Paragon Drive Backup 9 Personal (Free today only @ GAOTD)

Hey all. Giveaway of the Day has Paragon Drive Backup 9 Personal version for free. Most of the time software from GAOTD has to be downloaded and installed during the 24 hour giveaway.

I have no idea how reliable this version is but I understand Paragon makes decent image software.

http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/paragon-drive-backup-9-personal/

I'm off to bed for now and won't be back on until Wed. evening. Hopefully others with Paragon experience will chime in as to pros and cons.

Cheers,
innerpeace

Edit: Here is what the included readme states.

 

I downloaded a version last time it was on GOTD, works as advertised

 

I already have 8.51 on one computer and 9.0 on another. I was agonizing over whether to upgrade to 9.0 Personal or Professional from the 8.51, but I think I just made the decision.

 

I have Paragon Hard Disk Manager 8.5 Special Edition (a free license) on my XP SP3 PC and Paragon Drive Backup 8.51 Professional on my Vista SP1 PC. I held off on "upgrading" to v9 because I wasn't aware of any significant improvements and the 70% off coupon I used to purchase 8.51 Pro didn't work on v9.

I uninstalled PHDM 8.5 SE then installed PDB 9 PE on my XP PC. The download from GOTD was 241 MB in size as it contained installers for both 32- and 64-bit operating systems. Registration with Paragon and issuance of a license key was painless and prompt. After installing PDB 9 PE, creation and scheduling of hard drive backup images was straightforward and used the same procedures as my other Paragon software. PDB 9 PE allows you to create a Recovery Media using a flash drive as well as a CD/DVD if that's important for you.

My first unease with PDB 9 PE came when I couldn't locate its Volume Explorer feature. Volume Explorer is part of my other two Paragon programs and, according to Paragon's website, it's included in PDB 9 PE. If it's present in PDB 9 PE, I didn't find it. What really soured me on PDB 9 PE was its file backup process.

It took PDB 9 PE 34 minutes to noisily copy 3 GB in files to my Seagate external hard drive. I couldn't believe it. I could have manually copied the files in substantially less time. I normally rely on Titan Backup to make automatic scheduled backups of important files several times a week. Titan Backup silently copies the same 3 GB in just a few minutes on my XP PC. Other dedicated file backup programs I've used are similar. Until today, I'd only used ATI v9 for full drive backup images (although I do use ATI v2009 for file backups on my Vista PC). I just completed a file backup of the same 3 GB; ATI v9 took six minutes to (quietly) accomplish what Paragon did in 34 minutes. Also, while you can schedule automatic backups of hard drive images with PDB 9 PE, I couldn't find any way to schedule file backups (which is simple with ATI v2009 and dedicated file backup software such as Titan Backup).

For a person who doesn't have any hard drive imaging software or who wants to supplement an existing program, I think GOTD's offer of PDB 9 PE is great. I'd also recommend the free version of Macrium Reflect. For my purposes, however, I was happier with PHDM 8.5 SE so I used ATI to restore my PC to the state it was in prior to installing PDB 9 PE. PHDM 8 and 8.5 SE have always been reliable for me plus, unlike today's GOTD offer, I can uninstall/reinstall them whenever I desire. For file backups, I'll primarily stick to Titan Backup, NTI Shadow, SyncBack or similar software. IMHO even ATI v2009's file backup process is far superior to PDB 9 PE's.

 

It's too late here and I have classes tomorrow.

 

I'm in virtually in the same place as Skytrooper. I have Paragon Hard Disk Manager 8.5 Special Edition (free license) on a W2K laptop and and Paragon Drive Backup 8.51 Professional on my XP laptop. I ran a quick image using IBM/Lenovo Rescue and Recovery before messing with the GAOTD version.

Unlike Skytrooper, I have not yet tried to backup with Drive Backup 9 Personal. Instead I first tried to install and register the trial version of Drive Backup 9 Personal, downloaded directly from Paragon's site. It didn't work. It appears the GAOTD key only works on the version downloaded through the GAOTD site. I'm not sure why that must be; I understand the GAOTD license does not entitle me to upgrades or support, but why should the actual application be different? I wonder if there are any differences in functionality, too.

In any event, I have not previously been motivated to invest in Drive Backup 9 since I am pretty well satisifed with 8.51 Professional. I will play with it for a few minutes this evening, but Skytrooper's experience causes me to lean toward the same remedy: revert back to the image before installing the GAOTD version.

 

finally,I waited till it finished downloading.

But,I can't get registered."The webpage can't be displayed!!"

Time for bed!

 

That was my first thought. Usually when a license key accompanies GOTD offers, it doesn't work with the installers available from developers' websites but occasionally there are exceptions. After reading the description of the trial version on Paragon's website, I concluded it wasn't quite the same as the full version offered by GOTD. As to "why" they do this, I assume it's to prevent people from being able to install the program on any other day than when it's offered by GOTD. I'm not real keen on having a drive imaging program I can't uninstall and then reinstall but I'm in the same position with my full version of Macrium Reflect I obtained via GOTD. At least in the case of Macrium Reflect, their free version is almost as good for my purposes as their pay version.

GOTD's standard instructions always say their offerings don't come with any support or free upgrades and must be installed on that particular date. This isn't always true. As mentioned, some GOTD license keys will work with installers downloaded from developers' websites and can be installed/uninstalled at your convenience. A few software firms will provide GOTD users with free updates/upgrades; some examples include: Macrium Reflect, Returnil Premium and AnVir Task Manager. What usually happens, however, is if you install an update to a GOTD program, your license key becomes invalid and you wind up with a trial version. So it's a good idea to create a new backup image before attempting to update/upgrade any software obtained from GOTD. In a few cases, firms have provided free support, sometimes even issuing full license keys when problems were experienced with GOTD versions. After I registered PDB 9 PE with Paragon, my Paragon account said I was entitled to 30 days' complimentary support.

After doing a Google search, I obtained a free license key for Paragon Drive Backup 9.0 Personal Special Edition and downloaded installers for 32- and 64-bit operating systems. I have no idea what difference(s) there is between the Personal Edition and the Personal Special Edition but if the latter is missing Paragon's notion of file backups that will suit me fine. I primarily obtained this license so I'd have another 64-bit compatible drive backup program whenever I get around to buying a PC with a 64-bit OS.

 

The demo installers at Paragon for DB9 are gimped in that the Recovery Media Builder doesn't work therefore GAOTD had to pack full installations for both the 32 and 64 bit versions. You can find the files in your TEMP directory once the 240+ MB exe has been unpacked and can save them for future reinstalls I presume.

 

Interesting. I did notice some caveat on the Paragon download page about the the recovery CD. If the demo installers are "gimped", does that mean that when a user moves from the demo version to the "paid" version, he/she must download the recovery media builder, or a patch, or new install?

Seems the GAOTD version might be preferable to the "demo" version available from Paragon!?

 

I can't download it...

 

I was thinking of just installing DB 9 long enough to create the recovery cd's. Does the recovery cd for this version allow you to both create and restore images with it?. Would the image/recovery cd's work regardless of DB9 not being installed on the computer?

I've been using the recovery cd's only from the ATI free version you can use if you have a Seagate/Maxtor drive. It has worked fine so far but the program itself is a little old.

 

I downloaded and installed Paragon Drive Backup 9 Personal from GAOTD last night. I am curious about what the GAOTD installer does when it "calls home" to verify during the initial part of the setup for installation. I noticed that it "woke up" my network RAID1 Server during its "call home" process. I do not see why it would need to wake up my RAID1 Server and that concerns me. This is my first time to download and install software from GAOTD. Is there anything (security/privacy wise) to be concerned about?

After the installation, I did a complete scan with both AVIRA Free 9.0 (default settings) and a-squared free and everything showed clean.

Thank you.