand minutes are 16 hours and 40 minutes. I must live with it or switch to another program that doesn't use shadow copies or partition the drive into three or more partitions for system/programs/data so I can have a more differentiated backup process. Sigh.

That wasn't so difficult, was it? In the last time I always need to solve and answer my own forum questions...

[fireworker]

BR15/16 writes one 4GB-chunk every five minutes.

This not normal. In your case, it would norma must be 1-2 minutes or less.
Maybe "something" interferes with the work of the BR in a Windows environment. Did you try to backup your SSD by booting from an external Paragon Rescue media?

[zotric]

This not normal. In your case, it would norma must be 1-2 minutes or less.
Maybe "something" interferes with the work of the BR in a Windows environment. Did you try to backup your SSD by booting from an external Paragon Rescue media?

Good idea to try from rescue media. Would it work from safe mode also?
How about timing transferring a 4 Gb file directly from the SSD to the USB3.0 HDD?
Using Paragon Hard Disk Manager version 15 Suite, my 330Gb (of 500Gb) SSD system disk took about an hour and a half this morning to back up. About 1 minute per 4Gb chunk as you claim. Bearable if not lightening quick.
That is SSD to HD with Windows 10 Pro 1809 (Microsoft shamefully broke the system image backup feature and overwrote the latest one I had before it failed!)
In original poster's case, using USB 3.0, the limiting factor should be the disc speed (because we might expect a transfer rate of about 150-200MBytes per second for USB 3.0 - see below).
Let's be pessimistic. Even at 80Mb/s for a slow HDD disc write speed that's a Gb every 12.5 seconds and 4Gb in 50 seconds. Why on earth is the current version taking 5 minutes? This makes no sense at all unless version 16 has drastically reduced performance or the transfer to the HDD is faulty (duff cable?).
Ref. https://www.akitio.com/faq/186-what-...te-for-usb-3-0 (something odd about the SSD write speed!)
I can't imagine anything other than a rogue process making the machine so slow (as you mention); but then you would notice it anyway wouldn't you?
One thing that would make me suspect a problem with the Paragon software, all else being equal, is the very slow start-up time. It seems to be doing a lot of analysis on the machine and if it sometimes keeps doing that then this might explain all the performance problems. After my own backup had finished I tried to check it using the Restore facility and it seemed to hang but I cannot imagine what it woudl have been doing just in order to locate the file it had just created!. I decide not to wait for it and bailed out.

[CRV]

Hello from June, 2023!

I tested a lot of backup scenarios last days with free Paragon BR 17 CE.

It is disaster regarding the backup time!

I tested with the same hardware and OS.

My old Norton Ghost 15 takes about 30 minutes with high compression.

BR 17 CE takes 3 hours (!) with fast or without compression.

If there is no a solution for that I would not buy the paid version.

I will give another try with the splitting for VHD as discussed above.

Another thing: is this forum dead? I do not see any noticeable activity here and no answers from Paragon. It is also a reason to think twice before purchase.

[Mark_UK]

The backup process is slow, probably the slowest i've come across. However it is reliable (though slow!) when it comes to restoring, which from experience is more than I can say for much of the competition. I use the backup via a bootable USB.
This forum has less life in it than a hobo's vest. You'll have noticed you and I are the only ones to post here in almost 4 years.

[banshee]

In the last time I always need to solve and answer my own forum questions...

You're doing a great job. Nobody would do better.

[wgarlinghouse]

I have this same problem. I am using Paragon Hard Disk Manager 16.5 Advanced. Backups that used to take and hour or two now are taking 8 to 12 hours or more. I am using Windows 10 v1803 and wonder if a recent OS update may be causing the problem. Anyone have any similar problem recently, or better yet, a solution?