You are absolutely right; the Backup process is very disk and system intensive. I also had the same problem with Norton Ghost and True Image. Sometimes I found a file or two missing or damaged in the Backup process, one that the system would not release for backup. Of course with two processors, this usually does not happen anymore, and Vista says it never happens.

 

My remedy was not to use the Vista versions, but to make a CD DOS bootable disk with Norton Ghost 2003 (a bootable DOS version) that contained all necessary boot device drivers. I just put the disk in the drive and reboot, and when the screen asks to boot from a CD: I hit the space bar, and Norton Ghost loads and then launches. 

 

As I mentioned before; all of my backups are to a second partition, which takes about 1 minute per gig of data. Later, when I have the time I then copy the Backup Data sets to a couple of DVD’s. I am still using the older DOS version, because it cuts the Volume up into 2 gig sets. This is important, because a backup set recorded to CDDVD will fail if you use more than one disk to record. This is an anomaly of the drive, and the manufactures say they are working on the problem, but that has been for about fours years now. So, do not look for a change anytime soon, since MS has done away with DOS. That is why I record to another drive letter and then record the individual sets, two each to DVD’s, no hassle. I cannot boot from the Volume set, so I leave a copy of the Volume Backup on the Drive and one on a DVD, just in case. I make a new backup of the drive each week, and one to DVD each month. 

 

As for the slow response and system resource problem goes. Vista typically uses 30 to 33% percent of system resources for its own performance. That means if you are trying to use the Full Backup, a very CPU and disk intensive program, and Render, you will have a major problem. First of all Vue is CPU intense, and does not like to share the processor with anyone else, Vista is the same, so both programs compete, and even more so with disk access, which puts a maximum strain on your CPU and memory.

 

It is not uncommon when a Backup program touches untouchable files that the system gets sluggish.  I do no know why but it happens.  Rebooting is the only method of getting the system back to normal speed.  Memory managers are no help here.
 

Since Vista does all of the maintenance and system resource management, it is very difficult to run programs in the background as in XP. In Vista you setup Group Policies to manage system resources. There is another possible remedy, which is expensive, and that is to get a motherboard that can handle duo quad processors, two quads, one to handle Vue and the other to handle the system programs. OH! Don’t I wish I could have a sweet setup like that!!!

 

If your interested in taking on the Group Policy concept,

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsserver/grouppolicy/default.aspx

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