Which file to choose to restore?

Does it matter?

Hi. I have been a long time ATI user (since 1999), but recently felt that a change was needed. So, I took advantage of the current promotion by Paragon, and installed the Compact version of Backup & Restore v10. I made an image, and I named it master, since it is supposed to be the base image after a fresh install of Windows 7 Pro x64. I have all my must have apps installed, so I thought it was the perfect time for an image.

When Paragon finished the task, I looked in my 2nd physical drive where I had chosen to store the backup, in a folder named (oh surprise) Backups. Now, when I looked there I saw a number of files instead of what I expected to see (master.pbf perhaps). This is what I saw

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/DrNil/paragon.jpg


The master.pbf is but 8.11KB in size, and 2 of the files are apparently invalid fonts!

In case of disaster, which of these files should I choose to restore my system?

Thanks very much for your help.

 

I find it odd that no one has responded to this question. Seems like anyone who uses Paragon at all should be able to help with this.

I have just begun playing with Paragon (considering recommending it for a friend - I use ShadowProtect and RollBack Rx myself but these are not suitable for her), so I am not speaking with authority here.

I would suggest you try selecting the last file in the archive especially if you were backing up to incrementals or differentials. If that does not work then select the first file in the archive. One of these 2 should do it. If you have multiple partitions on the drive I am not sure how you would opt to just restore a particular partition unless you have imaged them separately.

I hope this helps.

 

Yes, I am surprised that no-one has bothered to give me an authorative response. Let me clarify the entire thing in case someone wants to answer my question, hopefully someone representing Paragon.

I own a laptop with 2 physical drives. The system drive is a 64GB SSD, and the data drive is a 320GB SATA. I chose to store the image of the entire SSD (no partitions at all) to my data drive, to a folder aptly named Backups.

I wound up with 5 files. I had chosen prior to the backup, not to split the image, so I expected to see something like master.pbf for example (like I used to see master.tib when I used Acronis). So I was surprised to find 5 files. The 2 seemingly Type 1 font files 1.60KB and the other 111KB, the master.pbf is 22.3 KB, the master_0000p.000 is 29.9MB, and the master_0001p.000 file is 8.22GB. This from a SSD with 16.4GB occupied.

Is there a way to have just one single file using Paragon Backup & Recovery instead of this confusing mess? And of course, the initial question remains unanswered: in case of a restore which file should I choose?

Again, thanks very much for any help.

 

I think if you choose restore on the program itself or with the rescue disk you will see it differently. A single file with a date. Looks different on your external drive than what you see if you choose restore. Thats what I found on Paragon system backup and recovery 2010 anyway.

 

Hmm, you are right. When I choose to restore and I have to pick the archive to restore, this is what I see:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/DrNil/restore.jpg

I guess choosing this tiny file will work like when one decompresses spanned archives. Still would lke to have a confirmation on this, although that was the only option when I took the steps to restore the image.

I appreciate your posting. Thanks much.

 

Glad I could help Sandokan.

 

ralphn, I want to thank you too. I will be faced with this same situation soon enough and now it will not be an issue. Much appreciated.

 

Hi,

It's the weekend.

Paragon staff need to have some time off. After all, this forum is in addition to the support that comes with the paid product period.

Even those using the very old, or free, products get responses from the staff here ( not weekends or public holidays, understandably). I don't believe you get that many other places.

Those are partitions. They are numbered like that so Paragon Restore can show them as separate partitions when you use the restore function.

Also, it is much easier for the user to select the partition they wish to view/ copy files from , rather than trawling thru one large file.

E.G. I only have one partition here - it is listed as 1.Partition , if there were more, they would be 2. Partition, 3.Partition., etc.

Click the one you wish to expand.



Hope it helps.

 

Just to be clear I was not being critical of Paragon staff, or anyone else in particular for that matter. Its just that this question is of such a basic nature in terms of actually using the software that just about anyone who ever used the product (that is has done a restore) should know the ans. An answer should not require Paragon staffs involvement at all. Now if the question had been a more technical one I could look at the number of reads and not be surprised if the question might have to wait for an ans. But this one?

Any way, no offence meant and thanks for the clarification regarding this question.

 

None taken , bg.

Not sure why there have been a lot of reads - maybe a lot of new people just got the freebie - they are new to Paragon also, and are looking round this site?

 

What are partitions? The 5 files I got? What are those 2 Type 1 fonts anyway?

I disagree. I used to simply mount the image and browse it at my leisure. Any user knows where he's got his stuff stored, so going to that location on a mounted image and retrieving that file or whathaveyou is quite trivial.

I appreciate and thank you for your post. I do understand that Paragon's staff members need their rest, and after all they are not being paid for this support, for that I am grateful as well. However, the fact that no-one has been able to tell me what are those 5 files and how having 5 files with esoteric names instead of the name of my choosing (which I chose and resulted in master.pbf) is better, it's rather deflating.

Just like bgoodman4 said, anyone who has used this soft could have jumped in and explained this matter in less than a minute. FTR I looked and searched the net before posing this question, it wasn't until I found nothing that I decided to ask, since I wanted to be sure I had some redundancy.

Thanks again.

 

LOL.

The 001 and 002 , etc are partitions. It looks like you backed up the 100mb partition , and the main windows partition ?

Presumably the files in the .pbf are used by Paragon to e.g restore the image, and to display it in the restore Wizard - the original partition information is likely stored in there - also needed if you wish to use that image as a base for differentials.

Not sure what the empty fonts files are for - it's not the first time I have come across something of that nature - there are a couple of programs that contain empty icons - with warnings no to delete as they are used by the program. How are they used ? - I don't know - the developer must.


Have you tried Windows System Image ( built into 7 ) - check the quantity of files and folders that produces.

 

I had no choice on this. I chose to image DISK0, and of course, Windows 7 reserves 100MB of DISK0. I didn't expect different files (images) for the 100MB reserved partition 7 creates and another file for the rest of DISK0. I am not bothered in functionality by this as long as choosing the only option I am given (which is master.pbf) restores a bootable and, well, functioning system.

Yes, I'd much rather have 1 big image file. No doubt about that, but as long as this works, I don't really care. The Type 1 fonts are a mystery. Perhaps after the holiday some staff member will see this thread and shed some light on these 2 weird (and tiny) files.

No, I have not tried the built in imaging system in Windows 7, now will I. After years of using Acronis I am just warming up to Paragon (I also have a bootable ShadowProtect CD), and from what members of other tech forums have commented the Win 7 imaging system is rudimentary at best.

 

I agree that SP is probably one of the best but that does not mean Paragon is not right up there if you are going to judge by Wilders user comments over on the software forum.

Before I go on let me say I have used True Image and am currently Using ShadowProtect and RollBack Rx. I was looking at Paragon initially for a friend for whom SP and Rx are not options, either for $ reasons (SP) or for utility (Rx). I should also say that I will be adding Paragon to my tool kit for myself in part because I am very impressed with the ease with which you can access individual files from an archive. This is much easier and faster with Paragon than with any other imaging program I have tried.

As to the file structure of the images created with Paragon, yes they are different from the structure of a True Image archive but that should not matter once you understand what you need to do to access a file or restore an image. With TI you have to wait for the image to be mounted as a virtual drive before you could get to a particular file, with Paragon you just double click on the correct section of the archived files and the drive as it existed x weeks ago is available to you. You cannot beat that. And there is no need to un-mount the virtual drive when you are done either.

As to why you may be seeing more than 1 partition.

Firstly a partition is exactly what it sounds like. Its a wall around or between two portions of something. Think of you hard drive being divided up into desecrate sections and you will have a good idea of what these things are. Many PC today are shipped without a Windows install disk. Instead they come with a partitioned hard drive, one partition is a small one that contains the Windows install files so that you can do a clean install of Windows if you need to, and the 2nd partition contains the OS and all you files, typically the C: drive.

Now just because Paragon has created 5 files does not indicate that Paragon has found 5 partitions on your PC. I found that by double clicking on one of the first files in the archive (not sure which one but I think it was the 2nd file) the file opened to show my 2 partitions (as partition 1 and partition 2). Double clicking on 1 opened my D drive, thats the one that contains my install files, and double clicking on 2 opened my C: drive just as it would be if you went to Windows Explorer.

I found its possible to access the C: drive files by double clicking on a number of the subsequent (but not all) archive files and I have no idea why there would be exact replicas of the files but I guess it has something to do with the way Paragon works. The key is that it really does not matter, key is that the files are easily accessed that's all that counts.

Now as long as restoring images is reliable, and from all accounts it is, Paragon looks to be an excellent choice. It has many very nice features, is well supported, and is reasonably intuitive, which is why I will be installing it on my friends 4 PCs tomorrow (Monday the 17th) as well as on my 2 PC.

I hope this helps you understand the diff between TI and Paragon. As far as I am concerned Paragon is the better of the 2 without question and while I have never tried Windows own backup/imaging program from what I understand its OK but not up to the standard of even Acronis TI let alone Paragon, Macrium, SP, RollBack Rx, or Terabytes Image For Windows.

 

Of course. You misunderstood me when you read my question about "what are partitions".I know what they are. I have always detested them with a passion. Since 1998 (when I first came to know Windows till then I had been a Mac and Linux user) my default setup has always been at least 2 physical drives. One for system and live stuff (apps, profile, etc) and one or more for data (dead stuff, gfx, music, etc).

I know. My laptop came with 3 partitions (a crime when you think that the system drive is a 64GB SSD). Altogether those partitions were taking over 12GB from that superfast drive. Needless to say that I bought an OEM Windows 7 Pro x64 (the version in my laptop was HP), obliterated the partitions, and fresh installed the OS on the non partitioned SSD. Windows 7 reserves 100MB on a separate partition, I knew that, but I didn't expect Paragon to create a separate image for that 100MB partition, since it is part of DISK0, and that's what I tasked Paragon with doing: image DISK0.

As I have already stated, I'd prefer it to be different, but if it works reliably, then it's all good. ShadowProtect also created 2 files when I tested the booatable CD. The only one (that I have used) that creates a single archive is ATI, but I am convinced that their product line has gone the way of the dodo. I am happy with Paragon, but I'd love to get an answer regarding those 2 Type 1 font files. Best regards.

 

from the question I jumped to the conclusion you were not terribly computer savvy, its reasonably clear now this is not the case.

Never having used a Mac I just take the Windows stuff as normal (which it is for Windows of course). One day I may give a Mac a try, a lot of people like it a lot and it would be nice to see first hand what the fuss is about.

May I ask why you went from a Mac to Windows - I know its way off topic,,, just curious.

 

I didn't go from Mac to Windows. I used Macs until I decided I wanted to know more in depth how a "real" Unix system performed, so I went with Linux. Mandrake, and then Debian. Back then Linux was a CLI ruled OS. I remember compiling my own kernel for the first time, and the true sense of accomplishment that followed it. It was great! You could actually design the OS that you wanted within the constrains of Unix.

Then, by chance obviously, I won a sweepstakes and the prize was a Dell computer. I believe it was a 500Mhz Celeron. Something that these days would power a cell phone, hahaha! I started dual booting Debian and Windows 98SE. After a while I discovered that the thrill of compiling was gone, and Windows was so incredibly easy, that it stuck. I have also played with Solaris when stdying computer science, but I do believe Java is disgusting, so I ditched it. So, ever since XP I've been a Windows only user.

There you have it. Take care.

 

This posts may be useful on this issue