OK, the library is large with over 15,000 albums, only a few of which are more than 16/44 but a “Backup Now” has taken over 4 hours already and is only 31% completed.
I normally let it do a scheduled BU each night at 1am but sense there might have been problems last night because this morning Roon had crashed. Those problems were most likely caused by me doing a copy of all files on the Roon HDD onto another HDD for backup security of those valuable music files. Note that I did not start the “Backup Now” until all the files had been copied across and there has been no activity with Roon, either editing or listening to files, since the BU was started. So its slow progress baffles me as unusual, or is it?
Note I had formatted the BU memory stick (a USB3 128GB one) before commencing and have a duplicated BU on another internal drive folder. Would the fact that the internal BU has other BU files there but the external target was new have any affect? Hard to see why but Windows does not always respond to logical thinking!!
a 128GB memory stick (it had just been re-formatted)
To a file on an internal HDD on this PC
I finally gave up and stopped it and have again formatted the memory stick so will now let it BU overnight at 2 am (i tried to set it for 1am but it flipped back to 2 am). I also did a re-scan of Roon.
I just had to restore from backup for ROCK install. It restored the entire database (for 18K tracks) in about one minute.
The backup mechanism is smart and fast – just make sure you’re backing up to a regular HDD or SSD. Like @danny said – USB sticks vary wildly in performance and were not made for the many reads/writes any backup needs.
James_I
(The truth is out there but not necessarily here)
6
Agreed. My guess is it’s the memory stick or some other aspect of the USB chain.
You nailed it Rene as the “some other aspect of the USB chain” is the reason. It is an expensive Patriot USB3 stick but was connected to an inexpensive extended USB hub I have hidden away on the desk. Connected more directly to the PC motherboard it is backing up quite quickly.
I was lulled into a sense of that hub being OK because the hub has been used with no problems before BUT it is obviously not up to the task of dealing with a more sophisticated multi file situation as the Roon BU. That is because it forced the USB3 stick to operate in USB2 mode.
I intended to buy the highly recommended Ankor USB3 10 hub but have changed my mind and will get the ORICO SuperSpeed USB 3.0 10-Port HUB.
A really dumb mistake. Traps for young and old (applies heavily in my case) players!
LATER: The backup is still being slow and 2 hours later has only achieved 47%
This is the memory stick involved, purchased from Amazon:
Patriot 128GB Supersonic Rage Series USB 3.0 Flash Drive With Up To 180MB/sec- PEF128GSRUSB
1 Like
James_I
(The truth is out there but not necessarily here)
8
The stick may seem to load quickly until the cache is full. USB drives are not for performance. My suggestion would be that you put a backup somewhere on a HDD and then copy it to your USB stick after it’s done.
That seems a sensible suggestion. Backing up on the USB stick has been going over 2 hours and still only shows 52%. So, contrary to the header, not really solved!!!
Having been caught by ransomware last year (I suspect it came in via an attachment from what I thought was a trusted source - never paid anything but had to restore all files from backups) I’m wary of having backup media permanently connected to the PC so the USB stick sounded a good BU idea for Roon. Adopting your idea it would be as long as one remembers to disconnect it after copying.
Looks like Roon BU will not be a “plug in and forget it” routine but a more conscious daily task as it was before release 1.3.
LATER: The BU was still only at 57% so I stopped it and created a special folder on another internal HDD for it tonight. I’ll copy that BU onto the USB stick tomorrow morning.
So for me, with a large library, the Roon BU IS SLOW if using a USB3 stick.
