Can someone help a novice understand Paragon Backup & Recovery Home 10?

I open Paragon and click on the Archives tab. It shows the 4 folders representing the 4 backups I have done, with the most recent being on 5/26/2011.

In addition, there is a 5th folder labeled Complex Archive and dated 4/18/2011. It's icon has a little disc sitting on top. What is the purpose of this folder? Why have no newer Complex Archive folders been created?

 

Paragon Backup & Recovery Home never creates archives on its own.
It appears that you accidentally created some kind of Complex backup (complex means that it consists of several objects, for example MBR+partition, partition+partition).

 

Do you suppose I will be okay if I ever need my backup ... Or will this Complex Archive file mess things up because it is tied into other things?

I notice that it is only 6.1 MB in size. When I right click on it there is an option to "Delete the Archive from Database." Would I be safe to do this?

 

You should be okay, if your last 3 backups works fine. The complex archive isn't tied to any of those.

Your choice. I would make a backup for this month first though.

 

Since I haven't had need to use them I don't know if the backups work. However, I do the verification process after every backup and so far there have been no integrity errors. And I do a complete backup every time. I do not use the differential option. (I just did another backup last evening, and then verified it.)

I tell you what ... This program is not for novices. Oh sure, it may be easy enough (I think ) to learn the steps of going through the backup process, but if you have any questions or anything goes wrong a novice might as well tie a brick around their neck and jump in the river. The manual is horrible to try and find something in and understand it if you do, and my experience with their tech support has been pretty bad -- meaning I've had little to no help from them.

Take this Complex Archive. I have done the backup the same way every time and so I have no clue how I ever ended up with this odd ball folder. I first wrote to Paragon tech support about it a month ago. I'm still waiting for an answer, which is why I finally came back to this forum.

... Somehow, I don't doubt that this is a good backup program, but in my opinion it's really not a program for the novice.

 

Your comment about suitability for novices is frequently heard when any imaging program is discussed especially one that offers more than a "click-here and I will just create a full image of the disk where I want to" capability.

For imaging to make sense it is necessary to understand many things that aren't necessary to understand to use a computer these days. You can do a lot of work in your favorite office program without worrying about MBR, Track 0, active partition, RAID, sectors, NTFS, FAT32, Linux recovery CD, etc. Normal usage just doesn't require this level of detail - most people don't even know how to view their files with Windows Explorer - all they know is the Word or whatever puts it somewhere and when I click on Open it finds it.

IMO, even though image programs are marketed to end-users they really aren't a product that a user withoug a bit of geek in them willl be comfortable using.