Backing up VeraCrypt drive is slow

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YesAndNo
Posts: 44
Joined: Sat Aug 24, 2013 11:14 am

Backing up VeraCrypt drive is slow

Post by YesAndNo »

Hello,
Backing up a 500GB veracrypt encrypted data drive is taking hours. I notice that the drive activity light on my PC just blinks every second or so, whereas when backing up other non-encrypted drives the light is on continuously.

I'm backing up from TBWinPE using John Cole's backup scripts. I'm passing the "/comp:0" argument to disable compression as I know this doesn't work with an encrypted drive.

I know you should backup unused sectors as well when encrypted, and the manual says:
Backup Unused Sectors...This option has no effect on partitions that do not contain a recognized file system; such partitions will always be backed up in full, regardless of this setting.
So I didn't set that.

Using Image for Windows version 3.24 64 bit.

Is this normal or can I improve it?
Thanks for any help.
TeraByte Support
Posts: 3598
Joined: Thu May 05, 2011 10:37 pm

Re: Backing up VeraCrypt drive is slow

Post by TeraByte Support »

Have you seen:
https://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=462


"YesAndNo" wrote in message news:15862@public.image...

Hello,
Backing up a 500GB veracrypt encrypted data drive is taking hours. I notice
that the drive activity light on my PC just blinks every second or so,
whereas when backing up other non-encrypted drives the light is on
continuously.

I'm backing up from TBWinPE using John Cole's backup scripts. I'm passing
the "/comp:0" argument to disable compression as I know this doesn't work
with an encrypted drive.

I know you should backup unused sectors as well when encrypted, and the
manual says:
Backup Unused Sectors...This option has no effect on partitions that do not
contain a recognized file system; such partitions will always be backed up
in full, regardless of this setting.
So I didn't set that.

Using Image for Windows version 3.24 64 bit.

Is this normal or can I improve it?
Thanks for any help.

YesAndNo
Posts: 44
Joined: Sat Aug 24, 2013 11:14 am

Re: Backing up VeraCrypt drive is slow

Post by YesAndNo »

Thanks for the reply.
Yes, read that tutorial a few times. Just read the relevant bits again and must correct myself, I encrypted just the partition and not the whole drive (as recommened in that tutorial). I've now added the /raw argument to the script just in case, but manual does say this is automatic for unrecognized file systems. Haven't tried it yet, takes nearly 5 hours with verification.

Any help regarding the short bursts of activity when backing up this drive compared to my others though? If it's normal, fine, but would like to know.

Thanks for your help.
TeraByte Support(PP)
Posts: 1644
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 12:51 am

Re: Backing up VeraCrypt drive is slow

Post by TeraByte Support(PP) »

Have you checked the IFW log and made sure the options used show correctly? Do you see the same issue if you run a manual backup using the desired options? What about if you back it up from Windows (without the partition being mounted)?
YesAndNo
Posts: 44
Joined: Sat Aug 24, 2013 11:14 am

Re: Backing up VeraCrypt drive is slow

Post by YesAndNo »

Did backup last night from TBWinPE, noticed that the activity light on the destination drive was on about 50% of the time. The light on the PC however (source) was almost continuously on so it seems okay now. Tried from Windows with veracrypt drive unmounted and was the same.

It was about 2 hours without verification for a 500GB drive. If that sounds too long please let me know otherwise I'll assume it's okay.
Thanks for your help.
TeraByte Support(PP)
Posts: 1644
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 12:51 am

Re: Backing up VeraCrypt drive is slow

Post by TeraByte Support(PP) »

Are you backing up to a USB 3.0 drive or an internal drive? Do you know what the drive can do (what throughput it supports)? Some can be quite slow on writing, but it sounds like it's taking longer to verify (3hrs?). Some USB 3.0 drives can be very slow compared to internal. In my experience, the larger full-size powered units perform a lot better than the small USB powered units. If either of the drives involved (source or destination) is maxed out reading/writing most of the time then it's probably going as fast as it can already.

Regarding TBWinPE, you don't say what the build's base is, but if it's an older version of Windows (7 or 8.x) it may help to build it using a Windows 10 base.
YesAndNo
Posts: 44
Joined: Sat Aug 24, 2013 11:14 am

Re: Backing up VeraCrypt drive is slow

Post by YesAndNo »

Both source and destination drives are WD blue plugged into internal SATA ports. Destination is via a removable drive caddy thing on front of PC (Orico). SATA is only version 2 on motherboard.

I've just ugraded to 64 bit Windows 7 Home from 32 bit. I Initially installed Windows 10 ADK to build TBWinPE but got an error due to missing file. Think it was a long-named dll, not sure. Thought it may be due to building on Windows 7. Unistalled ADK and installed Windows 7 AIK which is what I had before and build went fine as normal.

May re-install windows 10 on another partition when I get round to it and try building TBWinPE using the ADK from there.

Oh, I wanted to check that it's okay to do incremental backups with a veracrypt encrypted drive? I have been doing this but want to make sure that it's okay.

Thanks a lot for your help.
TeraByte Support(PP)
Posts: 1644
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 12:51 am

Re: Backing up VeraCrypt drive is slow

Post by TeraByte Support(PP) »

Incremental backups are fine.

The .dll error using the Windows 10 ADK when building on Windows 7 is a known issue. It's not a fatal error and can be ignored or you can disable using the DISM API in settings to avoid it (the current version of Builder handles it automatically).
YesAndNo
Posts: 44
Joined: Sat Aug 24, 2013 11:14 am

Re: Backing up VeraCrypt drive is slow

Post by YesAndNo »

Re-installed Windows 10 ADK, unchecked "use DISM API if supported" (only "force unsigned drivers" checked) got messagebox error twice:

bcdedit.exe - System Error
---------------------------
The program can't start because api-ms-win-core-heap-obsolete-l1-1-0.dll is missing from your computer. Try reinstalling the program to fix this problem.

TBWinPE version is 1.15.

Built anyway. Started full backup of drive, same estimated time of 2 hours without verification. As I say, I'm okay if that's considered normal for my system.

Not sure if the windows 10 build offers anything over Windows 7 build for my purpose though.

Thanks again.
TeraByte Support(PP)
Posts: 1644
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 12:51 am

Re: Backing up VeraCrypt drive is slow

Post by TeraByte Support(PP) »

It probably wouldn't for your system since it's older hardware and you're not using USB 3.0.

Which version of the ADK are you using? That's the same type of error, but from a different program.
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