Paragon Partition Manager 11 Special Edition

[alant]

Hello everyone,
I just installed Paragon Partition Manager 11 Special Edition
From my 1TB hard drive, I created a new partition and now have:
C-drive: 406gb free of 512gb.
D-drive: 406gb free of 406gb (new partition)

I just clicked on <copying and migration> and then <copy partition>. I received the message:
Sorry, the wizard cannot continue. Wizard did not find unallocated space where a new copy can be created. Please reduce the size of existing partitions or delete some partition to get unallocated space of sufficient size.

Q) Do I need to format the partition first?
Q) should I just copy & paste the contents of 1 drive to the other? Will I be able to recover from this? Would this be the same as a re-install?

If I try the Copy Hard Disk Wizard, I get the message:
Wizard has found only 1 hard disk that is suitable for copy operation. The wizard needs at least two hard disks to create a copy.

Did I skip a step creating the partition? Thanks.

[fireworker]

I also have a question for you: for what purpose you want to copy a partition to another location on the same disk?

[SIW2]

You need unallocated space to copy a partition to.

To create unallocated space, delete the 406gb (new partition).

You can only copy an entire hard drive if you have another hard drive to copy it to.

[alant]

I thought that if I ever wanted to re-install my OS, it would make life easier to just copy everything over. I know if the drive crashes, I lose everything. That's why I also have an online backup. I restored from my online backup before, but it takes days over dsl. Also, can the OS be directly moved?

[SIW2]

Yes, you can copy a partition to use as a backup, if you like.

How do you mean directly moved?

[fireworker]

Backup vs. Copy

[alant]

By "directly moved", I meant could it be dragged/dropped? Or would everything need to be re-installed fresh?

[SIW2]

Ah - do you mean can you just copy it using windows copy function , or drag/drop, without using any kind of 3rd party app?

It can be done- but you have to do it from outside - i.e from another o/s . I have done something very similar from windows pe.

You will have some difficulties with that. Not least is that the version you copied/dragged will have all sorts of issues with drive lettering.

It is possible to change the o/s drive letter afterwards. You would also need to correct the bcd store. Paragon Boot corrector has options which help
you to do that.

Can't remember exactly, but I think I may have had to do a couple of other little things as well.

It worked ok eventually.