Fab's AutoBackup 7 Pro - a must have tool for techs

[britechguy]

The one drive does not instantly upload the files. The new computer has to have the free space for all of the files initially.

I knew the former. But the Fabs backup process took 6 hours, and I expected the restore to take at least as long. I'd hope that OneDrive would be "shoveling out" files to cloud storage while all this is going on and the space freed up by said shoveling would be available as "the temporary local resting place" for files being brought in by Fabs.

That being said, there was a OneDrive disconnect burp overnight, so things did not go tidily, but that's not the fault of Fabs. From what I could see (and I'll check the documentation) it's possible to re-run Fabs and have it skip over existing files. I may have to try that, but it seems it was old files I kept under Public where the issue started, so I may not bother.

 

[Porthos]

Personally, I do not back up one drive files with Fabs. The files in there will auto-restore when the new computer gets logged into Onedrive.
The biggest issue now is when I set up a new computer with 11 and the user who does not have 365 is since onedrive is on by default with 11, and the user has more than 5 gigs of data in the 3 folders that are linked in one drive by default, Desktop, documents, and pictures, I have to verify with the client on their intentions about ever getting 365 or paying for extra onedrive storage separately.

For the ones who are not, I have to unlink the pc from one drive and uninstall it before the Fabs restore to avoid the nags about purchasing more space.

 

[britechguy]

@Porthos

But my situation is not that one. On the source machine, OneDrive and M365 were not in use, and there was a hair over 512 GB of data backed up from local storage.

On the target machine, M365 and OneDrive are in use, with the corresponding 1 TB of space, and with all "what had been local folders" for Documents, Music, Pictures, etc., mapped to OneDrive.

What I would expect, when restoring from Fabs, and which is what did appear to happen, is that the stuff that was backed up from the local libraries on the source machine would be restored to the equivalent on the target machine, but where those equivalents are all mapped to OneDrive by Windows 11. There's not really insufficient space unless literally everything must land locally, and nothing can be synced to OneDrive in the cloud during the restoration process. This does not seem to be the case, as when I checked this morning quite a bit had already been synced to OneDrive and the process is continuing as we speak.

But that warning, which I understand, was strictly about space available on the local C: drive, which is insufficient. But that's not where the data is actually being placed other than as a waystation, and it doesn't appear that OneDrive and Fabs restore are not working at the same time, with OneDrive shoveling into the cloud what Fabs is shoveling on to the local drive. I don't think the pace is the same, byte for byte, but it need not be if OneDrive upload is "fast enough" to allow enough local space to exist for what's coming in based on what's already "gone up."

 

[Porthos]

There's not really insufficient space unless literally everything must land locally

It lands locally first and then is uploaded to one drive and you have to set up the cloud-only function in settings to then remove files from your new local system to one drive only.. @fabs might be able to clarify.
I do not have a Win 11 non-VM install to post screenshots of needed settings.

 

[britechguy]

It lands locally first and then is uploaded to one drive

And, let me tell you, that initial uploading is at a very, very, very leisurely pace indeed. Since whenever the Fabs finished (which was in the early AM hours) to now I'm showing only 80 GB of my 1 TB used. The creep from the 1% to the current 7% has been glacially slow.

One thing this has taught me is if the combined volume of data is more than can be stored locally, one should break the backup and restore "into chunks." I would have been fine had I only done my own profile, alone, followed by the public profile, alone, as separate steps. As luck would have it, since my personal profile was attended to first, all that data made it and is now uploading to OneDrive. And what I didn't get from Public is definitely non-critical.

 

[Porthos]

that initial uploading is at a very, very, very leisurely pace indeed

Typical consumer internet (not fiber) upload is slow.
Also, onedrive sync is a lower priority process.

 

[HCHTech]

I am now inclined to believe that my external backup drive might be failing.

If the source drive is in good shape, I almost always remove it from the machine, connect it to the new computer (USB3) and use the Fabs 'Transfer' function instead of backup and restore. That way, you are only moving the data once. This process doesn't impact your issue with Onedrive, though.

Also, I wouldn't even attempt trying to move 512GB of data to a machine with a 512GB drive. If the eventual goal is to have most of that data in "cloud only" mode on OneDrive, I think I would have set that up on the SOURCE machine and let it upload. Then copy over only the local data to the new machine and then sign the new machine into the OneDrive account.

Or....considering the cost of SSDs today and your hourly billable rate, swapped out the 512GB in the new machine with a 1TB. <$100 for a Samsung 980.

 

[britechguy]

Or....considering the cost of SSDs today and your hourly billable rate, swapped out the 512GB in the new machine with a 1TB. <$100 for a Samsung 980.

Well, my hourly billable rate doesn't apply to me, personally, and it's my new laptop. And I hate tearing down brand new equipment.

Your point is well taken about having set up M365 on "the source machine" and let everything happen from there, but I chose not to go that route.

I need to read up on Fabs Transfer, because when I quickly tried to go that route I wasn't getting the choices (or results) I was expecting. And that's on me because I haven't RTFM on that feature, and need to.

 

[britechguy]

Also, onedrive sync is a lower priority process.

Very low, apparently. I've crept up all of 1 percentage point in 9-ish hours. It's also been hanging on a file it says is 1.6 GB in size for many hours now, but I can find no apparent way to find out what that file is, nor to cancel it to let others through.

My internet service is slow compared to fiber, but during "the off hours" there's at least some bandwidth to spare.

Of course, there's also the fact that my partner's brand new laptop is doing the same thing at the same time, but with far less total data involved.

 

[Porthos]

Give this a read

Change the OneDrive sync app upload or download rate | Microsoft Support

Specify how much network bandwidth the OneDrive sync client can use.

support.microsoft.com

 

[britechguy]

@Porthos

Thanks. The problem being, though, that by default the Limit upload and download rates is OFF (or at least is on my machine). To me, that means "take all you can get, when you can get it."

If you change the download rate to Adjust Automatically, which I just did, but then flip the limit switch off it's stippled out just as the 125Kb/sec one is when it's off. I can't imagine that "Adjust Automatically" would result in faster speed/higher priority than the OFF setting does, but I'll do more digging myself. I appreciate the pointer.

 

[Porthos]

You can limit the upload and download throughput to a fixed rate (the minimum rate is 50 KB/sec, and the maximum rate is 100,000 KB/sec). The lower the rate, the longer it will take your files to upload and download. Instead of limiting upload throughput to a fixed rate, you can also set it to "Adjust automatically." This setting enables the OneDrive sync client (OneDrive.exe) to upload data in the background by only consuming unused bandwidth and not interfere with other applications using the network.

 

[Porthos]

Honestly, I would have slapped a 1tb drive into the machine.
Assuming NVME, I would just grab one of these. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTM263Y...colid=2C62N8Q8N0AKG&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it&th=1
There is a choice between Gen 3 and 4.

 

[britechguy]

I did read that, but why would OFF logically be "slower" than limiting on with any value assigned? Limiting off should, logically, mean take whatever you can get whenever you can get it.

[P.S. I've turned limiting on and put 5000 in the Kbps box]

With regard to the SSD, too late now.

 

[Porthos]

With regard to the SSD, too late now.

Not really but it is your time and money.

 

[fincoder]

Will Fabs Autobackup handle this gracefully, without my having to do anything specific, or do I need to take certain precautions/make certain tweaks, when doing the restore?

When you asked this question initially, there was no mention that your data is bigger than the new laptop's drive. There is no practical way to do that transfer.

OneDrive by default will free up space gradually, on a file-by-file basis depending on how recently the file was opened. In your case every file was newly saved to the OneDrive folder so it would have taken weeks for OneDrive to begin freeing up space automatically.

OneDrive (and all other cloud storage as far as I know) is essentially just a sync between local storage and cloud storage. When there's a lot of stuff to sync, it can take a long time.

 

[britechguy]

OneDrive by default will free up space gradually, on a file-by-file basis depending on how recently the file was opened. In your case every file was newly saved to the OneDrive folder so it would have taken weeks for OneDrive to begin freeing up space automatically

Well, now I know this. I've already moved off what had been my Public Documents on my old machine to temporary "cold storage" which has freed up a bit less than half of the 512 GB on this drive. So I'll watch over the coming weeks to see just how long it takes for all this data to sync to the cloud.

Luckily, I don't have this issue with the partner's computer, which came with a 1 TB SSD, which was tons of space over what all his data took.

Live and learn . . .

 

[DRPCNZ]

AND of course we must never forget that the data size is normally less than disc size used

 

[fabs]

Hello,
Fab's AutoBackup 7 Pro and Fab's AutoBackup 7 Home & Office 7.12.5.6131 have just been released.

Here is the change log for both versions:

Fixed:
- When typing backup destination path, if it did not exist, the program would not let user go further. Now, it will just check if destination drive or network share exists, then unlock the "next" button. If destination path is writable, the specified subfolder will be created on the fly.

Grab it from your orders history's details on the shop's website at https://archive.fpnet.fr/account.php (ordered before May 1st 2022) or https://store.fpnet.fr/en/order-history for newer orders. You can also use the bundled updater tool (click the "Download Fab's AutoBackup 7.X" link within the program and get the updated files).

 

[fincoder]

the specified subfolder will be created on the fly

Thanks @fabs