Paragon Backup and Restore 14 Free

Discussion in 'backup, imaging & disk mgmt' started by Brian K, Feb 20, 2015.

  1. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    I've been testing the ability of various imaging apps to restore an entire drive image of a UEFI Win8.1 system to a new empty HD.

    Paragon Backup and Restore 14 Free does this successfully using the EFI Linux recovery disk. All 4 partitions were restored in their correct order. I didn't create a WinPE recovery disk as it required a 3 GB download.
     
  2. oliverjia

    oliverjia Registered Member

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    Thanks Brian.
    Yes Paragon has been solid in imaing/restore.
     
  3. Atari800xl

    Atari800xl Registered Member

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    Thanks for all your tests, Brian!
    Would you mind if I quoted your results in my Disk Imaging thread on MDL?
     
  4. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    Be my guest.

    What is MDL?
     
  5. stapp

    stapp Global Moderator

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  6. Atari800xl

    Atari800xl Registered Member

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    Thanks Brian!
    Sorry, I was referring to the "My Digital Life" forum. I started a thread there some time ago, asking for pretty much exactly the same sort of GPT/UEFI test you have done now :)

    I still don't have the UEFI/GPT hardware to do these test on myself, that's why I asked around on the MDL forum. As you have confirmed now, it's still not a "given" that (all) Disk Imaging software can do a basic (system) backup and restore to a new HD, which was pretty surprising to me at first.
    The thread is also about the PE projects from TheOven.org (Win7PESE, Win8PESE, Win8.1SE), I've made it somewhat of a hobby to try and cram as many different imagers onto a single thumb drive as possible. Right now, I'm testing (on BIOS/MBR): Active@ Disk Image, Aomei, Drive Snapshot, Macrium, Paragon, ShadowProtect, Terabyte and TrueImage. They can all be run from a PE-mounted iso of about 500mb.
     
    Last edited: Feb 21, 2015
  7. andylau

    andylau Registered Member

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    Paragon is not bad as its speed has improved since v12.
    It is also one of imaging apps that can do backup in its Linux recovery disk(Its Linux recovery disk has most of features that in WinPE, some features are not available in Linux recovery disk).
    Paragon Backup and Restore can also do some simple partition works, that's not much imaging app can do.
     
  8. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    Atari800xl,

    My main computer has UEFI firmware but as I wanted to multi-boot numerous OS (about 15 on HD0 which is an SSD), everything is installed in MBR mode. A few months ago a friend gave me a small 2 to 3 year old computer she didn't need. It has UEFI firmware and a good CSM so I can boot UEFI or MBR systems. After I install an OS to the empty HD0 I do an entire drive image and save it on HD1. I have about 25 different systems backed up. I can initiate a restore in Windows by double clicking the relevant shortcut or I can boot an IFL UFD and choose which system to restore from a menu. So it only takes 2 to 3 minutes for me to change OS. I've had a lot of fun with this "test" computer.
     
    Last edited: Feb 21, 2015
  9. Atari800xl

    Atari800xl Registered Member

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    Sounds good, Brian! Sounds like we both have the same ideas about "fun with PCs"...
    I have old(er) spare PCs and laptops around as well, also given to me by friends and family members, nice for testing and experimenting. Too bad I haven't been given an UEFI system yet. I'm not ready to buy a new laptop yet just for testing backup and restore, so thanks again for your tests. If we like it or not, UEFI/GPT is the future, so we'd better make sure our tools are ready for it (for example: Win8PESE or Win8.1SE can boot on a secureboot system).
    I use (Grub4Dos) multiboot as well on BIOS/MBR, however I use "only" 3 Windows systems max per PC, sometimes I throw in some Linux systems as well, as they can easily be put on an extended partitions (lots of them). But let's not get off-topic, just wanted to say thanks again, I'm looking forward to more interesting posts from you!
     
  10. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    Can you post a link to your thread in MDL?
     
  11. Atari800xl

    Atari800xl Registered Member

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  12. Robin A.

    Robin A. Registered Member

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    Maybe some specific problem in this case. In general, the Recovery Media Builder module can create WinPEs using the WinRE tools that are in the Windows installation. In UEFI systems with Windows 8.1, the "WINRETOOLS" partition and files must be in place and in working order, as expected.

    But there is a restriction: it´s not possible to create a WinPE ISO from WinRE, only to "burn" a UFD directly.
     
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