Speed up backups?

Questions about Cobian Reflector
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flippertie
Posts: 2
Joined: 01 Nov 2021, 10:01

Speed up backups?

Post by flippertie »

I have just switched from Cobian 11 to Reflector. Everything seems to be OK except that my backups are taking forever. The largest is about 450GB and used to take ~18 hours, but is over 36h so far on Reflector.

When I first set up Cobian a few years ago it was also slow - and I was able to speed up the backups by changing a few settings - but I forget which ones...

So far I have set these:
- No compression or encryption
- Temp folder is on separate hard disk from file backups
- Do Not calculate progress exactly
- Do Not log individual files
- Copy large files unbuffered

It is set to
- Copy Timestamps
- Copy File attributes

Will changing these make much difference?

What about VSS? Should I disable this?

Any other suggestions for speeding things up?

Thanks!
flippertie
Posts: 2
Joined: 01 Nov 2021, 10:01

Re: Speed up backups?

Post by flippertie »

Oh yes, it is installed and running as an application, not a service/
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cobian
Site Admin
Posts: 4492
Joined: 31 Oct 2020, 01:25
Location: Sweden
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Re: Speed up backups?

Post by cobian »

Hello!

Right now I am only chasing bugs, and not concentrating at all on performance. This will come later.

- No compression or encryption (Will definitely help)
- Temp folder is on separate hard disk from file backups (Doesn't make any big difference)
- Do Not calculate progress exactly (Will help in the pre-task context, especially if you have a LOT of small files)
- Do Not log individual files (Absolutely will help)
- Copy large files unbuffered (Not a big difference)

It is set to (These 2 causes some extra input/output access, but unless we are talking millions of small files, I don't thing the difference will be too big)
- Copy Timestamps
- Copy File attributes

Will changing these make much difference?

What about VSS? Should I disable this? No, it takes often not much time. And the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.
--
Luis Cobian
Cobian Backup's creator
flippertie2
Posts: 8
Joined: 08 Nov 2021, 03:16

Re: Speed up backups?

Post by flippertie2 »

For anyone else looking to speed up large backups - :idea:

I back up 490GB / 600,000 files from a network location to local PC hard drive. There are lots of small PDF, doc, excel files.

Turned off settings "Copy Timestamps" and "Copy File attributes" : Backup time reduced by almost exactly 50% from >36 hours to 18. I did upgrade Reflector Beta between the two backups but I don't think that would have made such a big difference.

Now I have turned on VSS and will report back here next week if it changes the time dramatically.


PS Mr Cobian, It seems impossible to recover a lost password to the forums now. I can't find a reset password link. If you get it wrong there is a link to talk to the Board Administrator - but that goes to a page that just says you don't email communications any more.
gvd
Posts: 127
Joined: 05 Oct 2021, 16:05
Location: Belgium

Re: Speed up backups?

Post by gvd »

Hello Luis,
flippertie2 wrote: 08 Nov 2021, 03:35 It seems impossible to recover a lost password to the forums now. I can't find a reset password link. If you get it wrong there is a link to talk to the Board Administrator - but that goes to a page that just says you don't email communications any more.
I had the same problem a few weeks ago and had to create a new profile as I found no other way to enter the forum.

Gabriel
Gabriel
flippertie2
Posts: 8
Joined: 08 Nov 2021, 03:16

Re: Speed up backups?

Post by flippertie2 »

A quick follow up:

I enabled VSS and it didn't make any appreciable difference to the duration of my backups. So the settings above are (in my case) optimal for speeding up a large backup with lots of small files.

Hope this helps someone :)
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cobian
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Posts: 4492
Joined: 31 Oct 2020, 01:25
Location: Sweden
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Re: Speed up backups?

Post by cobian »

VSS copy takes only some seconds, or in max case, one-2 minutes so it won't help much.
--
Luis Cobian
Cobian Backup's creator
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