How does Backup&Recovery work when used from Windows?

Discussion in 'Paragon Drive Backup Product Line' started by jackmcguire99, Feb 6, 2010.

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  1. jackmcguire99

    jackmcguire99 Registered Member

    Joined:
    Feb 3, 2010
    Posts:
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    Hi.

    I've been testing Paragon Backup & Recovery Free Edition. My question is regarding using the Paragon software directly in Windows (ie not from a bootable recovery CD) to perform a restore operation on the C: drive. What happens is as follows...

    1. Start Paragon Backup & Recovery
    2. Choose partition image to restore from archive
    3. Choose physical partition to restore
    4. Click Apply
    5. Computer reboots
    6. Instead of Windows starting, Paragon Backup & Recovery starts
    7. Paragon does restore
    8. Computer reboots
    9. Now Windows starts

    I am interested in knowing what's actually happening here. What I think is happening is as follows

    1. Paragon Backup and Recovery sets up what image to restore and what physical partition to restore
    2. Paragon B&R backs up the Master Boot Record of the computer
    3. Paragon writes it's own MBR
    4. Now when the computer reboots (***), the MBR automatically starts up Paragon
    5. When Paragon has finished the restore it restores the original MBR
    6. The computer reboots and now Windows starts as normal

    Is this right?

    At this (***) point on my XP system it appears that Windows is booting. The little blue progress bar is displayed and the screen says "Windows XP". This is interrupted and Paragon starts. So I'm not sure if my suggested sequence of events regarding the MBR is correct.

    Thanks for your help
    (I'm dualbooting my system with XOSL and so would like to know this information)
     
  2. Raza0007

    Raza0007 Registered Member

    Joined:
    Mar 30, 2009
    Posts:
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    Location:
    USA
    I am not an expert at the inner workings of Paragon but I can help somewhat.

    No, Paragon does not modify the MBR in anyway, it actually loads a driver (hotcore.sys I believe) during windows start up. When the driver detects it has to perform restore on a system partition, it interrupts the normal windows boot, loads Paragon into RAM (possibly a RAMdisk) and executes the operation from there.

    This is the reason why you first see windows booting normally, then Paragon loads and does its job.
     
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