HDM 12 Suite

Actually no. I posted here on Paragon official support forum. The problem was unresolved for over 4 months. As you can probably see if you go through my original posts in 2009 and 2010, I was unable to get any confirmation by anyone else or the paragon support team. So, I was not sure whether the problem was in Paragon or just my personal system. I then sent a email to the customer support address on Paragon website but never heard back from them. The next logical step was opening a support ticket but by that time I had lost my faith in Paragon support staff; not to mention that I had already decided to switch to Macrium, so let the matter be.

I am glad that this time there are quite a number of you that have been able to replicate this, so hopefully if you all open a support ticket with Paragon, and bother them persistently, we might finally force Paragon to correct this.

 

This is quite interesting. So, the big question is why are Paragon developers not aware of this?

 

I just did another test on 18th march of HDM 12 by restoring the image I made on 12th March from within windows and using VSS.

My Norton internet security 2012, did not experience the same problem my NIS 2009 had done.

But, my hotmail email inbox was again blank in outlook 2010. I have 2 gmail IMAP accounts, 1 work-related IMAP account and 2 Hotmail MAPI accounts in outlook 2010. All other accounts inboxes were already populated but both hotmail accounts inbox's were blank. Both had to redownload all headers and email again from the hotmail server. So, the hotmail and outlook bug from 3 years ago is still present.

Can somebody check it and please add this to your the support ticket in paragon. I think in order to get this bug, you have to restore a few days (2-3) in the past.

The missing files should be in the following folder on win 7
C:\Users\"Your User name"\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook

They should be *.ost files.

And before someone asks, no I did not have exclude filters set in Paragon. I specifically checked it before restoring. This is a bug!

 

Did you notice that when you use PHP, Paragon's backup process runs with realtime CPU priority? This is a bug in PHP. See my post from 3 years ago. No matter what I did, the priority always reverted back to realtime. So, you can understand my frustration with Paragon at that time. Couldn't use VSS, couldn't use PHP.

Hopefully you can get it resolved from Paragon.

 

One more bug that is present in HDM 12 is that on restore, Paragon overwrites Windows boot menu and replaces it with the default windows 7 boot menu. I have a modified boot menu that gives me an option to boot into other choices instead of windows. I made an image of the C partition from within windows with VSS, when I restored the image, the boot menu was replaced with only windows 7 entry.

This only happens with paragon, not Macrium.

Before someone asks, I checked it with both the "Automatic BCD update" option checked and unchecked in Paragon.

 

If someone wants to use paragon from the bootdisk or bootable usb flash drive to make images or restores, then I think they will find this tutorial of mine useful. It will allow you to copy the WinPE environment to different partition on your local drive and when you need to image or restore an image, all you need to do is to follow the steps in the tutorial and boot into the WinPE environment.

This will of course not help you in case of hard drive failure, but for all other cold imaging/restores, this helps as you do not need to carry any external media.

This is extremely helpful for Macrium and Shadowprotect users, as in those utilities you need to boot from an external media for all restores. They do not give you an option, like paragon does, where you initiate restore from within windows and then paragon reboots the computer and loads at start up to do the job.

 

@Raza0007: It is much appreciated that you take your time to give us so much information, even when you do not use Paragon any more. Thanks a lot! It is a pity that no one responded to your previous posts. I hope the help desk is more matured at this time, so far I am very satisfied with their work (I have linked my support ticket to this forum threads).

I am now a retired person, I do not use lap tops any more, only desktops. To carry USB sticks is not a problem to me, but be sure, I shall follow up your “Tutorial - Booting into a WinPE recovery environment without using a bootable media”. I am very proud of my personalized – and localized – WinPE boot system (made possible due to SIW2 and other helpful forum users. BTW, my WinPE 3.1 boot seems to work perfectly also on my WinXP comp with 1 GB RAM!

 

I think you are just as stubborn as I am, skbaltimore. We never give up.

Thanks to your link to www.sevenforums.com and your participation there, I consider I know the answer to your question here. At the moment I believe the folders in the Registry HKLM\CurrentControlSet\Control\BackupRestore\FilesNotToSnapshot are skipped when we are using VSS. In my case:

C:\Users\Public\Recorded TV\* I have 4 files, VSS backup 0 files, PHP backup 4 files
%ProgramData%\Microsoft\RAC\* I have 5 files, VSS backup 0 files, PHP backup 5 files
%windir%\softwaredistribution\*.* We already know
$UserProfile$\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\*.ost I don't have this folder, don't use Outlook
$AllVolumes$\System Volume Information We have not access to this OS folder

The OutlookOST entry might be of interest to Raza0007 [#178]

Whom to blame?

 

Thanks. I think the tutorial will come in very handy, especially since I've uninstalled HDM and am only using the disks.

UPDATE: Dude...you ROCK!!! Installed and LOVIN IT!!! Great, easy to follow tutorial. You didn't skip any steps (I also have Win 7 and needed to make the change in Advanced Settings so that the boot screen wouldn't appear).

(Note: I installed 2.1.2 EasyBCD, and during the install it gave the option of whether or not to run the program at start up, so I unchecked that, and didn't have to make any other start up changes. Desktop icon for iReboot 1.1.1; double click, right click the sys tray icon, choose HDM 11, and GO!!)

 

Do you specifically mean all restores or all restores of the currently active OS partition? I hope that if my active OS is on C: and I'm running Macrium from that OS I could still restore data to a different partition. ?? Just want to be sure I don't miss anything.

 

I didn't notice the realtime CPU issue. But since I don't do anything on my computer while I'm making a backup anyway, it wouldn't have been an issue for me, but that doesn't mean it's not a legitimate issue.

I did get a response from Pavel on some issues (he said, basically, to install the Hot Core Driver to activate PHP, and also to highlight the "Archives" tab to solve the greyed out "Archives" menu issue), but other issues have not yet been addressed, like the Event Viewer errors generated even when using PHP for In Windows backups/restores. And honestly, it was not easy to decipher. I think something might have gotten lost in the translation.

 

Yes, I am one stubborn cuss.

That's why I'm now only doing cold processing backups. Yeah, it's an extra step to have to use the CD, and yeah, it takes a few minutes longer. And yeah, it's a drag to have to keep re-entering the options settings. But for me, accuracy is a non-negotiable must, and if that's what it takes to assure a true backup, then that's what it takes. At least with this program. I'm just going to fire up a bunch of extra HDM disks, and make sure I've got them in my laptop case. That way, I'm covered. (I'm also going to check out Raza0007's tutorial.)

And thanks for tracking down more of those missing files using VSS!

 

Well, this might be old hat to some or most of you, but I just learned tonight the impact that defragging a disk has on differential system backups, so for those who are not aware, it has a rather significant impact. I made a full image backup of my C drive the other day, did a differential backup yesterday, and made another differential backup just now, with no changes from yesterday's diff b/u to today's. The size jumped 1.1GB. I think I understand that even though the data is the same, the sectors on which the data is placed is different after the defrag, and since a differential system image b/u compares the sectors of the original, it sees the sectors after a defrag as different. Like I said, this might be common knowledge, but I for one was totally unaware of it until now. I always used to just do full system image backups, and just recently started doing differential b/u's. So if there's anyone else out there who was in the dark about this the way I was, I HTH. The time to do the defrag would be before the FULL system b/u is made, not afterwards, because it causes the diff b/u to be significantly larger.

 

That is correct. Even though the data in the files is unchanged the fact the sector got moved will be seen as a change to an image backup and the time to do the defrag is before the full. Another caution is some people run programs that continuously defrag the disk which can have the same effect. Windows 7 also does a continuous defrag but it is uses an algorithm to only move pieces that will result in a real benefit and without triggering the need to move huge numbers of sectors to accommodate the piece.

 

It was a real eye opener for me, especially since I'd never done differential backups before. I also made it a habit of defragging a lot (several times a week). Recently, I've read some things that said that too much defragging is worse than not enough defragging. So now I've changed my approach; I'll defrag before a full system b/u only.

 

Many, many years ago when HD's were small which means there was a very high probability the data was scattered over the whole radius of the platter defragging had a real benefit. It is the opinion of many that with the large disk sizes, faster access speeds that much of the benefit of frequent defragging is lost. Then there is the more intelligent behaviour of a modern OS that optimizes the location of the frequently accessed programs. Of course, there are many others who consider regular defragging to be next to godliness.

I haven't done a defrag since I've been running W7 and even before that it was an infrequent occurance with no perceived benefit to me - I never noticed anything being faster. However, we don't all do the same things and work the same way.

There was a study done years ago that said two things:
You don't notice changes in time that are smaller than (IIRC) 10-15% and the only way to be sure there is a change in time is to use a stop-watch. In other words the perception of something being faster or slower may be just that, a perception.

 

When I got a new desktop 2 years ago, it came with a SSD "C" drive. And I was finally relieved to know I'd never have to defrag it. Then when I got this new laptop a month or so ago, I figured I was back to the old daily defrag routine. Now, I think I understand the situation a lot better. Thanks for your input.

 

Technology hasn't obviated the speed benefits of defragmenting HDDs. Higher platter densities scale with data consumed, giving us much more to manage with negligible speed increases.

Differential images and Intel RST caching [Z68] have a similar conundrum: the former triggers larger differentials and the latter risks displacing useful data in the cache with unwanted data.

Solution: custom MyDefrag scripts.

If you daily/weekly/frequently only defragment/relocate files you have actually changed for that day/week/interval, then your differential backup size won't be increased since those files changed anyway and your RST cache already contains those files anyhow.

Weekly, I defragment MFT, directories, and modified files.

Monthly, I defragment MFT, directories, and relocate files to their defined zones; I leave enough space between each zone to facilitate this in the...

Quarterly, I defragment everything and sort everything in their proper zones. (I'll probably change this to semi-annually.)

 

I still use their partition manager. Not to mention some of my friends use Paragon, and I am their troubleshooting tech.

By the way, my tutorial will work for a customized WinPE too. It only needs the .wim file from the boot disk, nothing else.

 

There is a software OSForensics. Install it on the computer and then from there use the appropriate button to install it to a usb flash drive. Run it from the flash drive and if you do the "create signature" on the partition before backing it up and then do another signature after restoring with Paragon, you can then use it to to a "signature comparison" to find out which files are missing. The missing files will be listed as deleted.

 

No, only the system partition needs the restore from the bootdisk. Macrium and other software utilities have the ability to restore non-system partitions from within windows.

 

Thanks, I prefer to carry all my bootable wim's and iso's on my hard drive instead of carrying external bootable media. This was one of the biggest reasons for the tutorial.

As I mentioned above, one of the errors Paragon with VSS has is that it will overwrite your custom boot menu and replace it with the default windows one. Now that you have a custom boot menu, you can try it and mention it to Paragon staff.

 

So...you're suggesting that I intentionally trash the great new boot menu setup so I can let Paragon know about it?

J/K...you have a lot of patience!!! And I really do appreciate all your help.

HEY PARAGON...STOP MESSING UP OUR CUSTOM BOOT MENUS!!!

(You think they heard?)



But seriously...if I understand you correctly, the issue only occurs when using VSS, right? The thing is...since I no longer have HDM 11 installed on my system, all of my image b/u's and restores are done via the disk/recovery environment. So VSS is never engaged; every backup is cold processed.

 

If you run the Paragon bcd corrector, it creates a new bcd store and makes sure all windows installations are correctly included.

Other entries will not be - makes perfect sense for the average user.

If you have custom entries - e.g. for booting iso's via grub, etc - then you can turn off the bcd corrector - that is why the option is there.

Other applications have their own problems - macrium boot correct mechanism sets windows installations drive letters to C.

Again - that is fine for the average user.

Those of us who have multiple installations each with their own registry drive letters will find that very inconvenient.

I used Paragon boot correct to sort out the mess.

 

Which option is that exactly. The "automatic BCD update" option? As I have already tested it with that option checked and unchecked. It did not make any difference.