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Unable to create a backup on Windows 7

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  • 18-06-2014 12:33pm
    #1
    mrcheez
    Registered Users Posts: 13,771 ✭✭✭✭


    I have a new build with an SSD drive and Windows 7. I tweaked the OS for an SSD drive which included the following:

    - Disable System Restore
    - Disable Indexing
    - Remove the Page File
    - Disable Prefetch and Superfetch

    Everything runs fine and I wanted to take an image of the C: drive and System Reserved Partition (both on the SSD).

    I've tried with both Windows' "Backup and Restore" and "Macrium Reflect Free".

    For Windows' "Backup and Restore" it remains on the start-up pop-up for 8 hours (i.e. doesn't proceed past the initialization)... I started it last night, and it was still in this state when I woke up.

    For "Macrium Reflect Free", once I started the backup process it remains at 0% for several hours as well.

    Any idea what could be blocking this process? Is it anything to do with my SSD tweaks?

    I have no anti-virus installed beyond Microsoft Security Essentials.


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    #2
    maki
    Registered Users Posts: 772 ✭✭✭maki


    Those SSD "tweaks" are completely unnecessary. This all stems back to a hell of a lot of fear and miscommunication about how writing to an SSD eventually wears out the NAND cells, which it does, but not to the extent that's going to effect you. SSD's have wear-levelling to ensure that all cells get a relatively equal share of the wear and tear, so unless you're writing data 24/7 you're not going to see any cells die within 10 years.

    Not to mention that disabling the pagefile isn't a great idea on its own. Windows doesn't only start paging when it's run out of RAM. It keeps a backing-store of everything in RAM on disk. That way if a particularly memory hungry program needs to launch it can just clear something else from RAM to make space, knowing that it's already on disk ready to be paged back into RAM when needed.

    System restore is always handy to have in the case of some sort of disaster.
    Superfetch doesn't run with an SSD installed by default, and prefetch is useful and would have barely any effect on lifespan. Ditto for indexing.


    Back to the matter at hand, I'd put money on the disabled pagefile being the source of your issue here.


  • Options
    #3
    mrcheez
    Registered Users Posts: 13,771 ✭✭✭✭mrcheez


    Cool I'll give it a shot.


  • Options
    #4
    mrcheez
    Registered Users Posts: 13,771 ✭✭✭✭mrcheez


    Turns out it was a piece of software called X-Fast USB that was causing the blockage.

    Uninstall did the trick


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