Paragon Drive backup 8.5 Questions

How easy is this program to use? Can you test it fully without risking your current drive?

 

Lodore or some reuglar Paragon users I am sure can anser some of these questions clearly.

Gary

 

Hello beethoven,
this is the steps for backup
step 1: welcome
step 2: what to backup
step 3: where to save to local/network drives or burn the data to cd/dvd
step 4:destination to save it and name. default name is ARC_ and some random numbers. i normaly keep the ARC_ and put say "ARC_before service pack 3" so i know what one it it. if i create the backups manualy.
step 5: comment,andif you want to backup now or schdule it for later. pro version has has genarate script (advanced option)
step6: summary of what its gonna do
then finish
on the main interface there is three buttons at the top apply,discard and view changes. at this time the changes are just virtual and wont go ahead until you click apply changes and then click on yes.

for restore
step 1: welcome
step 2:click on the add button and browse to the backup
step 3: click on the partition you want to restore it to the default is the partition you backed up so im my case C:
step 4: preview restore settings and what partition letter you want it to be i just keep the defaults. since i selectthe right partition in step 3
step 5: finish
step 6 click on view changes to view the changes it will show you what the disk looks like after its done.
click on apply changes and click on yes to start the restore.
if you restoring a system partition you will be prompted to reboot for it to finish the restore.

how many internal hard drives have you got? and how many partitions?
what are you intending to backup to? internal drive or external drive?
if you want to test it its best to try with a test pc with nothing on it first. to make sure you know how to backup and restore.
thats how i learnt to trust it.
i can now test any beta software and know that if my windows wont boot i can restore the image located on my second hard drive using the recovery cd.
feel free to ask any questions.

 

Paragon's speed:
There are numerous options related to speed: Whether you are verifying each piece of data after written; whether you are "Controlling archive integrity" (against power outages, etc._); Offline restore vs. 'Hot Processing"; compression level, etc, etc.....

Actually, I regard data and system integrity as the most important feature of an imaging program, so I have all the "slow" options selected, except that I do skip the Hibernate file and pagefile (you have to select that option or it actually backs them up also!)

Still, to restore my 230 Gig hardrive only takes about 40 min. So I don't know why yours is slow. Maybe you have inherently slow drives ? (Mine is SATA-150) Check all the options again.

 

It is a laptop backing up to an external USB drive so it will definitely be slower but this is the slowest I have ever experienced.

I had the settings as you described except compression was set to fast. I also noticed that the service partition got restored with a different drive letter and was no longer hidden.

Just for the heck of it I did a backup and restore of the same HD with ShadowProtect. The restore was completed in 29 minutes and the service partition issue was resolved. Maybe some conflict with other software?

 

Iodore, thanks a lot for your comprehensive post. Seems pretty straightforward, the only thing I am still scared of is the actual restoration and risk to my fully operative drive.

At the moment I am using two drives, one for the OS (though it does also include some of the application/data files for programs I have not managed to move easily) and the other just for data. Ideally I don't want to risk either drive for the sake of an experiment. If I were to hook up a test pc, don't you run into hardware issues?

 

beethoven,

To do a test, remove your old HD and install an empty HD. Restore your image to this HD. See if it boots. If all OK, reinstall your old HD.

Only image the C: drive for this test.

 

Thanks guys, - guess I will give it a go.

 

Quoting from someone else whom I can't remember: "The first time is a real nail-biter!"

That's why now is the best time to just get it over with.