44 replies to this topic

[geek-accountant]

I think it will eventually work, it is just taking a long time. Question, will WHS write over a file if it is an exact copy or will it skip that file? I am hoping it will skip the file which should make the restore go faster since I already recovered most of the photos and some other files from my unRAID backup.

[fredp1]

What's the setup for the Data volume? If its Raid you may find the array is performing a background initialise causing the restore to be slow.
I've had similar through put in that scenario.

Edited by fredp1, 25 October 2011 - 03:04 PM.

[geek-accountant]

The data is being written to a single 2TB drive in my system. Just got home and after 48 hours it is still less than 50% complete. Times up, I have to reboot this system to get ready for jpeg2RAW. I guess after the show I can start it again and let it run as long as it needs to. After that, I need to re-evaluate my backup solutions and determine if WHS is still a part of that.

[krom]

Mike, I can't help but feel that something else is going wrong here. I'd hate to see you dump WHS because of some outside issue. I wonder how many other folks have run restores form WHS and what their experience has been.

[geek-accountant]

I have done several from WHS v1 and I don't remember any speed issues. Those were also full restores where this is a selected file restore, so I wonder if that could be part of it. I have done some research and found a good many other people with the same issue, slow restore speeds. It shouldn't be a NIC issues since I just copied a file, while the restore was going on, at near 50MB/sec from my PC to the WHS.

krom, I was/am hoping someone was going to come up with the answer and help me solve the issue, but not yet. Maybe I can chat with Diehard later.

[gcoupe]

I have done several from WHS v1 and I don't remember any speed issues. Those were also full restores where this is a selected file restore, so I wonder if that could be part of it. I have done some research and found a good many other people with the same issue, slow restore speeds. It shouldn't be a NIC issues since I just copied a file, while the restore was going on, at near 50MB/sec from my PC to the WHS.

This thread on the Microsoft WHS 2011 forum covers this issue: http://social.micros...42-8e6954e5690e

The main points:

• A full image restore works acceptably fast
• Selected file restore doesn't - it is "horrendously"/"ludicrously" slow
• It's been reported on Microsoft Connect
• Microsoft have marked the report as "Won't Fix"

Sigh.

[geek-accountant]

Thanks gcoupe, that sounds like the exact problem I am having. As much as I like WHS, I only use it for backups and this whole experience makes me question why I am using it. As time permits, I am going to start looking at other solutions, but I fear as bad as this is, my options may be limited. O, and I love the fact MS knows there is a huge issue here and they have no interest in fixing it.

[ikon]

Thanks gcoupe, that sounds like the exact problem I am having. As much as I like WHS, I only use it for backups and this whole experience makes me question why I am using it. As time permits, I am going to start looking at other solutions, but I fear as bad as this is, my options may be limited. O, and I love the fact MS knows there is a huge issue here and they have no interest in fixing it.

I recommend the file copy approach to data backup: i.e. RoboCopy, TeraCopy, RichCopy, etc. I think it avoids pretty much all these issues.

[ImTheTypeOfGuy]

Thanks gcoupe, that sounds like the exact problem I am having. As much as I like WHS, I only use it for backups and this whole experience makes me question why I am using it. As time permits, I am going to start looking at other solutions, but I fear as bad as this is, my options may be limited. O, and I love the fact MS knows there is a huge issue here and they have no interest in fixing it.

It is painfully clear they do not care about the consumer. If you can identify how this affects the enterprise they would repair it in a heartbeat. It would be interesting to know if SBS or SBSE has the same problem.

[gcoupe]

It is painfully clear they do not care about the consumer. If you can identify how this affects the enterprise they would repair it in a heartbeat. It would be interesting to know if SBS or SBSE has the same problem.

In the thread I quote, you'll see Ken Warren has posted the same issue on Microsoft Connect for SBSE. Not being a member of that test group, I don't know whether Microsoft have reacted in the same way as for WHS 2011.

[krom]

Perhaps the good host of this site and his band of merry men can use their VIP status to amplify the message to MS that this bug is not acceptable to those who rely on WHS 2011 (and probably SBSE as well). Unacceptable to the point of moving to a different platform. Even if they don't care about the WHS community due to it's size I'm pretty sure they had some higher expectations for SBSE. Come on Dave, Jim and John at least get MS to take notice.

[dvn]

So I tried restoring a drive from a backup to my PC. This is what I'm seeing:



We're only talking 14GB. 3 hours?! It should be more like 3 minutes. I looked through MS Connect bug reports but didn't see anything helpful.

This leaves me hoping I never find myself in Mike's position. I'd have to imagine Acronis would be quicker, though in my experience it can be finicky. I'm starting to think that ikon's "file copy approach to data backup: i.e. RoboCopy, TeraCopy, RichCopy, etc." may be the way to go. That, and a weekly backup of the system drive which Windows 7's built-in backup could manage. It's just too bad that 'single instance' backups isn't available outside of WHS.

What I can't understand, and forgive me if I missed it, is why PC Restore is so quick yet pulling files from a backup abysmally slow? It wasn't like this in v1. I guess MS didn't foresee a scenario like Mikes' where you can't do a PC backup because your destination drives (for whatever reason) are smaller.

[ikon]

So I tried restoring a drive from a backup to my PC. This is what I'm seeing:



We're only talking 14GB. 3 hours?! It should be more like 3 minutes. I looked through MS Connect bug reports but didn't see anything helpful.

This leaves me hoping I never find myself in Mike's position. I'd have to imagine Acronis would be quicker, though in my experience it can be finicky. I'm starting to think that ikon's "file copy approach to data backup: i.e. RoboCopy, TeraCopy, RichCopy, etc." may be the way to go. That, and a weekly backup of the system drive which Windows 7's built-in backup could manage. It's just too bad that 'single instance' backups isn't available outside of WHS.

What I can't understand, and forgive me if I missed it, is why PC Restore is so quick yet pulling files from a backup abysmally slow? It wasn't like this in v1. I guess MS didn't foresee a scenario like Mikes' where you can't do a PC backup because your destination drives (for whatever reason) are smaller.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but my impression is that the issue only comes up when trying to restore selected files from a backup; that whole drive restores are OK. Is your experience that even whole drive restores are slow? I was sure I read in one post that at least OS drive restores were OK. I sure hope they are.

[dvn]

Yes, PC restores are fine.

[geek-accountant]

I stopped the file/folder restore last night and this morning started a full drive restore of my data drive going over the network. Speeds were MUCH better, but after 12+ hours of restore and with less than 1 hour to go, this is what I got:



Great! Now what? Do I start this 12+ hour process over or do I start the file/folder restore which will take DAYS to complete.

[Technogod]

There was discussion on Podcast 158 regarding Client Backups being saved as VHD's and mounting the VHD's to restore files. To the best of my knowledge WHS 2011 and WHS V1 Client Backups are not stored as VHD's.

WHS 2011 Server Backups are stored as VHD's. I did mount a WHS 2011 Server Backup VHD and used it to restore files. The only problem I had was getting WHS 2011 to recognize the drive. I had to use Disk Management to assign a drive letter to the drive.

[geek-accountant]

I have not been able to find any VHD's for client backups either. If I ever get this data off the WHS, it is being demoted to a secondary solution. My plan now is to use a combination of Windows 7's built in backup and SyncToy with everthing going to the unRAID server. WHS will now be just a secondary solution in case anything happens to unRAID. Last solution is the offsite of the main files.

[pcdoc]

I have not been able to find any VHD's for client backups either. If I ever get this data off the WHS, it is being demoted to a secondary solution. My plan now is to use a combination of Windows 7's built in backup and SyncToy with everthing going to the unRAID server. WHS will now be just a secondary solution in case anything happens to unRAID. Last solution is the offsite of the main files.

Have you tried restoring from another client or server to a drive? That is the method Tim uses and I used once and it seemed to work better. If you copy the appropriate client restore wizard to another PC connected to the network and restore to a drive it was much faster.

[pcdoc]

Just for fun, I will try a restore tomorrow as soon as my RAID expansion finishes to see what happens and if I am getting these whopping speeds that you guys are seeing.

[geek-accountant]

Good news! Woke up this morning and the restore had completed! A few stats:

• 678,125 files
• 1.07TB
• Around 12 hours to complete.

pcdoc, the method I used was to full restore of a data drive using the method Tim posted on his site. I copied the client restore directory to my PC and restored the data drive. Not exactly like you mentioned above since this is on the same PC where the data drive will live.

Also, when you test later, can you try the file/folder restore and not the full restore? I would be interested to see if you get the extremely slow speeds many of us are reporting.