Compressed backups

[pstrusi]

Hi Ninjas,

This is a suggestion that might be useful. Could it not be possible for NT, make a backup directly ( 1 step ) in any common or popular compressed file type? My suggestion is cause is a good idea to minimize the write-read cycles in SSD units to avoid durability issues. I do my backup every week, and this is about 7 Gb, so after a backup I must to compress it into a zip file, and later erase the original backup cause SSD space limitations.

I see windows 7 uses an automatic zip file system that maybe you could integrate into NT 7 some how.

Thanks

[NinjaTrader_AlexC]

Hi pstrusi, thanks for your post.

I can understand the value of that idea to users with SSD drives installed in their PCs. I will submit this idea to our development team for consideration for inclusion in a future version of NinjaTrader.

Thank you for your suggestion.

[Jim W.]

If you are do live trading and/or Indicator/Strategy development then your weekly NT backup schedule means that you have probably never had to do a restore. Daily NT backups is the minimum that I consider reasonable. There is an old saying "There are two kinds of people, those who have had drive failure and those who will have drive failure". The experience changes your attitude about backups.

Do not extrapolate SSD durability from Thumbdrive experience. I have used Intel and Samsung SSDs hard for many years and never used more that a small fraction of their expected lifetime. SSDs follow Moore's price curve. In a few years you will be able to purchase a much larger and faster SSD at a fraction of the price you paid for your current SSD.

Right now my primary computer runs a Samsung 256GB 850 Evo Pro SSD for its C drive. One or more times a day I do an NT backup, adding a descriptive suffix to file name, to an external 2TB HDD. I always take a backup the last time I shutdown NT for the day.

Once a week I use Paragon Hard Disk Manager 14 Pro to clone the 850 Pro to one of three WD3000HLHX VolociRaptor HDD. Rotating the HDDs means that I have depth of recovery. Backingup to only one HDD means that a failure during the backup leaves you with NO backup. Murphy's Law always applies to backups!

SSD to HDD or HDD to HDD cloning is the only backup that I consider reasonable. You can mount the clone and copy one or more files to recover those files. Alway keep your backups unmounted and safely stored. I keep a duplicate of the most current clone in my car's trunk and 100GB Google Drive with FiOS 75/75 for offsite protection. For drive failure, swapping in the clone is all that is required. If that is required then clone the clone immediately to provide current backup. Murphy's Law always applies to recoveries too!

For the last few months I have been using a [6TB Support/Offline Clone Function]Unitek Docking Station USB 3.0 to SATA 6G Dual Bay for External Hard Drive2.5 or 3.5'' HDD/SSD SATA III Hard Drive for doing my backups and offline cloning. Seems to work fine after you closely read the instructions.

[koganam]

If you are do live trading and/or Indicator/Strategy development then your weekly NT backup schedule means that you have probably never had to do a restore. Daily NT backups is the minimum that I consider reasonable. There is an old saying "There are two kinds of people, those who have had drive failure and those who will have drive failure". The experience changes your attitude about backups.

Do not extrapolate SSD durability from Thumbdrive experience. I have used Intel and Samsung SSDs hard for many years and never used more that a small fraction of their expected lifetime. SSDs follow Moore's price curve. In a few years you will be able to purchase a much larger and faster SSD at a fraction of the price you paid for your current SSD.

Right now my primary computer runs a Samsung 256GB 850 Evo Pro SSD for its C drive. One or more times a day I do an NT backup, adding a descriptive suffix to file name, to an external 2TB HDD. I always take a backup the last time I shutdown NT for the day.

Once a week I use Paragon Hard Disk Manager 14 Pro to clone the 850 Pro to one of three WD3000HLHX VolociRaptor HDD. Rotating the HDDs means that I have depth of recovery. Backingup to only one HDD means that a failure during the backup leaves you with NO backup. Murphy's Law always applies to backups!

SSD to HDD or HDD to HDD cloning is the only backup that I consider reasonable. You can mount the clone and copy one or more files to recover those files. Alway keep your backups unmounted and safely stored. I keep a duplicate of the most current clone in my car's trunk and 100GB Google Drive with FiOS 75/75 for offsite protection. For drive failure, swapping in the clone is all that is required. If that is required then clone the clone immediately to provide current backup. Murphy's Law always applies to recoveries too!

For the last few months I have been using a [6TB Support/Offline Clone Function]Unitek Docking Station USB 3.0 to SATA 6G Dual Bay for External Hard Drive2.5 or 3.5'' HDD/SSD SATA III Hard Drive for doing my backups and offline cloning. Seems to work fine after you closely read the instructions.

Given how modularly NT is installed, whether that was by design or accident, I have never seen the use of NinjaTrader backup for anyone with true geek credentials.

So for any such, here is the way to make quick work of backup/restore with NT.

1. Zip (or 7z) the entire NT data tree, always rooted under the user document directory. I name the zip files by date, with a standard prefix.
2. To do a NT restore using NT usually means that you have to install NT in the first place, unless you are trying to restore to the original installation. It makes no difference either way. Once you have an intact NT setup, all you have to do to restore to an earlier time is to unzip the entire file and overwrite the NT data tree. Heck you can even open the zip file and do selective restoration/overwriting.
3. Much faster, and fewer instances of a corrupt backup that NT will refuse to restore. Of course, if your zip file is corrupt, you have the "corrupt zip file" problem.

And all because NT keeps the data tree completely separate from the NT program directory. Modularity is such a nice thing.

I do not even remember anymore what the NT backup/restore interface looks like.

[Jim W.]

I have found NT Backup to be reasonably convenient to use. NT Restore is another matter. This post http://www.ninjatrader.com/support/f...2&postcount=14 explains how I use the backup files NT creates.

[koganam]

I have found NT Backup to be reasonably convenient to use. NT Restore is another matter. This post http://www.ninjatrader.com/support/f...2&postcount=14 explains how I use the backup files NT creates.

Which is why I go straight to 7zip, without having to rename files, etc. A zip file with a different file extension is still just a zip file.