AOMEI Backupper RESTORE slower and slower the longer it runs

dmaddlone · April 4

I would like a AOMEI tech to explain what is the process that the RESTORE function of Backerupper does that causes it to start off pretty fast during the "Analize Volume" stage of the restore, but it gets slower and slower the longer it runs. What is going on during this stage of the restore? There is very little disk I/O in either the source external drive, or the target external drive. Both drives are on USB3 interface and CUP remains constant at about 20% for the AOMEI task. The analyze volume stage completed about 20% in the first 30 minutes, and has been running for 4 hours now and only at %55 and getting slower and slower, counting up by 1s, versus 100s or 1000s when it started. What gives?

aiArtisan · April 5

Thank you for your question, Dmaddlone.

"it gets slower and slower"

There are many factors that can contribute to the speed of a backup, or transfer. The software yes, can be a cause of undesired speeds. There is also the quality of the target disk. Some disks have a high read speed, and a low write speed, such as the Samsung Fit USB stick. Some SSDs actually have 2 disks inside, one that is small and fast, and a 2nd that is large but slow, such as the Kingston XS2000 disk; after the this kind of disk has been in use for several minutes, it will switch to the 2nd slower disk on the inside, and the speed will slow. You may use Partition Assistant Disk Speed Test to see this for yourself visually.

The USB 2,3,4 rating is only the ceiling speed that the disk can use, not the actual speed it will go at. The source port, cable, and target port must all match the 2,3,4 rating to achieve the ceiling. USB 3 is rated at 5Gb/s, but if you read the official USB 3 documentation, it can never reach that speed, even theoretically. See documentation below for further reading.

Backupper compression setting "None, Normal, High", will affect the backup speed.

What file system is your target disk? The ExFAT filesystem, is slightly faster than NTFS.

What data file types are you backing up? A large amount of tiny files, such as music or photos will backup slower than a small amount of large files, such as .ISOs.

I have attached for you a screenshot of backing up 508MB/s consistently.

Backupper may at times go slower than desired, but usually it will go at the speed of your disks, cable, ports, file systems, and data file types. If you want an affordable external disk with consistant high speed, try the Crucial X9.

Backupper is very fast, and if you want to try another very fast free USB disk clone program, you could try Clonezilla. Please reply with questions, thank you! : )

Backupper WinPE USB:

Add custom drivers, such as NVMe, if necessary. Does not work on some Monitors.

Backupper Manual & Guide

Free tools and info not from Aomei:

Clonezilla - non-GUI cloning USB

If the source disk has Bad Sectors, use Expert Mode > "-rescue" option to continue cloning all readable sectors

USB speed is not 5Gb/s - ThioJoe

AOMEI Backupper RESTORE slower and slower the longer it runs

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