Category Archives: Backup/Restore

New USB4 Nearly Matches Old M.2 Slots

Here’s a fascinating — and quite recent — observation and realization. To wit: the internal M.2 NVMe slot on an older PC motherboard is mostly on par, performance-wise, with the USB4 ports on a new (2024 vintage) laptop. There are some provisos and qualifications to ponder but first take a look at the lead-in screencap. It shows checks on a USB4-attached SSD in a USB4-compatible NVMe enclosure left from a new laptop, and checks on the M.2 internal system drive in my 2016 vintage i7 Skylake PC right (Intel 6th Gen). I’m stunned.

Why New USB4 Nearly Matches Old M.2 Slots

Quick examination of the two sets of results show the bulk transfer read speeds very close, though the write speeds are less than 50% on the laptop vis-a-vis the desktop. Ditto for write speeds on random 4K reads, with a truly awful fall-off for correlated writes.

But this shows the impact of advancing, ever-faster NVMe drives and the PCIe interface that supports them in one way or another. M.2 in the PCIe Gen5 now provides reads and writes in the 12-15K range. I have no such systems myself but I read about them often enough online to accept such speeds represent the leading edge of NVMe performance on the newest PCs available.

Fallout for High-Bandwidth External Drives

This turns out to be an excellent argument for upgrading a PC, if one seeks better performance in reading from or writing to external USB drives. For me, the biggest win there is backup/restore. Such speeds represent an order of magnitude better performance compared to an external HDD. Better than that for older USB flash drives. That said, my Kingston DataTraveler DTMAXA 256 GB (another 2024 acquisition) is just as fast as a USB4 NVMe enclosure with a PCIe Gen 3 NVMe drive installed.

Consider this a long-winded way of justifying common sense. Newer PCs and laptops generally incorporate faster, more capable interfaces (both internal and external). One good reason to buy newer stuff is to handle bandwidth intensive tasks more quickly. That applies to external USB4 (or even, USB5) storage devices that can take advantage of those speed boosts.

In my case that means Macrium Reflect backups finish in 2 minutes or less on those laptops. I think that’s amazing. It takes 15-20 minutes on my older i7 Skylake desktop (which targets an mSATA NVMe instead). Others who work with video, AI models, and other big, data-intensive applications, will also find this speed boost salubrious. Cheers!

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PowerChute Software Steps Functionality Back

I find myself wondering why, why, why Schneider Electric (parent company of APC, maker of my brand-new uninterruptible power supply, or UPS) switched to forced registration and login for its latest generation of software. Seems like that’s a step backward, not forward, as its PowerChute software steps functionality back. I ended up visiting MajorGeeks to download the old version (3.1.0) which I’m using quite happily right now. It serves as the lead-in graphic above, in fact.

Why Say: PowerChute Software Steps Functionality Back?

The key to the new PowerChute Serial Shutdown (PCSS) software is registering the UPS device and setting up an online account. In turn that requires scanning and uploading or manually entering a device ID and a product key value from a preprinted label attached to the device. You can’t access the software without going through that process.

My problem is there’s no such label on my device. I’m not quite sure how I got one without that data, but that’s my situation. I’ve contacted Schneider’s online support forums to see if somebody can help. But in the meantime I can’t log into PCSS without a valid account, and I can’t validate my account without registering my device.

Frankly, I don’t understand why PCSS won’t work at all without that validation step. The old sofware — as you can see above — works just fine without it. That’s the basis for my assertion that this software steps functionality back. I can understand why Schneider wants to keep tabs on its customers and keep track of their devices. As I said, I can’t imagine why the software won’t work at all without jumping through such hoops.

Go figure! Sometimes, things in Windows-World make little or no sense. Ditto for access management decisions from some equipment makers. Good thing the old software still works (it’s scheduled to retire in January 2026). Hopefully, I’ll get things straightened out a lot sooner that that.

Successful, But Protracted Support Call Fixes Things

I got on the phone with Schneider tech support. Turns out they’ve got another version of the software that doesn’t require registration to let PCSS run. It took a while for the tech support person’s email client to figure out how to get me that file. We ended up having to use a link on Google Drive because my HTML email client was apparently bollixing their ZIP file (I could tell she was using a Salesforce environment, because the link resolved somewhere in Salesforce-land).

This time, when I started to install PCSS, it welcomed me and asked for configuration settings right away. No login or validation required. Why do  I think this means this isn’t the first time the support folks have been down this road? It’s working now as it should be, but I must confess: I do like the old software version better. It told me more, in a more approachable form. Indeed, I prefer a native Windows app to a web-based interface for this stuff. But hey: that’s progress!

Along the way, I figured out I’d plugged my devices into the wrong outlets on the UPS (hence, the foregoing zero values). They’re in surge protected but not battery backed up outlets. I’ll switch that soon. Cheers!

 

 

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Learning New Backup Post-Blowup

I must confess. I blew up a Lenovo review unit Wednesday trying to fix an update problem. Now after what I learned during that experience, I’m learning new backup post-blowup. First, I’ll explain the need for new backup; then the blowup,; and finally, the backup and recovery manuevers I must now make part of my review process. It all ends with an ironic footnote, as my precautions prove unneeded.

To begin with, I’d like to thank Amanda Heater and Michael Redd of the Lenovo Reviews team, based in North Carolina. They didn’t even laugh at me when I told them what I’d done. They simply offered to cross-ship me a replacement system while I returned the one I so thoroughly munged. Thanks, thanks, thanks.

Why I’m Learning New Backup, Post-Blowup

It all goes back to Paramount Software, maker of the excellent backup and recovery toolset known as Macrium Reflect. I’ve been a happy and satisfied use of same for seven years or more. But as of January 1, 2024 (now 18 months ago), the company dropped its free version of that software. In good conscience that meant when I updated my ComputerWorld  story How to make a Windows 10 or 11 Backup, I had to recommend one or two free backup packages, as well as continuing my ongoing endorsement for Reflect (I own 8 licenses for version X and 4 for version 8, in fact).

So while I’m intaking the second iteration of a Lenovo ThinkPad T14s (the Snapdragon X variant of their thin-and-light 2-in-1 business laptop), I’m also learning how to install and use Easus ToDo Backup (one of the three free packages I mention in the February 2024 revision to the afore-cited CW story, the other two being AEOMEI Backupper Standard and MiniTool ShadowMaker Free).

It’s been both interesting and frustrating. I know Reflect so well now I don’t have to think about what I’m doing anymore: I just do it. In using Easus ToDo, I’m reminded of how idiosyncratic UI design can be, and how careful one must be in reading UI clues to understand how to define, schedule and run backups. Ditto for building and using recovery media. Long story short, I did figure things out, and I do have two backups of the T14s, working recovery media, and am ready to use them if needed. I’ve also saved a copy of the T14s BitLocker Recovery Key to a USB flash drive and my MSA.

What About That Blowup?

In working on the first of the two T14s laptops Lenovo sent me, I learned something about Windows 11 that I didn’t know, and would have preferred never to learn. In working through my normal intake process I ran Windows Update. It showed a pending CU that would not install, with the error code 0x8007000D, which indicates a corrupt Windows download or some issue with WU itself.

So naturally, I next ran the batch file from the Eleven Forum Tutorial: Reset Windows Update in Windows 11. This nearly always works to set WU back to rights, and let me get on with my updates. Not this time. The OS recommended, and my own experience concurred, that an in-place repair install was the next step in fixing this issue.

That’s where the blowup happened, as I encountered a Windows misbehavior I’ve never, ever seen before. I used the “Reinstall now” button in Settings > System > Recovery. It appears under the heading of “Fix problems using Windows Update.” It’s usually pretty foolproof and often turns a balky or misbehaving Windows OS into its tidy and proper counterpart. But first a short detour to describe the in-place repair upgrade or install.

More About the In-Place Repair Install

A repair install goes through two major phases. First, there’s a GUI-based portion, where it copies over the Windows OS installer and the files it needs to install the OS. Second, there’s a reboot after which a WinPE-based installer takes over and finishes building a new OS from a whole new set of files and data structures. Usually, Windows 11 reboots 2 or 3 times after the initial reboot as it finishes various aspects of that install process. When it’s done, a newly installed and presumably pristine version of Windows is running, usually devoid of the issues that prompted this repair fix.

This time, on either the first or second post-GUI reboot, the boot handler brought up a BitLocker recovery key screen. It also informed me that something about the boot environment had changed enough during the install that this key was needed to proceed. Ooops!

What Makes BitLocker Key Request a Blowup?

I didn’t have the BitLocker recovery key for that machine locally, and it hadn’t yet propagated into my Microsoft Account (MSA) online. I literally couldn’t access the hard drive. When I attempted to use the Lenovo image recovery service, I couldn’t get it to fork over a digital download. I could buy a pre-loaded USB for US$29 but it could take as long a week to make it to my door. Lenovo suggested that I return the unusable T14s to them, while they would cross-ship a new, working one to me for next-day delivery.

That’s the machine I’m working on right now. And my first steps on that second iteration were to:

  1. Install Easus ToDo Backup, and make a full-drive C: image backup
  2. Build the ToDo Recovery Media (this bootable flash drive will let me restore any ToDo image even if the C: drive is inaccessible)
  3. Make a file copy of the BitLocker recovery key to that same bootable flash drive, should I need for any reason. I also forced a copy into my MSA online as well (I don’t always travel with a full set of UFDs).

This is a new and permanent set of intake activities when I get a new PC or review unit from an OEM like Lenovo (I’ve also reviewed PCs and laptops from ASUS, Acer, MSI, Dell, Panasonic, and HP in past years). If a repair install can provoke the Bitlocker key request, I have to be ready for that. Now, thanks to the foregoing steps, I will be.

Ironic WU Conclusion

The CU that caused me problems on the first machine also needed installing on the second one. It was KB5063060 (26100.4351 Out-of-band). It failed on the first attempt right after the machine came up for the first time upon unboxing. But this time, the Retry button resulted in a successful installation. The machine’s all caught up and I didn’t need to run the in-place upgrade repair install, nor to recover from its failure (and supply the Bitlocker key on demand).

I was ready for things to go south. I’m grateful they did not. But, as I can attest from painful recent experience, it’s better to have the recovery tools and data and not need them, than it is to need them and not have them.

And wow, it seems ever so appropriate to recite this saga on a day emblematic of mala fortuna: please note that it’s Friday the 13th. It can be a risky day in Windows-World, as in other worlds as well.

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4TB SSDs Deliver 5-cent Storage GBs

On Tuesday, Tom’s Hardware dropped an eye-catching story. It’s entitled (in part) “4TB SSDs now 5 cents per GB…” It got me to thinking about the price trajectory of digital storage, over my three-plus decades working in computing. Today, 4TB SSDs deliver 5-cent storage GBs (e.g. Silicon Power UD90 for US$204: do the math).

I bought my first SCSI external hard disk for a Macintosh SE in the mid-1980s. It was an IOmega 300 MB model, and it cost me almost exactly US$1,000.00, or US$3.33 per megabyte. If you translate that into cost-per-GB that becomes US$3,409.92. If I’ve got the conversion factors right that means 1 GB of middling-fast NVMe SSD storage today costs just over 68,000 times LESS than it did in 1987 or thereabouts. Wow!

If 4TB SSDs Deliver 5-cent Storage GBs,
Why Not Buy Some?

At least, that’s what I’m thinking. Except for those users who’ve purchased Thunderbolt 5 capable systems that can support TB5 storage peripherals, SSDs like those in the afore-linked Tom’s story are perfectly adequate for USB-attached storage devices. I can remember paying as much, or more, for 256 and 512 GB devices, and ditto for 1 TB and 2 TB devices, back when each size represented the top of the max space distribution then available.

Indeed, I’m thinking about acquiring a NAS like the QNAP TBS-464 NASbook just to take such drives for a spin. Sometimes, it’s hard to appreciate how the price of technology has declined so dramatically, while speed and capacity have gone the other way. But this morning, I feel like it punched me in the nose — but in a good way. Cheers!

 

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Free Macrium Update Conundrum

OK, then: I’m chuckling. I’ve noticed for the past two months that while Macrium Reflect Free (v8) notifies me updates are available, it never downloads them. Then, I used one of my two remaining paid-for v8 licenses and presto! v.8.8.8325 is now available for download. That poses a free Macrium Update conundrum — namely, are they or aren’t they? So I asked Copilot about company policy on updates for that free version.

Here’s what it told me:

Yes, Macrium has stated a policy regarding updates for the free version of Macrium Reflect. As of January 1, 2024, Macrium Reflect Free v8.0 no longer receives feature, compatibility, or bug fix updates. Security patches were provided until that date, but no further changes are made to the v8 Free code base.

You can continue to use Macrium Reflect Free, but to receive updates and new features, a paid license is required.

Timing the Free Macrium Update Conundrum

Again, I’m chuckling because I’ve managed to go nearly two full months before catching this on my various testbed PCs. That’s also a clever use of notifications from Paramount Software (the makers of MR). It let me know — somewhat more slowly than I’m sure they intended — that my old free licenses were orphaned.

Now that I’ve updated as many of them as I can, I need to figure out how many MR version X licenses I’m actually still using. I’ve sent at least 3 or 4 such machines back to Lenovo after installing paid-up versions on them. I need to reclaim them so I can use them for other such machines as and when they show up here at Chez Tittel.

And now, at least, older members of my mini-fleet can get their Macrium updates on. Boy howdy: Isn’t that just the way things go here in Windows-World from time to time? Keeping up isn’t a full-time chore, for sure, but it does require paying a certain amount of attention…

 

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Windows Resiliency Initiative Includes Quick Machine Recovery

It’s that time of year again, when MS meetings and conferences — Ignite 2024, in this case — heat things up with future promises and new idea campaigns. Yesterday’s Windows Experience Blog from David Weston (MS VP Enterprise & OS Security) is a case in point. Entitled Windows security and resiliency: Protecting your business, it asserts that a new Windows Resiliency Initiative includes Quick Machine Recovery as a key capability. Very interesting!

Explaining Windows Resiliency Initiative Includes Quick Machine Recovery

This new initiative “takes four areas of focus” as its goal — namely (all bullet points quoted verbatim from the afore-linked blog post, except for my [bracketed] commentary):

  • Strengthen reliability based on learnings from the incident we saw in July. [Crowdstrike kernel mode error took down 8.5M Windows PCs.]
  • Enabling more apps and users to run without admin privileges.
  • Stronger controls for what apps and drivers are allowed to run.
  • Improved identity protection to prevent phishing attacks.

The first and arguably most impactful preceding item is what led MS to its announcement of Quick Machine Recovery. Here’s how Weston explains it:

This feature will enable IT administrators to execute targeted fixes from Windows Update on PCs, even when machines are unable to boot, without needing physical access to the PC. This remote recovery will unblock your employees from broad issues much faster than what has been possible in the past. Quick Machine Recovery will be available to the Windows Insider Program community in early 2025.

In other words, this new feature should enable what savvy administrators had to do using OOB access to affected machine via KVMs smart enough to bootstrap machines otherwise unable to boot.

Great Addition: How’s the Execution?

IMO this is something MS should’ve built into Windows long ago. I’m curious to see how (and how well) it works. I’m also curious to see if it will be available for Windows 10 as well as 11. Only time will tell, but I’ll be all over this when it hits Insider Builds early next year. Good stuff — I hope!!

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Macrium X Next Migration Step: P360 Ultra

As I manage my small fleet of desktops and laptops lately, I’ve been slowly but surely updating Macrium Reflect. I’m transitioning from version 8 to version X (as in Roman Numeral 10). At this point, I’ve allocated 5 of my 8 licenses for X. Today’s effort for my Macrium X next migration step: P360 Ultra switches a temporary 8 preview version out for the “real thing.”

Taking Macrium X Next Migration Step: P360 Ultra

“What is involved in upgrading” one might ask? I just did one. Now, I can say it requires getting the configuration and schedule right. On the P360 Ultra that meant:

  • switching from a no-longer-attached USB4 NVMe enclosure to an older mSATA NVMe that stays constantly plugged in.
  • Defining a daily backup task, to see how that works out in this situation.

Total time and effort required: about 8 minutes, most of which went to accessing my Macrium Reflect login to grab a 5th license to take the upgrade/install process to completion.

Here’s where things get interesting: Macium X is a LOT faster than Macrium 8. Even on a 10-year-old Samsung EVO 500GB mSATA SSD, X reported whopping I/O performance of: 25.7 Gb/s read and 2.7 Gb/s write. Total elapsed time for the backup was 2:13. And that backup image occupies about 32.8 GB on the EVO500 (D:) drive, as you can see in the lead-in graphic. It’s at least 2:00 faster than version 8.

This has been my experience on all the PCs I’ve upgraded so far. It’s also been blazing fast on new installs on a trio of Copilot+ PCs (two ARM Snapdragons and one Intel Aura model). That provides a sweet reward for the time and effort involved in moving on up to that new version. Good job, Macrium Reflect developer team!!

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Macrium Reflect X Rocks

I’ve known about this for a couple of months, but until last week I was under embargo, as they say in trade press lingo. Macrium Reflect X (version 10, so it’s a Roman numeral) went public on October 8, so now I can talk. Reflect X not only backs up ARM PCs — the lead-in graphic comes from my Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 Copilot+ PC — it does so swiftly and surely. As you can see it created a 47.24GB full disk image backup in under two minutes (1:51). But there’s more…

Why Say: Macrium Reflect X Rocks

It’s not just way speedy (it would be two to four minutes faster than version 8 for the same setup on a Wintel PC), it’s also got other things going in its favor as well. ARM support is a big deal (it’s one of a very few tools that offers scalable backup for ARM CPUs). But Macrium Reflect X also offers:

  • Resumable imaging: Even after interruptions, image backup can pick up where it left off, with no data or time losses.
  • Open-source file formats: Reflect has published specifications for its .mrimgx and .mrbakx file formats so other programs can use them.
  • Enhanced filtering: Relect X can ignore files (e.g. contents of the Temp directory, caches, and other transient items that don’t need backing up) to reduce backup size and speed image capture time.
  • Improved compression and backup optimization techniques (see this video for a backup that goes from over 8 minutes for version 8 to under 2 minutes for version X).

Reflect X Does Come at a Cost

With this latest release, Paramount Software (the company behind Macrium Reflect) has changed its licensing approach. It’s moved over from perpetual licenses plus annual maintenance fees to a pure annual subscription model. Because I had 8 licenses (4 from a 4-pack perpetual license, 4 more from a version 8 subscription purchased last year) my upgrade costs to get into Version X were right around US$200 (approximately US$25 per license per year).

I think that’s a reasonable price, but understand that new buyers won’t get as good a deal. That said, the company runs occasional specials wherein they drop list prices anywhere from 25 to 50%. Best to keep an eye out for such, if you’re planning on getting into the latest Macrium Reflect X version. IMO, it’s completely worth it, and very much the best backup/restore/repair option available for Windows PCs. You can check out a free trial for 30 days.

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Considering USB4 External Media

It’s a classic trade-off in more ways than one: cost versus speed. I’m prepping for an AskWoody story about external media on Windows PCs. For me, the big trade-off when considering USB4 external media is higher prices for higher performance. “How much higher?” you ask: that’s what I’m in the process of figuring out right now.

Whole Device Chain Counts When Considering USB4 External Media

Every step in the device chain counts when going for the speediest external Windows media. The starting point from the PC end is the USB port itself. Ideally, it should be USB4 or Thunderbolt 3/4, and support 40 Gbps throughput. Next comes the cable: it should be labeled USB4, Thunderbolt 3 or 4, or 40 Gbps. Next comes the storage device. For me, that mostly means an enclosure housing an NVMe SSD. That enclosure should be USB4 or Thunderbolt 3/4, and the NVMe should be Gen 3 (PCIe x3) or higher.

At every step you pay more to attain the current pinnacle of performance. (I’ve not yet seen any 80 Gbps devices, but they’re coming. Copilot tells me Intel’s 14th Gen HX-series mobile CPUs “are starting to support this technology. “) A quick search at Amazon tells me you can’t buy USB5 cables, docks, and so forth yet. My best guess: we’re looking well into 2025 before it goes mainstream.

Right now, the jump from USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) to USB4 (and TB 3/4 equivalents) is getting cheaper, but still costs. You’ll pay US$46 for the cheapest USB4 M.2 enclosures right now (more like US$75 and up for other options). That’s double the cost — or more — of USB 3.2 Gen 1 devices (UASP: see below). Cables cost US$2 to $10 more for faster varieties, which isn’t too punitive. You can’t take advantage of anything faster than Gen 3 NVMes. Thus, you can buy 1 TB for US$55-80, and 2 TB for US$93-130 or so.

The “big spring” comes from the cost of either buying (for laptops and so forth) or installing (for desktops with open PCIe slots, and ASUS is the only vendor I can find who makes one for US$126) to gain a USB4 40 Gbps port to plug into. My testing so far shows this DOES make a difference, and often offers better performance than older and rarer Thunderbolt 3 or 4 capable USB-C ports.

For Me, Backup Is the Killer App

I’m always messing with PCs, so I need to back up frequently in case I shoot myself in the foot and have to replace a mangled installation. It happens to me at least 1-2 times a week in my testing and research, so this is no joke. I find the cost of USB4 external storage worthwhile because it drops the time to make a complete image backup into the 2-4 minute range. It takes anywhere from 7-24 minutes to back up to UASP-capable external storage. This equates to USB 3.2 Gen 2 10 Gbps capability. It shows up with max read/write speeds in Cystaldiskmark in a range from 1000-1100 MBps.

If you look at the lead-in graphic, which comes from NirSoft’s USBdeview, you can see it references the UASPStore.sys driver and service. I’ve actually found this to be a clearer way to recognize when a USB 3.x port can provide somewhat higher speeds. If your USB 3.x ports are older (and slower) they’ll usually show a USBstor.sys driver instead (and max speeds in CrystalDiskMark in the 400-500 MBps range).

You pays your money, and you takes your chances. That’s how things go with external USB-attached Windows storage — and much else in life!

 

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Restored P16 Needs PowerShell Catch-up

Here’s something I’d never noticed before. If you’ve read yesterday’s blog post, you already know I ended up restoring the ThinkPad P16 yesterday after ascertaining Windows 11 backup fails to deposit a list of removed applications following “Reset this PC.” What I didn’t know then, but I know now, is that the restored P16 needs PowerShell catch-up to finish the job. Let me explain…

Why Say: Restored P16 Needs PowerShell Catch-up?

Imagine my surprise when running PowerShell on the restored P16 this morning, to see version 5.1 come up as the default. Then, imagine my further surprise to observe:

  • No version 7.4.5 present on the install
  • Windows Terminal NOT selected as default terminal app
  • No OhMyPosh present to gussy up the WinTerm UI
  • No other PS customizations present: e.g. WinFetch (as shown in the lead-in graphic to give PS something to display)

All this is, of course, easily fixed. And it took me less than 5 minutes to take care of all this stuff. But I learned a valuable lesson, one that I’ll take to heart going forward. It is: even an incredibly fast and convenient image restore using Macrium Reflect doesn’t completely restore absolutely everything. When invoked as a cure-all or a way to recover from a (failed) experiment, there’s still some clean-up needed.

Plus çe Change

I have to observe in this context that the same is true for an in-place repair install (aka IPRI). Once it’s done, one must re-set File Explorer Options and a few other odds’n’ends that the Windows Installer resets during its OS replacement operations. The more things change, the more they stay the same!

Here in Windows-World, it’s always something. Today, it’s understanding that an image restore may not completely put PowerShell back where it came from. I wonder: what will it be tomorrow?

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