CampTune X Beta

1: a
2: a
3: a
4: b
6: a Possibility to back-up windows partition before re-partitioning
Tested with macboock air, decreased bootcamp partition with no problem

 

1. No, no log file available as both partitions were corrupted and unusable.

2. Yes

3. Yes

4. Yes, backup is critical.

6. Technically yes/no, Camptune 9 has backup, this needs it as well

 

Hi,

I've just tested CampTune X Beta on a 15" MacBook Pro early-2011 model which has been modified to use a Crucial M4 SSD for primary storage.
The CampTune X Beta was installed on OSX Lion and used to expand a 150Gb BootCamp partition running Windows 7 (32-bit) to a new size of 160Gb.

My responses to the formal Beta-Tester questions are as follows:

1. Was your redistribute operation successful?
a. Yes - The task was successfully completed in a couple of minutes and verified via OSX's Disk Utility.

2. Was the process intuitive?
a. Yes

3. Were all dialogs and menus in program clear to you?
a. Yes, however as other users have reported, the program's icon in the Dock's application folder was shown as a program that could not be launched, as if it was an incompatible PowerPC application in an Intel Mac... but it launched OK.

4. Do you think that Camptune for Mac OS X needs additional features?
a. Yes.
Firstly, an indication of available free space in each partition type via the GUI would be extremely useful.
Secondly, a re-sizing progress indicator of either "Time Remaining" or "% Complete" or both would be most useful.
Thirdly, and most importantly for me, the value of CampTune 9 is partly in its partition re-sizing capabilities (infrequently used) and partly in its Backup capability (more frequently used). The lack of a Backup capability in this version greatly devalues the product for me, since I've been able to discover NO OTHER SIMPLE & SUPPORTED backup solution for a BootCamp partition that co-exists with Lion. While I applaud your efforts to bring the partition-resizing functionality inside of OSX rather than forcing the user to reboot from external media, I hope the you will consider doing the same for the ability to Backup and Restore the BootCamp partition. (Full Image Backups like before are great, the ability to do Incremental Image Backups in addition would be even better.)

6. Do you think that Camptune solution functionality needs to be extended?
a. Yes. Even if you decide to create Basic and Advanced versions of the product, since there are many on this forum who like the idea of a product that just does the re-partitioning and nothing else.
I would personally prefer a product with a more advanced feature set that retains and builds upon CampTune 9's capabilities. In having the ability to boot from external media, the earlier-generation product provided not only the re-partitioning capability but also the ability to use the image backup/restore to completely recover from primary storage drive failure or easily upgrade to a larger disk. It would great to see this external media booting capability made possible via USB drives, so that users could boot from the same media that contains the backup images themselves. This would also benefit users who did not have optical media drives.
It appears that one of Paragon's main objectives for CampTune X is to move away from complete reliance on external media, although that will remain necessary for the ability to recover from HDD failure. However, a far more frequent need is the ability to recover a partition that will no longer boot.
Can I therefore suggest a cross-platform hard-disk-based solution that allows partition resizing and backup/recovery of the BootCamp partition from OSX, as well as the ability to restore an OSX image backup via Windows (which might successfully boot even when OSX does not - this happened to me a couple of months ago).
Finally, I would like to see support for complex partitioning configurations, such as having an OSX partition, a BootCamp partition and an independent data partition, all co-existing on a single drive so that user data is kept isolated from OS failures. Such a product would then be a natural 'fit' for bundling with your 'NTFS for Mac' and/or 'HFS for Windows' solutions.

Thanks for letting us contribute.

 

1. Was your redistribute operation successful?
b. No. (can't find any log files of operation on my HD)

At the end of the operation the program hung infinitely, as if being in some sort of loop, while doing nothing. I've waited several hours, but it was still saying something about being busy with my windows partition.

After stopping the program, my bootcamp partition was completely gone!

2. Was the process intuitive?
a. Yes

3. Were all dialogs and menus in program clear to you?
b. No.

I'd like to see a button to expand a detailed overview of what's going on during the process. If I had this, I could have seen what went wrong myself, for the log file is missing.

4. Do you think that Camptune for Mac OS X needs additional features?
a. Yes.

A backup function.. although I could've made the backup myself.. I think that if the program was able to offer this, I would've still been able to go back to my old configuration. Now my whole bootcamp installation is lost.

6. Do you think that Camptune solution functionality needs to be extended?
a. Yes.

I think a piece of software solely for this purpose is silly.. I'd merge it with paragon partition manager OR drop the price to $10,- since I wouldn't pay 20 bucks for a piece of software I'll rarely need.

Anyway.. you guys have a lot of work to do... because this didn't help me at all.. Now I still need to do a complete reinstall, which obviously was what I was trying to prevent me from having to do..

 

The first time that the “Redistribute Free Space” screen came up, it was blank. Only after clicking “Go Back”, then Continue, did it actually complete the scan and show the graphic indicating how much space was currently allocated to both the Mac and Boot Camp partitions.

Otherwise, everything else went smoothly. CampTune redistributed the free space as expected without any errors.

 

1. Was your redistribute operation successful?
a. Yes, after clicking "Go Back", then continuing to have it rescan.

2. Was the process intuitive?
a. Yes

3. Were all dialogs and menus in program clear to you?
a. Yes.

4. Do you think that Camptune for Mac OS X needs additional features?
a. Yes.

Prompt the user to perform a backup before proceeding with the redistribution. The backup prompt could redirect to TimeMachine.

6. Do you think that Camptune solution functionality needs to be extended?
b. No.

 

1. Was your redistribute operation successful?
b. No.

Stuck at the "Your system is being scanned for a Boot Camp configuration" screen.

2. Was the process intuitive?
b. No.

Stuck at the "Your system is being scanned for a Boot Camp configuration" screen. I'm not sure if this is because I had previously encrypted the HDD using FileVault (lion full disk), and then decrypted it again?


3. Were all dialogs and menus in program clear to you?
N/A

4. Do you think that Camptune for Mac OS X needs additional features?
a. Yes.

Ability to collect and send logs to support.

6. Do you think that Camptune solution functionality needs to be extended?
a. Yes.

Ability to backup/restore Bootcamp partition would be ideal.

 

Hello to everyone.
The beta testing of CampTune X has been finished.
Paragon Software Team thanks everyone who took part in tests. We would like reward active tester and thus will need your email addresses. Please contact me via Private Messaging option on the forum with your E-mail and Name details.

Thanks again
Best regards
Paragon Software Team