Hello, I recently moved from HDM14 to HDM15. In 14 I was doing all backup tasks from within HDM in Windows. Now with HDM15, I've noticed that I like the recovery environment UI just as well as the Windows HDM15 UI. The act of closing Windows and rebooting from CD or FD is really of no concern to me. I use 2 and sometimes 3 PC's at the same time so it is not really a downtime for me to have one of them not running Windows at any given time. So my question is-- are there any big pro's or con's one way or the other given that I don't see the 'have to boot from CD or FD' as an issue? I read so many conflicting comments about this I can't really decide if one method or the other is 'best'.
I've always run backups from the OS and naturally restore from the recovery disk/USB flash drive. It's an OS app and designed to work that way although if you backup the other way there isn't any possible chance of anything going wrong. Not sure if the issue with the incorrect time/date stamp on the file created from the recovery disk method is still valid or been fixed.
The restrictions I know of are: from the boot media you can´t schedule backups (scheduling seems to be in any case problematic with Paragon programs) and you can´t mount images (although you can "connect" VDs, at least in some versions of the programs). Also, if you use a localized (non English) version of Windows, there can be problems to change the keyboard map and the time zone. As a consequence, it´s difficult to get some symbols in the keyboard, and the time/date of the image may not correspond to the local time/date. The Linux boot medium has some advantages: it can work faster (due to different drivers), you can restore several partitions in one operation, and there are more options to restore. I don´t know if any of the above was changed on the latest version 10.1.25.710. Edit -- I receive an e-mail about the new version 710: New features in Hard Disk Manager 15 Suite Service Pack 2: http://images.paragon-software.com/sites/paragonsoftware.com/de/images/pressroom/new.gif Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) support A symmetric block algorithm used by the U.S. government is available now to protect your personal data. This option is available only for VD containers. http://images.paragon-software.com/sites/paragonsoftware.com/de/images/pressroom/new.gif System state data backup support A special option will help you automatically back up all critical system settings alongside with some important applications data while ignoring other data stored on the system partition. This way you can create an optimal backup image of system state to get the system and Microsoft applications quickly back on track.
I suppose this is why I'm even considering doing backup tasks from the recovery/boot UI. I admit to being a bit paranoid because of a few troubles when doing backups from within the OS. (Not just with Paragon but others as well.) Some of these issues were entirely my own fault, such as having Win 8 power plan settings that put a drive into sleep mode so rapidly that it went to sleep and did not wake soon enough during a backup. Also I run a very old program that I require full-time whose data file is apparently 'bothered' by VSS-type activity. So, I have to shut down that program and make sure I don't have any peculiar Windows settings in effect, then do the backup, then put everything back the way it was. Its tedious and worrisome. Easier to just restart into HDM recovery UI, do the backup, then start Windows up again and everything is automatically back the way it was. I wouldn't go so far as to say that 'there isn't any possible chance', because it IS backup/restore. SOMETHING can always go wrong. But I would say that for me there is less chance of something going wrong if I backup outside of Windows. As far as scheduling. After using Ghost for many years I find the Paragon scheduling feature to be so limiting that I just don't bother. So I would not be missing anything there. As far as mounting images, I definitely see that as something to be done inside Windows anyway. Robin A, I was not aware of the advantages of the Linux media you mentioned. I've never used it. I've just always used the WinPE media. I will check it out. Thanks for the idea.
Yes, you are correct, that should be a less chance instead of no chance. I've had a restore error out, meaning it actually wouldn't even start because it stated that it didn't have full access to the the destination drive but on a retry, it worked. I also you W10TP and was scanning with MS Defender, the PC goes into sleep mode during the scan! There is also a quirk using HDM15S with a WD MYCloud as a backup made from the OS while unattended, the MC goes into sleep mode and the backup can't be found after Paragon is closed. One has to be there when finished or turn off the WD MC sleep mode before the procedure. This is tied to the fact the Paragon keep the destination open while the app is still open.
