many similar ways how to create a virtual disk / machine

Many different Paragon's tools can convert a physical disk to a virtual disks (VD), even different functions of one tool can do it, but the diferences of use are very little. Or am I missing something?

Let's compare:

• Create Virtual Disk/Convert physical disk to virtual disk
  (included in Virtualization manager and Drive Copy;
  the result is just a VD)
  
• P2V Copy
  (included in Virtualization manager and Drive Copy;
  the result is VD+.vbox/.vmc...)
• Backup to VD
  (included in Backup&Restore ;
  the result is VD+.pfi)

Yes, there are little differences
("P2V Copy" requires there is an OS installed,
"Convert to virtual" also allows just a volume is converted,
"Backup to VD" can create also .pvhd but not .vdi
...)

but in general the tools seem to be interchangeable:

• in place of "Convert to virtual" you can do "P2V Copy" and throw away a vbox/vmc file
• in place of "Convert to virtual" you can do "Backup to VD" and throw away a pfi file
• in place of "P2V Copy" you can create just a virtual disk by "Convert to virtual" or "Backup to VD". Then you can set up a VM by a software that will run the VM (at least for me it always worked with VirtualBox)

(My experience comes from these concrete products:
Backup & Recovery 14 Free Edition
Drive Copy 14 Special Edition for XP
Virtualization Manager 14 Compact )

 

Yes, there too many Paragon programs with many overlapping functions. Perhaps a marketing scheme, but very confusing for the users. To compare the different repacked programs is not easy. Perhaps that´s their purpose. You buy HDM Suite and then they "recommend" HDM Pro, and in your account page appears and ad for the "new" Backup and Recovery...

I´d like to see a few, clearly differentiated programs, and the differences explained in a clear and simple way. As, for example, here: http://www.macrium.com/pages/comparisons.aspx.

 

FWIW, backup to VD is just the format of the archive -- it's listed in case you want to use the old format I think.

Also FWIW, conversion to VM is basically cloning the drive to a VHD, then using the migration tool to remove registry entries that would otherwise start the wrong critical drivers. There are many ways to get from point A to point B, whether you use Paragon software or not, & in fact you may not need any special software -- that last depends on if the OS will boot in a VM or not as-is, & I've had that happen.

The problem with virtualizing a Windows install is the original size of the partition, stuff starting with Windows that you will not want starting with Windows, at least initially in the VM, & the accumulated garbage of a well used Windows install that's suddenly expected to run with a 1/4 the hardware resources.

 

and I guess "Backup to VD" is cloning the drive to a VHD, then writing some restoration info to a .pfi file

Unfortunately such points are not so clear from the Paragon's UI (and even from the documentation)

So I would prefer another UI:
create a VD + have optional checkboxes:
- use the migration tool
- create vbox/vmc with VM specifications
- create .pfi with archive specifications

(some chcekboxes could be greyed out according to Paragon's sale policy)

I don't know about many ways.
And I thought the adavantage of Paragon (in comparison to tools like Acronis, Easeus, Macrium ...) was that Paragon allowed to use VD formats besides of a proprietary format.

This is my knowledge how to achieve tasks related to virtual disks:

create VD from a physical disk:
- Paragon
- Disk2vhd from Sysinternals (.vhd only)
- Windows Image Backup in Windows (.vhd only)
- by more complicated ways, like dd + ConvertFromRaw in VirtualBox

restore whole VD to a physical disk:
- Paragon (.pfi needed)
- restore Windows Image Backup (.vhd only)

boot a VM from a VD :
- Paragon may help to achieve it

mount VD to a real OS (and possibly restore individual files/directories):
- by Paragon, but .pfi is needed, and the mounted disk is read-only
- by Windows, but it works with .vhd only, and may change the disk's signature
- by ImDisk, but it can open only one partition of a VD simultaneously

 

Also, the PVHD format allows compression, the other formats don´t.

 

pvhd is a proprietary format, isn't it? So it has its limitations - for example one cannot write into .pvhd .

So I prefer other formats, because a ntfs compression may be used. (a ntfs-compressed .vhd file cannot be opened by Windows' Disk Manager, but it may be opened by ImDisk)