Fixed: Painfully long time when launching program (~80 seconds)

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Kaibosh
Posts: 7
Joined: Sat Jun 24, 2017 3:30 am

Fixed: Painfully long time when launching program (~80 seconds)

Post by Kaibosh »

First up, this is going to seem like a complaint. It's not - Backup4all Pro filled my requirements for a new backup solution, and I recently purchased it so I obviously like the software. This is more along the lines of "some observations from a new user".

So far, my main issue with the app is startup and response times.. I just started the program and timed it - just shy of 80 seconds between launch and being able to actually do anything. This isn't a one off - I get a similar delay every time I launch it. Some of the status messages shown just make the wait even more annoying.. Note that aside from the 80 seconds which I did actually time, the rest of the times mentioned are estimates.
* 10-15 seconds of that wait is loading existing backups (surely a high level reading of the existing backups would suffice during the initial application launch, and loading of complete details could wait until a job is actually selected?
* another 10-15 seconds of the wait shows "Initializing burn engine". Is that for burning discs? None of my backups are to CD/DVD, so having to sit there staring at that message is especially annoying..

Additionally, once opened, doing anything within the program seems to take a long time without any progress meter or any kind of indication that it's doing anything at all. This issue appears to have passed though - while it was very noticable at first, navigating through the application now seems much faster..

While my PC is a few years old, I don't believe that it's a system resource issue as everything else runs just fine (Intel Core i5; 16GB memory; Windows 10 Pro).

Any suggestions? I've tried searching the forum and only found a couple of instances of people having issues with launch times, both from years ago, and both appear to be a little different to mine (one is in relation to .ini files and a large number being read, the other appears to be something to do with the Archived Bit).

Cheers,
Kai
Last edited by Kaibosh on Sat Oct 14, 2017 7:33 am, edited 1 time in total.

mattj7
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Jun 26, 2017 6:13 pm

Re: Painfully long time when launching program (~80 seconds)

Post by mattj7 »

Some general advice:

Upgrade to the latest version if you have not already. If you are convinced that it is a software issue, save your backup config file and uninstall/re-install backup 4 all.

If none of this helps then it is either an issue with your install of Windows, or a hardware limitation. I highly recommend getting an SSD if you don't have one.

Kaibosh
Posts: 7
Joined: Sat Jun 24, 2017 3:30 am

Re: Painfully long time when launching program (~80 seconds)

Post by Kaibosh »

@mattj7 - Thanks for the suggestions.. At least now I'm sure that the huge delay isn't normal. Do you mind posting roughly how long the program takes to launch for you? Not that I'm expecting mine to match yours exactly, but a ballpark figure would be handy.

Unfortunately, Latest version - it is; SSD - System disk is already SSD (other drives aren't).
In the absence of any advice from devs, I might give the uninstall/reinstall a shot and hope for the best (it's worth a shot)..

Adrian (Softland)
Posts: 1913
Joined: Wed Dec 16, 2009 12:46 pm

Re: Painfully long time when launching program (~80 seconds)

Post by Adrian (Softland) »

Hi,

The problem could be caused by some slow accessing drives connected to your computer or by a specific backup job. Can you tell us what is the phase listed when the program stays longer on startup?
Here is what you can try:
1. Close Backup4all
2. Rename the following folder containing your Backup4all settings and jobs: "C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Roaming\Softland\Backup4all 6\"
3. Open Backup4all. It will start with no jobs.

If the same problem exists, it could be caused by some drive connected to your computer, which cannot be accessed easily.
If the program starts quickly, try to open the .bkc catalog files for the backup jobs (one by one) from the renamed folder or from the backup destination. The backup jobs will be recreated. This way you can identify the job which is causing the delay on startup.

Kaibosh
Posts: 7
Joined: Sat Jun 24, 2017 3:30 am

Re: Painfully long time when launching program (~80 seconds)

Post by Kaibosh »

Never got around to trying any fixes out (once everything was setup, the huge delay only annoyed me when I had to manually go into the program to check/fix something - so out of sight out of mind - and the thought of potentially messing up my backups was too much to bear)..

But my reason for posting and resurrecting an old thread - I just wanted to post that after installing the new v7, the delay that I experienced in v7 is no longer happening.

Cheers!

Adrian (Softland)
Posts: 1913
Joined: Wed Dec 16, 2009 12:46 pm

Re: Fixed: Painfully long time when launching program (~80 seconds)

Post by Adrian (Softland) »

Hi,

I'm glad v7 works faster that v6 for you.

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