Support doesn't reply - can anyone help please?

Discussion in 'Paragon Drive Backup Product Line' started by James Jackson, Jul 7, 2010.

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  1. James Jackson

    James Jackson Registered Member

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    I have bought a new external 1TB hard drive and, after downloading Paragon 10.2 Backup (version 10.2, build 9169 (01.12.09 ), copied the whole of my PC's 325GB hard drive onto it (and created a new boot DVD). As I'm uncertain I asked support a few questions 5 days ago but they haven't replied within their stated time and I don't think they will (perhaps because I have the free edition?). Can anyone help please? My queries are:

    a) I assume the copy I now have is literally everything including Vista etc?
    b) If my existing hard drive fails and I have a new one installed, will it definitely put everything back from the external hard drive onto the new hard drive, including the original Vista?
    c) How does it recongize it's the same PC if the drive is new?
    d) Would it matter if the new hard drive were larger than my current one?
    e) Finally, as I see it, restoration needs the wizard on the program - but how would one see that if the hard drive is new and blank? Is it perhaps on the new boot DVD?

    Many thanks indeed. James
     
  2. Paragon_MattK

    Paragon_MattK Paragon Moderator

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    a) Yes, if you used the copy hard disk feature and copied your main hard disk to the external, it will include everything from the source disk, including your operating system. Since you are using an external hard drive, I would recommend making a backup instead of doing a copy to the new drive, this will allow you to keep multiple backups and will be more robust in the event of a hard disk failure.

    b) If your hard drive fails you will need to make a copy to a new hard drive. Assuming you have copied your main disk to the external, to restore that you would boot from our recovery CD, and copy the external drive to your new drive. However, if you make a backup to the external drive (recommended) you will instead use the restore wizard from the recovery CD to restore the image to the new disk.

    c)It does not. Since the copy was of your original OS, which already has all of the hardware profiles set for that machine, it does not need to.

    Though it is not included in B&R Free edition, our adaptive restore technology also allows you to restore to any bare metal machine, and still be able to boot your original OS.

    d) No.

    e) You will find the restore wizard on the recovery CD. You can use the file transfer wizard to see the files in the drive before you do any operation if you like, or you can look at the disk from within Windows to determine if it has any data.
     
  3. James Jackson

    James Jackson Registered Member

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    Many thanks for this prompt reply. It's much appreciated.

    I have a laptop too. Is it OK to do a backup from that to the same external hard drive as well?

    James
     
  4. SIW2

    SIW2 Registered Member

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    Yes, the backup archives are folders and can be put anywhere you would put any other folder.

    Give it a memorable name to make them easy to distinguish.

    Hope it helps.
     
  5. JosephB

    JosephB Registered Member

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    Please explain (I am still a novice and not actually sure) what is meant by above allows you to restore to any bare metal machine o_O

    ... Also, why would a different process (adaptive restore) be needed for above type of rstore verses restoring to your existing pc's hard drive ?
     
  6. Paragon_MattK

    Paragon_MattK Paragon Moderator

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    What this refers to is our P2P Adjust OS Wizard. Which can be used to reset the hardware profiles, and inject drivers on Windows operating systems.

    The procedure for restoring an image could be a bit different to a bare metal machine for a few reasons.

    1.) The restore process must be started from a recovery CD, as bare metal machines do not have any OS.

    2.) Since the hardware is different when Windows attempts to boot after the restore, the drivers are not correct resulting in a (7B) BSOD. Running our P2P Adjust OS wizard from our recovery CD will reset the hardware profiles to their defaults, as well as allow you to inject any additional drivers you may need. Allowing support for any hardware for which there is a driver available.

    3.) Since the hardware profiles are reset, Windows may require a reactivation. This often depends on your version of windows and the specific hardware changes made.
     
  7. Vitalogy

    Vitalogy Registered Member

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    On my hard drive I have 3 partitions. In case of hardware failure, my desired strategy is to copy (or backup) the partition C on a backup hard drive. So if I need to buy a new (probably larger) hard drive, I will restore the partition C and continue my life like if nothing happened. (No Windows re-install.) For the others partition I have others strategies so we will ignore them for now.

    So my question is, do this also work if I backup only the partition C (versus backing up the whole hard drive)?

    Also, when I backup the partition do I need to choose one or more of the following options? I'm not sure if some of them are required if I just want to swap drives without re-installing Windows 7 & their drivers.

    - Hdd raw processing (I guess no, since I backup only 1 partition)
    - Partition raw processing (is it obligatory for my strategy?)
    - Skip OS auxiliary files
    - Skip archive files stored in archive library


    Thanks in advance for your help!
     
  8. SIW2

    SIW2 Registered Member

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    You don't need to do any of those - they are options.

    I would select skip o/s auxilliary files.

    If you have the separate 100mb "system" partition , you need to make an image of that too.

    Hope it helps.
     
  9. Vitalogy

    Vitalogy Registered Member

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    I don't have this 100 Mb partition but it's an important information to give. Thanks for that.
     
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