Paragon Backup Recovery - 10 Suite User Manual

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PARAGON Technologie GmbH, Systemprogrammierung

Heinrich-von-Stephan-Str. 5c z 79100 Freiburg, Germany

Tel. +49 (0) 761 59018201 z Fax +49 (0) 761 59018130

Internet www.paragon-software.com z E-mail sales@paragon-software.com

Backup & Recovery 10 Suite

User Manual

Contents

Introduction ..................................................................................................................4

Key Features .................................................................................................................4

Product Components ..................................................................................................5

Getting Started .............................................................................................................5

Distribution .......................................................................................................................................... 5

Contacting Paragon Technology GmbH......................................................................................... 7

System Requirements ........................................................................................................................ 8

Installation .......................................................................................................................................... 9

First Start ............................................................................................................................................ 10

Building Bootable Recovery Media ...............................................................................................15

Booting from the Linux/DOS Recovery Environment .................................................................... 17

Booting from the WinPE Recovery Environment............................................................................ 19

Basic Concepts ..........................................................................................................23

System and Data Protection ........................................................................................................... 23

System Virtualization........................................................................................................................ 27

Paragon Hot Processing & Volume Shadow Copy Service ......................................................... 28

Dynamic Disks.................................................................................................................................. 30

GPT versus MBR ................................................................................................................................ 31

Apple Boot Camp ............................................................................................................................ 31

64-bit Support ................................................................................................................................... 31

Copy Operations ............................................................................................................................. 32

Drive Partitioning .............................................................................................................................. 32

Scheduling........................................................................................................................................ 33

Drive Backup Pro Functionality.................................................................................33

Interface Overview .......................................................................................................................... 33

Settings Overview ............................................................................................................................44

Getting Information on Disks and Backup Images....................................................................... 61

Data Backup and Rescue ............................................................................................................... 67

Copy Tasks ....................................................................................................................................... 77

Partition Management..................................................................................................................... 82

Hard Disk Management .................................................................................................................. 92

Task Scheduling ............................................................................................................................... 95

Scripting ............................................................................................................................................ 99

Extra Functionality.......................................................................................................................... 101

Typical Scenarios .....................................................................................................112

Backup Scenarios .......................................................................................................................... 112

Recovery Scenarios....................................................................................................................... 139

Cloning System Hard Disk ............................................................................................................. 180

P2V Scenarios................................................................................................................................. 182

P2P Scenarios ................................................................................................................................. 199

Extra Scenarios for WinPE .............................................................................................................. 201

Troubleshooter..........................................................................................................203

Glossary ....................................................................................................................205

Introduction

Paragon Backup & Recovery 10 Suite is a complex disaster recovery and system migration solution that combines two different approaches to the system and data security:

• The time-proved traditional, typical for the Paragon Drive Backup’s product line. Its main characteristics are rich functionality and excellent flexibility, exactly what I-need-full-control users like;

• And the brand new, realized in Paragon System Backup. It’s based on the minimal user participation and simplicity and will certainly be appreciated by those who are not willing to look into technical peculiarities, those who only need the result - guaranteed protection of the system and data with the minimal efforts possible.

By implementing in this product all cutting edge technologies, including the next generation of Paragon Adaptive Restore™, that provides for a successful migration of a Win2K+ physical system to a different hardware platform (P2P) as well as support for the system virtualization (P2V), the latest trend in the system migration, protection, and evaluation, the company has offered all the necessary facilities to build a bullet-proof shield against any disaster.

Here in this guide you will learn about key benefits of the product, how to get it ready to use, as well as where to find extra information on how to handle the product’s interface and accomplish typical operations.

Our company is constantly releasing new versions and updates to its software, that's why images shown in this manual may be different from what you see on your screen.

Key Features

Let us list some of the product key features:

• Out-of-box automated system backup to initiate protection of your system and data on a regular basis just after the product installation.

• Advanced notification system to keep you informed about the level of danger your system and data are in through the color indicators (green, yellow, red) in the system tray.

• Smart backup engine to effectively distribute resources among other applications when backing up in the automatic mode with System Backup, so you keep working on the computer and feel no discomfort.

• P2V Copy

to migrate a Win2K+ physical system to a virtual environment in the online mode.

• P2V Restore to migrate a Win2K+ physical system backed up with a Paragon disaster recovery tool to a virtual environment.

• P2V Adjust OS to recover the startup ability after unsuccessful virtualization with a 3rd party tool.

• Support for major virtualization software vendors including MS Virtual PC, VMware Workstation, and VMware Fusion.

• Next generation Adaptive Restore™ (P2P Adjust OS) to successfully migrate a Win2K+ physical system to a different hardware platform (P2P) by allowing automatic injection of all required drivers and the other actions crucial for a migration of this kind.

• Smart Driver Injector to make the process of adding new drivers for P2V and P2P operations smooth and easy.

• Smart Backup Wizard

unique intelligent work algorithm and a highly intuitive user interface, you can easily back up exactly what you need - the whole system, e-mail databases (MS Outlook, Express, Windows Mail) media files or office documents of the My Documents folder, or any other files and folders.

• Support for the latest Windows 7.

• Selective Restore

Wizard without the need to restore the whole image.

• WinPE 2.1 based bootable recovery environment to enjoy support of a wider range of hardware configurations with the option to add drivers for specific hardware on-the-fly.

• Automatic data exclusion

process of building up contents of the future backup image, by excluding irrelevant data such as movies, music, etc.

to secure system and data with the minimal efforts possible. With a

to easily extract files and folders from a backup image with the Restore

with an advanced system of filters will help you automate the

Product Components

In order to cope with different tasks, the product contains several components:

• Windows based set of utilities

launcher you may find and run tasks of any complexity in the field of data and system protection, hard disk partitioning and cloning, etc.

• Linux/DOS based recovery environment

run utilities under Linux or PTS DOS, and that way to get access to your hard disk for maintenance or recovery purposes. Both platforms have their strong sides, for instance Linux can boast support of FireWire (i.e. IEEE1394) or USB devices. It enables to burn CD/DVD disks. However there can be some difficulties with detecting new hardware. DOS in its turn has no problems of that kind but is limited in features. The Linux/DOS recovery environment requires no installation and can be of great help when the system fails to boot. Besides it offers a Windows XP like environment.

• WinPE based recovery environment

offers a WinPE 2.1 based bootable media. Unlike the Linux/DOS recovery environment it can boast an excellent hardware support and the same interface as the Windows version can. However its system requirements are much tougher.

is the crucial part of the product. With the help of an easy to use

Getting Started

is a multi-platform bootable media that enables to

. Especially for keen followers of Windows, our product also

In this chapter you will find all the information necessary to get the product ready to use.

Distribution

Paragon Backup & Recovery 10 Suite is distributed in two ways:

• Boxed package from Paragon Technology GmbH and resellers

• Downloadable package over the Internet at the company’s web-site

Distributive CD

The boxed package includes a distributive CD that is in fact a bootable Linux/DOS recovery environment with auto-run of the Windows installation, thus it can be used as a ready-made solution (see Booting from the Linux/DOS Recovery Environment

). But if you’re going to run the Windows

components, you need to install them first (see Installation).

If you want to download an update/upgrade of the product, it will be in form of the downloadable installation package as described in Online Distribution

The WinPE recovery environment can only be obtained through the company’s web service. You will get the required download link after the product has been purchased.

Online Distribution

Backup & Recovery 10 Suite purchased over the Internet will be in form of an MSI package. After installing the product you can launch the Recovery Media Builder to build the Linux/DOS or WinPE

recovery environment.

The WinPE recovery environment can only be obtained through the company’s web service. You will get the required download link after the product has been purchased.

Registration

Paragon Technology GmbH provides a wide range of online services through its web-portal -

www.paragon-software.com/support/

• Registration of new users;

• Registration of purchased products for registered users;

• Available around-the-clock downloading center, where registered users can get product

updates/upgrades as well as all the necessary documentation;

• Downloadable free demo versions and open documentation for all users.

It is recommended to use Internet Explorer 5+ or any compatible browser.

To register as a new user

To register as a new user, please do the following:

1. Run an Internet browser and visit the page: www.paragon-software.com/my-account/

2. Click Create of the Create a Paragon Account section;

3. Fill out a registration form;

;

4. Click Register.

The most important field in the form is an E-mail address, as it serves as a login to enter the system. Besides your access password will be sent to this address as well.

To register a new product

If you are a registered user and would like to register Backup & Recovery 10 Suite, please do the following:

1. Run an Internet browser and visit the page: www.paragon-software.com/my-account/

2. In the Email field of the Authorization section, enter an E-mail used for registration;

3. In the Password field enter a password received after registration;

4. Click Sign in;

5. If the user name and password are valid, you will get to your account;

6. Click Register new product of the Products section;

7. Enter your product serial number in the Serial Number field. You can find it in the product box or obtain from your reseller. Click Next;

8. On the next page you will be asked to provide some additional data. Also you will need to decide whether you want to get confirmation on registering the product by E-mail or not. Click Next, and then click Finish.

That is all. The product is now registered.

How to Download Updates/Upgrades

Downloading of updates/upgrades can be fulfilled in the following way:

;

1. Run an Internet browser and visit the page: www.paragon-software.com/my-account/;

2. In the Email field of the Authorization section, enter an E-mail used for registration;

3. In the Password field enter a password received after registration;

4. Click Sign in;

5. If the user name and password are valid, you will get to your account;

6. Select My Downloads of the Products section to see what updates are available for you;

7. Select the desired update and click Download.

Contacting Paragon Technology GmbH

If you have any questions about the company products, please do not hesitate to contact Paragon Technology GmbH.

Service Contact

Visit Paragon GmbH web site

www.paragonsoftware.com

Registration & updates webservice

www.paragonsoftware.com/support

Knowledge Base & Technical Support

Pre-sale information

kb.paragon-software.com

sales@paragonsoftware.com

System Requirements

Windows based set of utilities

To use the Windows utilities, you should install them first. But before that, please make sure your computer meets the following minimum system requirements:

• Operating systems: Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7 and XP SP2/Vista/7 64-bit

• Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher

• Intel Pentium CPU or its equivalent, with 300 MHz processor clock speed

• 128 MB of RAM (256+ recommended)

• Hard disk drive with 100 MB of available space

• SVGA video adapter and monitor

• Mouse

Linux/DOS based recovery environment

To use the Linux/DOS recovery environment on your computer (it doesn’t matter what operating system is installed), please make sure that it meets the following minimum system requirements:

• IBM AT compatible computer with i486 or higher CPU

• 256 MB of RAM

• SVGA-compatible monitor

• Mouse (recommended)

• On-board BIOS supports booting from CD/USB first

WinPE based recovery environment

To use the WinPE based recovery environment on your computer, (it doesn’t matter what operating system is installed), please make sure that it meets the following minimum system requirements:

• Intel Pentium III CPU or its equivalent, with 1000 MHz processor clock speed

• At least 512 MB of RAM

• SVGA video adapter and monitor

• Mouse

Additional requirements

There may be additional requirements if you want to use advanced features:

• Network card to send/retrieve data to/from a network computer

• Recordable CD/DVD drive to burn data to compact discs

• External USB hard drive to store backup data.

Installation

As we have already mentioned only Windows components of the product require installation. So to install Paragon Backup & Recovery 10 Suite under Windows, please do the following:

1. Run Setup Application. Click on the *.MSI file. This application will guide you through the process of the program installation. The setup utility is compiled with the InstallShield SDK, hence it contains the standard user interface and set of installation steps.

In case there is some previous version of the program installed on the computer, the program will offer the user to uninstall it first.

2. Starting Setup. The Welcome page informs that the application is being installed. Click the Next button to continue.

3. Confirm License Agreement. The License Agreement page displays the Paragon License Agreement. Read the agreement and then select the appropriate option to accept. If you do not agree with any conditions stated there, the installation process will be interrupted. By clicking the Print button, the License Agreement may also be printed out.

4. Provide Registration Information. On the Registration page you are to provide your product key and serial number.

5. Provide Customer Information. On the Customer Information page you are to provide the standard information, i.e. a user name and an organization. Besides you need to decide whether to make the program available for all users of this computer (if several) or only for the current one.

6. Select an Installation Folder. The Destination Folder page allows you to choose a folder where the program will be installed. By default, the installation folder will be created as:

C:\Program Files\Paragon Software\Paragon Backup & Recovery 10 Suite. To select another folder, click the Change… button.

After you have selected the required folder, click the Next button to continue.

Do not install the program on network drives. Do not use Terminal Server sessions to install and run the program. In both cases, the program functionality will be limited.

7. Confirm Installation. On the Ready to Install the Program page click the Install button to start the installation or the Back button to return to any of the previous pages and modify the installation settings.

8. Copying Files. The Copying Files page shows the overall progress of the installation. Click the Cancel button to abort the setup.

9. Finishing the Installation. The Final page reports the end of the setup process. Click the Finish button to complete the wizard.

To accomplish online backup/copy of locked partitions/hard disks the program uses a kernel mode hotcore driver, thus the system reboot is required to complete the installation procedure.

First Start

According to the product concept, there are two different ways you can take just after the system restart:

1. Agree to go through the automatically launched configuration wizard of Paragon System

Backup. Actually it’s the easiest way to initiate protection of your system and data, so that’s

what we recommend you to do.

2. Disagree and manually launch the product to accomplish operations you need

Anyway, no matter what option you’ve preferred initially, you’re free to change your mind and take the other one any time you like. Moreover, you can use both simultaneously, thus double protect your computer.

With System Backup

To let Paragon System Backup initiate protection of your system and data in the automatic mode, please do the following:

You cannot work with Paragon Drive Backup Professional or any other wizard of the product while the console of System Backup is open and vice versa. When System Backup operates in the background however, except the case when it’s in the process of making a backup, you’re free to do that.

1. Agree to go through its configuration wizard.

2. If you’ve got an external USB storage device, please plug it in now. Anyway, the wizard will prompt you to do that.

3. The wizard will analyze the disk system and then consider the most appropriate place to store backup images. Anyway, you’re free to see results of that analysis and make your own choice (if there are several options).

If you’ve not plugged in an external USB storage device, the capacity of which exceeds the amount of data of the system hard disk (highly recommended as provides for a higher level of security), the wizard will most likely suggest creating the on-disk snapshot storage by taking some free space from the last on-disk partition. Depending on the configuration however, it may even state that you don’t have enough space to keep snapshots of your computer, thus no way of protecting it.

In this case it will offer to print out a detailed instruction on all the necessary technical characteristics of the required storage device to buy it at a local computer store. Anyway, it’s a stub track.

4. If the wizard has found a place to create the snapshot storage, you will need to approve it and then confirm the suggested timetable to update the backup on a regular basis (every week by default) or set your own.

5. That’s basically it to make the program create the snapshot storage. If you’ve got only one partition on the disk, the program will require the system restart to accomplish the operation as it has to do with resize of the system partition. If this is the case, System Backup will additionally check your partition for the file system integrity during the next system restart. Please don’t worry, it’s done on purpose.

6. Once the snapshot storage is ready to use, the program will make an initial snapshot of your hard disk and keep automatically updating it according to the set timetable.

No operation will automatically be accomplished if the program console is opened, as it’s assumed that you’re in the process of making modifications.

To know more on how System Backup works, please read hints by clicking on the links or consult the help system you can find in the program console.

Manually

To start Paragon Backup & Recovery 10 Suite under Windows, please click the Windows Start button and then select Programs > Paragon Backup & Recovery 10 Suite > Paragon Backup & Recovery.

The program provides wide opportunities in the field of hard disk structure modification, so just to be on the safe side, please make a backup of your data before carrying out any operation.

The first component that will be displayed is called the Launcher. In general it enables to run wizards and utilities, to specify program settings, to visualize the operating environment and the hard disk configuration, to launch the help system or to go to the program’s home page.

To know more on how to handle the product’s interface and accomplish typical operations, please consult the help system you can find in Drive Backup Professional (Backup & Recovery > Switch to Full Scale Drive Backup Pro).

Building Bootable Recovery Media

Recovery Media Builder can help you accomplish the following operations:

• Prepare the Linux/DOS recovery environment (included in the installation package) on external media (CD, DVD, or flash memory) to boot and run utilities under Linux or PTS DOS, and that way to get access to your hard disk for maintenance or recovery purposes (strongly recommended);

• Prepare a custom Linux/DOS recovery environment by adding any data you like to the standard image;

• Prepare a bootable recovery environment from any ISO image, including our WinPE 2.1 image (strongly recommended);

• Create from the master CD the Linux/DOS or WinPE recovery environment on a CD/DVD disc, or flash memory.

Below you can find how to build our WinPE 2.1 based recovery environment on a thumb drive:

1. Plug in a thumb drive of at least 250 MBs in size. Please note all data on that drive will be deleted.

2. Launch the Recovery Media Builder.

3. On the Wizard's Welcome page, click the Next button.

4. Select the Flash Memory option.

5. Select the User specified CD/DVD image (.iso file) option, then browse for an ISO image of our WinPE 2.1 recovery environment or manually type in a full path to it. By selecting the Typical option you can build our Linux/DOS recovery environment, which we highly recommend you to do as well.

You can get an ISO image of our WinPE 2.1 recovery environment through the company’s web service.

6. Select the required thumb drive from the list of flash memory devices available in the system at the moment (if several).

7. You will have to confirm the operation.

Booting from the Linux/DOS Recovery Environment

The Linux/DOS recovery environment can be used to boot your computer into Linux or PTS DOS to get access to your hard disk for maintenance or recovery purposes. It also has the PTS DOS safe mode, which may help in a number of non-standard situations such as interfering hardware settings or serious problems on the hardware level. In this case, only basic files and drivers (such as hard disk drivers, a monitor driver, and a keyboard driver) will be loaded.

Startup

To start working with the Linux/DOS recovery environment, please take the following steps:

1. Start up the computer from our Linux/DOS recovery media.

Recovery Media Builder

can help you prepare the Linux/DOS or WinPE

recovery environment either on a CD/DVD disc or a thumb drive.

To automatically boot from the recovery media please make sure the onboard BIOS is set up to boot from CD/USB first.

2. Launch a boot mode you need (Normal, Safe, Low-Graphics Safe) in the Boot menu.

By default the Normal Mode will be automatically initiated after a 10 second idle period.

3. Click on the required operation to start. Hints on the selected at the moment item will help you make the right choice.

4. Consult the help system by pressing ALT+F1 to know more on the subject.

Boot menu

The Boot menu contains the following commands:

• Normal Mode. Boot into the Linux normal mode. This mode uses the full set of drivers (recommended);

• Safe Mode. Boot into the PTS DOS mode. This mode can be used as an alternative of the Linux normal mode if it fails to work properly;

• Low-Graphics Safe Mode. Boot into the PTS DOS safe mode. In this case, only the minimal set of drivers will be included, like hard disk, monitor, and keyboard drivers. This mode has simple graphics and a simple menu;

• Floppy Disk. Reboot the computer from a system floppy disk;

• Hard Disk 0. Boot from the primary hard disk;

• Find OS(s) on your hard disks. The program will scan hard disks of your computer to find any

bootable operating system.

To move within the menu, please use the arrow keys of the computer keyboard.

While working with the recovery environment you might experience some inconvenience caused by possible video artifacts. It is just a result of changing video modes and in no way will affect the program functionality. If this is the case, please wait a bit and everything will be OK.

Normal Mode

When the Normal mode is selected, the Linux launch menu appears:

• Backup & Recovery (enables to copy and back up separate partitions or entire hard disks, carry out basic partitioning operations, etc.);

• Simple Restore Wizard (allows restoring hard disks and partitions);

• One Button Copy Wizard (helps to carry out such a technically complicated operation as

cloning of hard disks just by pressing one button);

• File Transfer Wizard (allows coping files/folders to another disk or a partition as well as recording them to CD/DVD);

• Boot Corrector (helps to correct the Windows System Registry without Windows being loaded);

• Network Configurator (enables to establish a network connection under Linux);

If you are going to use network resources, first launch the Network Configuration Wizard to establish a network connection.

• Log Saver (helps to collect and send the necessary log files to the Technical Support);

• View the mounted partitions (the list of all mounted partitions will be displayed);

The Linux/DOS recovery environment assigns drive letters to partitions the way it is done in DOS, i.e. one after another, primary partitions at first. Thus mounted partitions may have different drive letters from Windows.

• Eject CD/DVD;

• Command Line (allows experienced users to execute any operation);

• Reboot the computer;

• Power off the computer.

To move within the menu, please use the arrow keys of the computer keyboard.

Safe Mode

When the Safe mode is selected, the PTS DOS launch menu appears. It has nearly the same functionality as for the Normal mode except the Network Configurator and Log Saver commands. Besides due to certain limitations of the PTS DOS environment, there is no possibility to burn CD/DVD disks.

Low Graphics Safe Mode

When the Low Graphics mode is selected, the PTS DOS launch menu appears. It has the same functionality and looks similar to the Safe mode but graphically simpler.

Booting from the WinPE Recovery Environment

The WinPE recovery environment can be a real alternative to the Linux/DOS recovery environment. Providing nearly the same level of functionality it offers an excellent hardware support and the same interface as the Windows version does.

Startup

To start working with the WinPE recovery environment, please take the following steps:

1. Start up the computer from our WinPE recovery media.

Recovery Media Builder

can help you prepare the Linux/DOS or WinPE

recovery environment either on a CD/DVD disc or a thumb drive.

To automatically boot from the recovery media please make sure the onboard BIOS is set up to boot from CD/USB first.

2. Once it has been loaded, you will see the License Agreement. Read the agreement and then mark the appropriate checkbox to accept. If you do not agree with any conditions stated there, you won’t be able to use the program.

3. Once you accept the agreement, you will see the Universal Application Launcher. In general it enables to run components of the product, load drivers for undefined hardware or establish a network connection.

4. Click on the required operation to start. Hints on the selected at the moment item will help you make the right choice.

5. Consult the help system by pressing ALT+F1 to know more on the subject.

Our WinPE 2.1 based recovery environment offers excellent hardware support. However in case it doesn’t have a driver for your disk controller, your hard disks will be unavailable. Please consult the Adding specific drivers to WinPE scenario to know how to tackle this issue.

Adding specific drivers to WinPE

Our WinPE 2.1 based recovery environment offers excellent hardware support. Anyway you’ve got the option to add drivers for specific hardware with a handy dialog.

To add drivers for specific hardware, please do the following:

1. Once you accept the agreement, you will see the Universal Application Launcher. Click Add Drivers.

2. In the opened dialog browse for an .INF file of the required driver package located on a floppy disk, local disk, CD/DVD or a network share. Then click the Open button to initiate the operation.

To know how to map a network share, please consult the Configuring network scenario.

3. You will be notified on the successful accomplishment of the operation. Click Yes to load another driver or No to close the dialog.

Our WinPE 2.1 recovery environment is 32-based, thus you need to use 32-bit



drivers for injection.

Basic Concepts

This chapter explains terms and ideas that show how the program works. To understand these helps to obtain a general notion of the operation performance and makes it easier for the user to operate the program.

System and Data Protection

The data protection issue is a growing cause of worrying for more and more people today. Indeed, it is hardly to find a person who will be particularly happy when all precious information on the hard disk is irreversible lost as a result of its malfunction. So how this tragedy can be prevented?

File Backup versus Sector Backup

Since the advent of the computer age people were in the search of ways to guarantee data safety. As a result we’ve got now two principal approaches: the file-based backup and the sector-based backup. The main difference between the two lies in the way data is treated.

A sector-based backup operates with an image (or a snapshot) of the whole disk system or its separate partitions. It not only includes the contents of all user-made files, but additionally contains the exact structure of directories, information about file allocation, file attributes and other related data. Thus it enables to successfully process system or encrypted partitions of any file system type, no matter what kind of information they contain.

In contrast, a file-based backup takes into account a file system structure and only functions on a file or folder level. So it is very efficient when archiving separate files or folders, but in no way will help you back up a system partition.

You should understand pretty well that each of the two approaches is only good when properly chosen. In the comparison table below you can see when this or that approach will suit you at most.

Sector-Based Backup File-Based Backup

Merits

It does not dependent on a particular file system. Thus it can successfully process system or encrypted partitions of any file system type, no matter what kind of information they contain.

Functioning on a file/folder level, it is ideal for archiving separate files or folders.

It can create an exact image of a partition, including its service data. Thus it is ideal for a backup/restore of a system partition or a fast deployment to a bunch of identical computers.

It allows archiving data of the same

It enables to automatically build up contents of the future backup image by using an advanced system of filters.

volume with different backup policies.

It is easy and efficient when creating

backup chains.

Demerits

Resulted backup images may contain a lot of redundant data.

It depends on a file system structure, so you won’t be able to process unknown file systems.

It is ineffective when trying to maintain a backup chain, especially when little

It cannot be used to back up a system partition.

amount of data is being changed.

It is much slower when processing large

amount of data.

Backup Types

At the present moment the market is offering various types of backup imaging to meet the needs of any user. Besides supporting them all, our program offers a unique backup type, called File Increment to a Sector Backup.

Full and Differential Sector Backups

A full sector-based backup image includes all contents of a partition or a hard disk at the moment of its creation. If you roll back your system to the initial state on a regular basis, that’s exactly what you’re looking for. But if you want to have multiple backup archives of the same partition reflecting certain time stamps, unchanged data will inevitable be duplicated in all archives and take additional space on backup media. To tackle this issue there has been developed a supplementary technique called Differential Sector Backup.

A differential archive only contains data changed since the time of creating a full archive, which forms a base (or a parental image) in this case, thus considerably saving your system resources. It is realized by the exact bit-wise comparison of the previous partition's data (saved in the parental image) with the current data (that is actually the partition itself). To restore this kind of backup you will require a full image and one of its differentials, what is very convenient.

This function is only available for single primary and logical partitions.

Full and Incremental File Backups

A full file-based archive only contains files and folders. It is really efficient when backing up an e-mail database or particular documents, as no redundant data is processed. But if you care about maintaining a files history, you can benefit from one more supplementary technique called Incremental File Backup.

An incremental archive only contains data changed since the time of creating a full or incremental file-based archive. It is smaller and takes less time to create, but you will require the initial full image and all of its increments to restore the latest point of this kind of backup.

File Increment to a Sector Backup

File Increment to a Sector Backup is a unique technology on the market so far that bridges two principally different approaches of the data backup: the file-based backup and the sector-based backup. With its help you can now create a sector-based backup of your system to get it back on track in minutes in case of a virus attack or a hardware malfunction and then just make file-based incremental images to the previously created sector-based backup to keep updated only information that is critical for you. Thus you will considerably save your system resources.

Backup Storage

Our program supports all present day techniques of storing backup images. Let’s take a closer look at them all to understand what kind of storage is able to provide better security:

• You can place a backup image to a local mounted or unmounted (without drive letter assigned) partition. Despite the fact that it is the most convenient way, try not to use it. You can delete your backup just by accident or lose it as a result of a hardware malfunction, or a virus attack;

• You can place a backup image to an external mounted storage to provide for a higher level of data protection and system independence;

• You can place a backup image to a special secured place on the hard disk called the Backup Capsule that has an independent system layout (e.g. a separate partition) and will stay operable should the active file system be damaged. To avoid an accidental removing or unauthorized access of the backup data, this partition is hidden and thus cannot be mounted in the operating system. However it won’t help you in case of a hardware malfunction;

• You can place a backup image to external media (CD/DVD) to guarantee a high level of data protection as long as the backup media is kept secure;

• You can place a backup image to a network drive to stand a better chance of success in case of a hard disk failure. Moreover, by storing it on a special-purpose server you may be pretty sure nothing will happen to it;

• Finally you can place a backup image to an FTP server to provide a new level of system and data protection.

Known Issues on FTP

1. You need to check out yourself Windows Firewall or programs of this kind let our program work with the required port (21 by default).

2. File backup and restore to/from FTP, including the selective restore functionality are not available.

3. SSL login/password encryption is not supported.

4. You can browse an FTP server in the passive mode only.

5. Parallel access to several FTP servers is limited - only one password for all servers is available.

Adaptive Restore

Windows family operating systems are notorious for their excessive sensibility to hardware, especially when it turns to replacement of such a crucial device as HDD controller or motherboard – actually Windows will most likely fail to boot as a result of this operation.

With our technology (available in the P2P Adjust OS Wizard

) you can make your Windows bootable on some other computer by allowing automatic injection of all required drivers and the other actions crucial for a migration of this kind. Actually, this operation for Windows 2000/XP/Server 2003 and Windows Vista/7/Server 2008 differs a bit, so does the wizard’s work algorithm.

Adaptive Restore for Windows 2000/XP/Server 2003

It actually implies three operations:

• Providing the ability to change the Windows kernel settings to the most suitable for your new configuration. The program will automatically add all available Windows HAL and kernels to the boot menu (the boot.ini file) to choose the required platform in case your system fails to boot (Uniprocessor, Multiprocessor, or Old legacy PC without ACPI). You can later remove them from the menu either under Windows or with Boot Corrector.

If you’ve got a 64-bit operating system, no options will be added to the boot menu.

• Automatic replacement of the boot critical drivers (HDD controller, PS/2 and USB mouse and keyboard) to the default Windows drivers to provide the maximum level of compatibility. Once your Windows starts up, it will initiate reconfiguration of all Plug'n'Play devices, so we do recommend you to provide the latest drivers for your motherboard and processor at this step, as it can considerably improve the overall performance of your system.

• The option to inject 3rd party drivers to guarantee your system will start up on the new hardware. Actually you’ve got two options, either provide a path to your own driver repository

(collection of all drivers to your hardware devices located in one folder) for the program automatically pick and install only those drivers required for your OS (recommended), or manually specify drivers critical for the guaranteed startup of your system on the new hardware.

Adaptive Restore for Windows Vista/7/Server 2008

It is based on the fact that these operating systems do not delete their distributive driver repositories after the setup, but simply make them inactive in the Windows Registry. So thanks to our technology these driver repositories can be made available during the restore procedure to let Windows Vista/7 or 2008 Server automatically find and install any lacking driver with no action from your side required, what is very convenient.

Anyway, not all drivers can be found in the built-in driver repositories, especially when you’ve got to do with specific SCSI or Serial ATA controllers. For situations of this kind you’ve got the option to inject

any 3

party driver, either by providing a path to your own driver repository (collection of all drivers to

your hardware devices located in one folder) for the program automatically pick and install only those drivers required for your OS (recommended), or manually specifying drivers critical for the guaranteed startup of your system on the new hardware.

Adaptive Restore Application

Let’s consider a number of situations when the Adaptive Restore feature can help you out:

• If you need to upgrade to newer hardware while keeping all your programs and settings intact;

• If you need to replace failed hardware and cannot find an exact match for your original system specifications.

Known Issues

1. After transferring Microsoft Vista and later versions to different hardware, you will need to reactivate license of the system. It’s normal behavior as these systems keep tracking any change of hardware. Re-activation is legally justified in this case, as you transfer your system to another PC.

2. If you’ve installed several operating systems on one partition, we can only add drivers to the latest version of OS. Microsoft highly recommends that you install an operating system on a separate partition.

3. Please note drivers are not cached during selection. That’s why if you select a driver to add to the system, but it’s already unavailable during the operation, the program will end the operation with an error.

System Virtualization

With new powerful x86 computers, system virtualization has become extremely popular. It’s a software technology that enables to run several virtual machines on one physical machine, providing resources of that single computer are shared across several environments. As a result one and the same physical computer can have multiple OSs and applications operating simultaneously, thus opening up enormous opportunities for both, business and home users, exactly:

• Avoid underutilization of up-to-date powerful computers;

• Increase flexibility of a physical infrastructure;

• Provide for increased availability of hardware and applications;

• Cut expenses on hardware and energy;

• Guarantee smooth and cost saving system migration;

• Enjoy working with old applications you can’t launch on your current PC;

• Take advantage of having multiple operating systems on one Windows PC, including Linux,

Mac OS X, etc.;

• Forget about hunting for replacement of the failed hardware, and many more…

Known Issues

1. You should install integration services (e.g. VMware Tools) on the virtual system yourself. We only guarantee its smooth startup.

2. At the startup, a virtual machine (e.g. VMware Workstation) might notify you that the used virtual disks are of old format and require update. You can update your disks, since this procedure involves change of a version only, nothing else. This is done on purpose not to lose compatibility with the older versions of VMware.

3. After transferring Microsoft Vista and later versions to a virtual disk, you will need to re-activate license of the system. It’s normal behavior as these systems keep tracking any change of hardware. Re-activation is legally justified in this case, as you transfer your system to another PC.

4. If you prefer to create a SCSI HDD when converting to a virtual disk of VMware Workstation or VMware ESX Server, we pick a driver for the HDD controller just the way VMware does, i.e. according to the found OS:

• Windows 2000/Windows XP – Buslogic;

• Windows 2003 (all editions including WinXP x64) and later versions – LSI Logic.

Thus if you will then connect the created virtual disk to a virtual machine with another type of the adapter, the system won’t start up. Please use our P2P Adjust Wizard to install the required driver.

5. If you convert a partition/hard disk with Windows XP to a SCSI virtual disk of VMware Workstation or VMware ESX, it’s required to add the VMware SCSI driver from outside, since Windows XP doesn’t have it. To do that we try to find an installed version of VMware Workstation on your computer to extract the necessary driver. If failed to find, we will ask you to provide a path to the VMware Tools ISO image.

6. We can smoothly convert a hard disk with several operating systems. But according to Issue 4, when converting to a SCSI virtual disk of VMware Workstation or VMware ESX Server, for different versions of OS, different controller drivers will be installed. VMware however cannot emulate different hardware for each operating system of one virtual machine. To tackle this issue, please use our P2P Adjust Wizard to install the LSI Logic driver under Windows 2000/Windows XP, then select the LSI SCSI controller for your virtual machine.

Paragon Hot Processing & Volume Shadow Copy Service

Offline versus Online Data Processing

In the course of time there have been developed various methods of data processing. Despite different work concept, all of them can be divided into two principal groups: offline (cold) and online (hot) data processing techniques.

As the name infers, offline data processing can only be accomplished when the data is in consistent state (the operating system and all the applications are completely shut down). Actually it is the most preferable way of image creation or data cloning, since software can obtain an exclusive right to process data that guaranties high level of operating efficiency. However, the offline data processing is absolutely out of question when dealing with 24/7 production environments.

In contrast, online data processing enables to create a consistent snapshot even as the data is currently modified. It is particularly useful for systems with high availability requirements, but it won’t be accomplished until all active transactions are complete. The point is to provide a coherent state of all open files and databases involved in a process, taking into account that applications may still keep writing to disks. As a result an online data processing cannot boast high operating speed.

Our program supports both offline and online methods of data processing. As far as online method is concerned it offers its own hot processing algorithm together with the possibility to use snapshot technologies provided by the Microsoft VSS framework.

Paragon Hot Processing Technology

Paragon Hot Processing is an online copy/backup technology for Windows NT+ family operating systems. Developed back in 2001, nowadays it is integrated with all copy/backup solutions offered by the company.

Paragon Hot Processing is not exactly a snapshot technology, though it has much in common with it. During an online copy/backup, the program uses the kernel mode driver HOTCORE.SYS to intercept and control disk write activity of applications and the operating system. The hotcore driver as an integral part of the program is installed during the setup procedure (that’s why the system reboot is required to complete the setup procedure). For the most part the driver is in the idle mode until it is activated with the program. While in this mode it bypasses any calls having no effect on the overall system performance, but a few kilobytes of the system memory.

Paragon Hot Processing technology offers copy/backup of locked partitions and hard disks under Windows NT+ family operating systems providing both high operating efficiency as well as low hardware requirements.

It is not recommended to use Paragon Hot Processing with active SQL Server, Exchange or Oracle databases since the backup image contents may be corrupted.

Volume Shadow Copy Service

Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) is designed to provide the copy/backup infrastructure for the Microsoft Windows XP/Vista/Server 2003/2008 operating systems. It offers a reliable mechanism to create consistent point-in-time copies of data known as shadow copies. Developed by Microsoft in close cooperation with the leading copy/backup solution vendors on the market, it is based on a snapshot technology concept.

Initiated by a VSS aware copy/backup utility, VSS creates snapshots for the selected volumes and represents them as virtual read-only devices, called volume shadow copies. Once the shadow

copies are created, the copy/backup utility starts processing the data while applications keep writing to original volumes.

Unlike Paragon Hot Processing the VSS technology provides a unique possibility to make a synchronous snapshot of multiple volumes. This very feature can be particularly beneficial when backing up active SQL Server 2003, Exchange 2003 or Oracle databases located on multiple volumes the way it is recommended by Microsoft to improve the level of database performance and reliability, thus providing 100-percent data consistency.

To use VSS it is necessary to have a mounted 300 MB+ NTFS partition.

Dynamic Disks

As you probably know, MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP/Vista/Server 2003/2008 support four primary partitions per physical hard disk, one of which can be extended. Certainly there is the possibility to create logical drives within the extended partition. Such types of disks are called basic. Windows XP Professional, Windows 2000, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2003/2008 follow the same strategy: You can have a maximum of four primary partitions, one of which can be an extended partition with logical drives. However, these operating systems also introduce a new disk configuration type - dynamic disk - which must be understood to effectively configure and manage hard disks.

Dynamic disk is a physical disk that doesn't use partitions or logical drives. Instead, it contains only dynamic volumes. Regardless of what format you use for the file system, only Win2K computers can access dynamic volumes directly. However, computers that aren't running Win2K can access the dynamic volumes remotely when connected to the shared folders over the network.

Dynamic disks can co-exist on a system with basic disks. The only limitation is that you cannot mix Basic and Dynamic disks on the same hard drive.

There are five types of dynamic volumes: simple (uses free space from a single disk), spanned (created from free disk space that is linked together from multiple disks), striped (a volume the data of which is interleaved across two or more physical disks), mirrored (a fault-tolerant volume the data of which is duplicated on two physical disks, and RAID-5 volumes (a fault-tolerant volume the data of which is striped across an array of three or more disks).

With dynamic storage, you can perform disk and volume management without the need to restart Windows.

Limitations:

• Dynamic disks are not supported on portable computers.

• Dynamic disks are not supported on Windows XP Home Edition-based computers.

• You cannot create mirrored volumes or RAID-5 volumes on Windows XP Home Edition,

Windows XP Professional, or Windows XP 64-Bit Edition-based computers.

Thus, the dynamic disk is a new way of looking at hard disk configuration. Dynamic disks offer you more management flexibility without the partition limitation of basic disks. Dynamic disks can contain an unlimited number of volumes, but they cannot contain partitions or logical drives. Dynamic

storage can be particularly beneficial for large-scale businesses when dealing with many physical hard disks involving complex setup.

GPT versus MBR

GUID Partition Table (GPT) is the next generation of a hard disk partitioning scheme developed to lift restrictions of the old MBR. Being a part of the Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) standard proposed by Intel to replace the outdated PC BIOS, it offers a number of crucial benefits:

• Up to 128 primary partitions for the Windows implementation (only 4 in MBR);

• The maximum allowed partition size is 18 exabytes (only 2 terabytes in MBR);

• More reliable thanks to replication and cyclic redundancy check (CRC) protection of the

partition table;

• A well defined and fully self-identifying partition format (data critical to the platform operation is located in partitions, but not in un-partitioned or hidden sectors as this is the case with MBR).

Apple Boot Camp

Boot Camp is a special utility to help you set up a dual boot system (Mac OS X and 32-bit Windows XP/Vista) on Intel-based Macs. It enables to securely re-partition your hard disk (resize an existing HFS+ partition to create a separate partition for Windows) and then launch the installation process. With Boot Camp all the necessary drivers will be at your disposal. Moreover after Windows has been installed it will serve as a boot manager to choose what operating system to start up.

It is strongly recommended not to modify the hard disk configuration with Windows Disk Manager. Otherwise it may lead to unexpected consequences, right up to BSOD and inability to boot in Windows XP/Vista. Please use our program to correctly update both MBR and GPT.

64-bit Support

The bulk of software today is written for a 32-bit processor. It can meet the requirements of almost any end user. However that is not the case when dealing with servers processing large amounts of data with complex calculations of very large numbers. That is where 64-bit architecture comes into play.

It can boast improved scalability for business applications that enables to support more customer databases and more simultaneous users on each server. Besides a 64-bit kernel can access more system resources, such as memory allocation per user. A 64-bit processor can handle over 4 billion times more memory addresses than a 32-bit processor. With these resources, even a very large database can be cached in memory.

Although many business applications run without problems on 32-bit systems, others have grown so complex that they use up the 4 GB memory limitation of a 32-bit address space. With this large amount of data, fewer memory resources are available to meet memory needs. On a 64-bit server, most queries are able to perform in the buffers available to the database.

Some 32-bit applications make the transition to the 64-bit environment seamlessly others do not. For instance, system-level utilities and programs that provide direct hardware access are likely to fail. Our program offers a full-fledged support of the 64-bit architecture providing fault-tolerant work for such system dependent modules as Hot Processing.

Copy Operations

Hard drive duplication nowadays is becoming highly popular among PC users. That is due to some definite advantages it can offer. First of all, many people clone hard disks just to back up data for security reasons. The present day copy utilities enable to successfully transfer all on-disk information including standard bootstrap code and other system service structures, thus maintaining the operating system’s working capability. In case of a system malfunction, the user can get the system back on track in minutes. No additional configuration is required, what is very convenient.

The second possible application is the upgrade of a hard disk to a new one. The capacity of a modern hard drive doubles every two years, thus opening up new possibilities for software developers. As a result programs become more complicated and require considerable amount of free space. One day the user realizes that there is no more free space left on the hard disk and the only way out is to upgrade. Usually that means that besides purchasing a new hard disk, the user is to face a large re-installation procedure spanning several days of tedious work. But all of this can be avoided just by copying the contents of the old hard disk to a new one proportionally resizing the partitions.

And the last but not least is the copying of hard disks for cloning purposes. It may be of great use when setting up similar computers. There is no need for a system administrator to install an operating system from scratch on every one of them. It is enough just to configure one and then clone it to the others.

Drive Partitioning

As you probably know a hard drive is to be split into one or more partitions, since it cannot hold data until it is carved up and space is set aside for an operating system. Until recently most PCs used to have just one partition, which filled the entire hard disk and contained an OS. The situation has changed however, thanks to new cost-effective high capacity hard drives, thus opening up numerous possibilities for PC users, such as editing video, archiving music, backing up CD images, etc. Huge increase in space is great, but it poses a number of problems, most important of which are effective data organization and speed.

Large drives are always going to take longer to search than smaller volumes, and an operating system is going to have its work cut out both finding and organizing files. It is for this reason that many people decide to invest in multiple hard drives, but there is an easy solution – drive partitioning. Partitioning lets you divide a single physical drive into a number of logical drives, each of which servers as a container with its own drive letter and volume label, thus enabling the operating system to process data more efficiently. Besides partitioning makes it possible to organize data so that it is easy to find and manage. You can set aside, for instance, 40 GB of a 160 GB hard drive for the OS, 70 GB for storing video and another 50 GB for your favorite music collections to provide transparent data storage.

It is also worth mentioning to that with a hard drive properly partitioned, such routine operations as files de-fragmentation or consistency check will not be that annoying and time-consuming any more.

By detaching the OS from the rest of the data you can tackle one more crucial issue – in case of a system malfunction, you can get the system back on track in minutes by recovering it from a backup image located on the other partition of the hard drive.

But that is not all drive partitioning may be used for. If you are willing to play games in Windows while browsing the Internet in Linux, 100-percent sure that no virus will attack your PC, drive partitioning is a necessity. In order to run several OSs on a single hard drive you are to create a corresponding number of partitions to effectively delineate the boundaries of each OS.

Scheduling

The automation of operations is particularly effective when you have to repeat a sequence of actions on a regular basis. For example, developing a specific project on a day-to-day basis and having to make a backup every evening so as not to lose the valuable data, you will really appreciate, when this kind of routine operations will be carried out automatically without your participation.

Another aspect of any automation process is that it allows an optimization of your computer’s workload. This is especially important when operations require a considerable amount of computer resources – processor time, memory and more. A number of tasks, which can decrease the performance, can be run during the night or whenever the computer has the least work-load to perform.

The program has a special tool for scheduling. You can set out a timetable for any operation and it will start at a specified time without interrupting your current activity.

Drive Backup Pro Functionality

Interface Overview

This chapter introduces the graphical interface of the program. The design of the interface precludes any mistake being made on the part of the user. Most operations are performed through the system of wizards. Buttons and menus are accompanied by easy understandable icons. Nevertheless, any problems that might occur while managing the program can be tackled by reading this very chapter.

General Layout

When you start the program, the first component that is displayed is called the Launcher. It enables to run wizards and dialogs, to specify program settings, to visualize the operating environment and the hard disk configuration.

The Launcher’s window can be conditionally subdivided into several sections that differ in their purpose and functionality:

1. Main Menu

2. Tool Bar

3. Virtual Operations Bar

4. Common Tasks Bar

5. Explorer Bar

6. Disk Map

7. Legend Bar

8. Status Bar

A number of panels offer similar functionality with a synchronized layout. The program enables to conceal some of them to simplify the interface management.

All panels are separated by vertical and horizontal expandable sliders, allowing the user to customize the screen layout.

Main Menu

The Main Menu provides access to the entire functionality of the program. The available functions are as listed below:

MENU ITEM FUNCTIONALITY

Tools

View Logs…

Send Log Files

Recovery Media Builder…

Check Recovery Disks…

File Transfer Wizard…

Settings...

Exit

Changes

Generate Script…

Save to Scheduler…

Undo `the last virtual

View logs on the carried out operations

Compress and send the log to the Paragon Support Team

Restore the system even when the current operating system cannot boot anymore

Verify the recovery media for integrity and ability to boot from

Transfer data from any media

Edit the general settings of the program

Exit the program

Generate a script for the task

Schedule pending operations

Cancel the last virtual operation on the List of Pending Operations

operation`

Redo `the last virtual

operation`

View Changes…

Apply Changes

Discard All Changes

Reload Disk Info

Wizards

Undelete Partitions…

Smart Backup…

Cancel the last undo virtual operation on the List of Pending Operations

Display the List of Pending Operations

Launch the real execution of virtual operations

Cancel all virtual operations on the List of Pending Operations

Refresh the current information about disks

Recover an accidentally deleted partition

Back up exactly what you need - the whole system, e-mail databases (MS Outlook, Express, Windows Mail) media files or office documents of the My Documents folder, or any other files and folders

Back up Disk or Partition…

Create a sector-based archive of an entire hard disk or separate partitions

Schedule Backup…

Set a timetable for a disk or partition backup

Differential Backup…

olume(s)

basic

Create a differential to a partition backup

Create a File Complement…

Back up Files…

Schedule File Backup…

Create a File Increment…

Restore…

P2P Adjust OS…

Manage Backup Capsule…

Check Archive Integrity…

Cyclic Backup…

P2V Copy…

Create an increment to a full partition backup

Create a file-based archive of your files and folders

Set a timetable for a file backup

Create an increment to a file backup

Restore an entire hard disk, separate partitions, or files from the backup image

Make your system bootable on different hardware

Create and manage the backup capsule

Perform integrity check for the required backup image

Automate a partition backup

Migrate a Win2K+ physical system to a virtual environment in the online mode.

P2V Restore…

P2V Adjust…

One Button Copy Wizard

Copy Hard Disk…

Schedule Hard Disk Copy…

Copy Partition…

Schedule Partition Copy…

Hard Disk

Back Up Hard Disk…

Burn Hard Disk to CD or

DVD…

Migrate a Win2K+ physical system backed up with a Paragon disaster recovery tool to a virtual environment.

Recover the startup ability after unsuccessful virtualization with a 3rd party tool.

Create a hard disk copy just by pressing one button

Create a hard disk copy

Set a timetable for a hard disk copy

Create a partition copy

Set a timetable for a partition copy

Create a backup archive of the selected hard disk

Back up the selected hard disk and burn the resulted image to CD/DVD

Restore Hard Disk…

Convert to Basic…

Restore the selected hard disk from a backup image

Convert a dynamic MBR disk containing simple volume(s) into a basic MBR disk

Convert to Basic MBR…

Convert a basic or a dynamic GPT disk containing simple v

int

MBR disk

volume(s) into a basic MBR disk

Update MBR

Change Primary Slots…

Copy Hard Disk…

Edit/View Sectors…

Properties…

Partition

Create Partition…

Format Partition…

Delete Partition…

Back Up Partition…

Burn Partition to CD or

DVD…

Update MBR (Master Boot Record) of the selected hard disk

Modify the primary partitions enumeration for the selected hard disk

Create a copy of the selected hard disk

View/edit sectors of the selected hard disk

Get in-depth information on the properties of selected hard disk

Create a partition

Format a partition

Delete a partition

Create a backup archive of the selected partition

Back up the selected partition and burn the resulted image to CD/DVD

Restore Partition…

Assign Drive Letter…

Remove Drive Letter…

Hide Partition…

Unhide Partition…

Mark Partition as Active

Mark Partition as Inactive

Change Volume Label…

Change Serial Number…

Change Partition ID…

Test Surface…

Restore the selected partition from a backup image

Assign drive letter to the selected partition

Remove drive letter for the selected partition

Make the selected partition unavailable for the operating system

Make the selected partition available for the operating system

Make the selected partition bootable by default

Make the selected partition non-bootable by default

Change volume label of the selected partition

Change serial number of the selected partition

Change identifier of the selected partition

Test surface of the selected partition/block of free space

Check File System

Check the selected partition for possible file system errors

Integrity…

Edit/View Sectors…

View/edit sectors of the selected partition

Properties…

View

Get in-depth information on the properties of selected partition

Layouts

Toolbar

Status Bar

Common Tasks Bar

Disk Map Legend

Disk Map Location

Help

About

Manage the Launcher layout with several predefined profiles

Manage the Tool Bar representation: show / hide standard and navigation buttons, text labels and large icons

Display the Status Bar

Display the Common Tasks Bar

Display the Disk Map legend

Select whether the Disk Map will be located on the top of the main window or at the bottom

Open the Help system (you can also do it by pressing F1)

Open the dialog with information about the program

The Main Menu contents available at the moment may vary depending on the selected object.

Tool Bar

The Toolbar provides fast access to the most frequently used operations:

BUTTON FUNCTIONALITY

Back up a hard disk or partition

Back up files

Restore a disk, partition, or files

Copy a hard disk

Copy a partition

Open the Help system

Virtual Operations Bar

The program supports previewing the resulting layout of hard disks before actually executing operations (so-called virtual mode of execution). In fact, when the virtual mode is enabled, the program does not accomplish operations immediately, but places them on the List of Pending Operations for later execution.

The Virtual Operations Bar enables to manage pending operations.

BUTTON FUNCTIONALITY

Cancel the last virtual operation on the List of Pending Operations

Cancel the last undo virtual operation on the List of Pending Operations

Display the List of Pending Operations

Launch the real execution of virtual operations

Cancel all virtual operations on the List of Pending Operations

Virtual mode is an effective way of protection from any troubles, since no operations will be executed until clicking the Apply button for confirmation, thus giving a second chance to weigh all pros and cons of this or that particular operation. The program politely reminds the user that there are unsaved changes by showing the following window:

Common Tasks Bar

The Common Tasks Bar is located on the left side of the main window. It is intended for easy access to the program's wizards.

The bar contains several tabs named Basic Backup/Restore Tasks, Advanced Backup Tasks, Virtualization Tasks, Copy Tasks, Tools and News and Documentation. Each of these contains a separate button bar which can be folded by clicking it.

Basic Backup/Restore Tasks

Starting the Sector Backup Wizard to create an archive of a hard disk or separate partitions.

Starting the File Backup Wizard to create an archive of particular files and folders.

Advanced Backup Tasks

Virtualization Tasks

Starting the Sector Backup Wizard with the preset scheduling option.

Starting the File Backup Wizard with the preset scheduling option.

Starting the Restore Wizard to restore a hard disk, separate partition, or files from the backup image.

Starting the Differential Backup Wizard to create a differential to a partition backup.

Starting the Incremental Backup Wizard to create an increment to a file or partition backup.

Starting the P2V Copy Wizard to migrate a Win2K+ physical system to a virtual environment in the online mode.

Copy Tasks

Tools

Starting the P2V Restore Wizard to migrate a Win2K+ physical system backed up with a Paragon disaster recovery tool to a virtual environment.

Starting the P2V Adjust OS Wizard to recover the startup ability after unsuccessful virtualization with a 3rd party tool.

Starting the One Button Copy Wizard to clone a hard disk with one click.

Starting the Copy Hard Disk Wizard to copy a hard disk.

Starting the Copy Partition Wizard to copy a partition.

Starting the Manage Backup Capsule Wizard to create, resize or delete the backup capsule.

Starting the Recovery Media Wizard to create a Linux/DOS bootable media which can be used to get access to your hard disk for maintenance or recovery purposes.

Starting the Check Recovery Disk Wizard to verify recovery media for integrity and ability to boot from.

Starting the Check Archive Integrity Wizard to verify backup archives for consistency.

Starting the Synthetic Backup Wizard to change any property of an existing archive (splitting, password protection, compression level, etc.) without accomplishing the backup operation.

Starting the File Transfer Wizard to transfer data from any media. Besides it provides access to Paragon backups as regular folders to browse through their contents or copy required files.

News and Documentation

Launching the help system (you can also do it by pressing F1).

Opening the page which contains information about the program. This page will be displayed in the Explorer Bar.

Opening a brief review on the Paragon Scripting Language.

Disk Map

The Disk Map is displayed in the Explorer Bar

when the Disk View tab is selected. It is located either at the top or at the bottom of the window, depending on the state of the Disk Map Location option (Main Menu: View > Disk Map Location).

As the name infers, the Disk Map displays the layout of physical and logical disks. Physical disks are represented with rectangle bars that contain small-sized bars. These small-sized bars represent logical disks. Their color depends on the file system of the appropriate partition.

Large-sized bars display the following information about physical disks:

• Manufacturer,

• Model.

Small-sized bars display the following information about logical disks:

• Serial number,

• Drive letter,

• Total size,

• File system.

Furthermore, it is possible to estimate the used disk space by looking at the size of the bar’s shaded area. The program offers to choose from several types of the disk layout scaling. It’s done especially to increase the program usability. For instance, if you’ve got a high capacity hard drive containing both very large (more than 100 GB) and rather small (less than 10 GB) partitions, you can select the logarithmic type to make all partitions readable, otherwise (selecting the linear type) you won’t be

able to see small partitions at all, but thing strips. On the other hand, if the proportional disk layout is critical for you, the linear type is exactly what you need.

Nevertheless there’s a compromise solution – linear scaling with the minimal limit to small partitions. So if a partition is too small it will remain readable.

Just click on the arrow icon on the top right side of the Disk Map to select the desired scaling type.

Disk Map is synchronized with the Explorer Bar. Thus by selecting a disk on the Disk Map, the Explorer Bar will automatically display detailed information on it.

The drag-and-drop functionality is not available when the logarithmic type of the disk layout is selected.

Explorer Bar

The Explorer Bar is located in the center of the main window which emphasizes its importance. The bar displays reference information including:

• The help system;

• General information on the product including its name, version and a list of helpful links;

• Detailed information about disks selected on the Disk Map

;

• List of scheduled operations;

• List of scripts;

• List of archives;

• Volume Explorer utility;

• Disk Editor utility.

According to these categories the Explorer Bar has several tabs:

• Disk View, which offers the user the following options:

- Disk Editor

to view/edit sectors of the selected partition/hard disk;

- Volume Explorer to browse and export contents of the selected partition/hard disk;

- Properties

to view detailed information on the selected partition/hard disk in the bright

graphical form.

You can switch between these three components by clicking tabs on the left side of the Explorer Bar.

• Scheduled Tasks, which gives the user the possibility of browsing and editing scheduled operations and the program scripts.

• Archives

, which enables to manage the Archive Database.

• Help, which contains the program help and general information on the product.

You can access the desired information by clicking on the appropriate tab.

The Explorer Bar is a fully-functional embedded HTML browser, which offers the possibility to address, for example, the company's website to look through important technical notes or download the latest updates without having to close the program.

The program help is also HTML-oriented. You can read it and follow external links from to get additional information.

To easily navigate through browsed pages, the program provides the following functionality:

BUTTON FUNCTIONALITY

Return to the previously browsed page

Open the next browsed page

Stop loading the current page

Refresh the contents of the

current page

Legend Bar

The Legend Bar explains the color scheme used for disk and partition presentation. You can hide (or show) the bar with the appropriate Main Menu item: View > Disk Map Legend. When it is activated it can be found at the bottom of the Explorer Bar

The program distinguishes between the following types of known file systems:

- FAT16/32,

- NTFS,

- Linux Ext2/3/4,

- Linux ReiserFS,

- Apple HFS.

Status Bar

This is the bottom part of the main window. The Status Bar displays menu hints, for each item the cursor points to.

The user can hide (or show) the bar with the appropriate Main Menu item: View > Status Bar.

Settings Overview

The Settings dialog is available from the Main Menu: Tools > Settings. All the settings are grouped into several sections, which functions are described in the following paragraphs. The list of sections is placed on the left side of the dialog. By selecting a section from the list, you can open a set of options.

To get a detailed description to any setting, control, or field of the program just



General Options

click the hint button and then the object you need.

This section contains a set of general options that will be taken into account during any operation carried out with the program:

• Enable data loss protection. Mark the checkbox to make the program work in the fail-safe mode (also referred to as the data-loss protection mode), which ensures reliability for operations by maintaining a special journal. In case of a hardware malfunction, power outage or an OS failure happened in the middle of a data-sensitive operation (resize, move, merge, redistribute, change cluster size, etc.), the program will ask to insert the bootable recovery media and automatically complete the interrupted operation, thus reviving the corrupted partition.

It is strongly recommended to enable this option.

Backup Image Options

This section contains a set of options that will be taken into account during backup/restore operations:

• Control archive integrity. Mark the checkbox to guarantee that all backup images created with the program are 100 percent flawless. If you decided not to control the archive integrity, the backup operation would take about 3-5% less time.

• Set image file names automatically. Mark the checkbox to make the program automatically set a file name for every volume of a complex backup image. Otherwise you will need to do it manually during the backup operation.

• Compression level. From the pull-down list you can select the desired compression level for backup images that will be used by default.

• Enable image splitting. Mark the checkbox to automatically split every backup image to volumes of a particular size.

Splitting images enables to tackle problems caused by a maximum file size limitation of some file systems.

• Maximum split size. With the spinner control you can specify a maximum size for backup volumes.

Partitioning Options

This section contains a set of options that will be taken into account during partitioning operations:

• Enable 64 KB cluster size for FAT16. Mark the checkbox to enable 64KB clusters for FAT16 partitions. Thus you will be able to create FAT16 partitions up to 4GB in size

Due to the maximum cluster size of 32KB for Windows 95/98/ME or MS DOS, FAT16 partitions larger than 2GB are not reliably accessible under these operating systems.

• Request confirmation before partition deletion. Mark the checkbox to activate an additional security mechanism. Thus when going to delete a partition you will be automatically requested to enter its label.

• Request confirmation when converting FAT16 to FAT32. Mark the checkbox to automatically request confirmation before converting FAT16 to FAT32. There are a number of situations when this kind of conversion is the only way out to accomplish the operation. For instance, you are going to migrate your system to a larger hard disk with the proportional resize of existing partitions, what is very convenient. As a result you can get original FAT16 partitions go beyond the 4GB limit. Thus without conversion to FAT32, this operation will in no way be possible to accomplish. The same goes for any copy hard disk/partition or restore hard disk/partition operation involving an extra upsizing.

General Copy and Backup Options

This section contains a set of options that will be taken into account during copy and backup operations:

• HDD raw processing. Mark the checkbox to copy/back up a hard disk in the sector-by-sector mode, thus ignoring its information structure (e.g. unallocated space or unused sectors of existing partitions will be processed as well). This can help to avoid problems with hidden data created by certain applications or the system administrator. However, it will take more time to accomplish the operation.

• Partition raw processing. Mark the checkbox to copy a partition in the sector-by-sector mode to successfully process unknown file systems. However it is not recommended to enable this option when working with supported file systems as it takes more time to accomplish the operation.

• Perform incremental copy. Mark the checkbox to only copy changes on the hard disk from the moment of the last copy operation. The program will perform comparison between a previous copy of the hard disk and its current state. Only sectors that are different will be updated, thus considerably decreasing the amount of data to write.

• Skip OS auxiliary files. Mark the checkbox to skip OS auxiliary files (like pagefile.sys, hiberfil.sys, etc.), thus reducing the operation time and the resulted size of the backup image.

• Skip archive files stored in archive library. Mark the checkbox to skip backup images registered in the archive database, thus reducing the operation time and the resulted size of the backup image.

By clicking the link at the bottom of the window you can jump to the

Copy/Backup Exclude Options

CD/DVD Recording Options

This section contains a set of options that will be taken into account during CD/DVD burn operations:

• Burn every CD/DVD to the end. By default, the program does not create ISO 9660 compliant burning sessions, as it processes data on-the-fly and can only estimate the resulted session size. That’s why no third party tool will get access to the recorded data. To tackle the issue, mark the checkbox to make the program create a standard Disk-at-Once session. It may slow down the burning process, as every CD/DVD will be recorded up to the end, no matter how much actual information to contain.

• Recording speed. The user may define how fast a CD/DVD will be recorded (minimum, normal and maximum). Besides there is an automatic mode when the program will set the most appropriate speed for every CD/DVD.

• Bootable ISO image. That’s the image to be placed together with the backup data. By default, the program offers its own bootable ISO image, which contains a Linux/DOS recovery environment. However, the user is free to use any bootable ISO image.

• CD/DVD boot capability. The program enables to choose whether any recorded CD/DVD will be bootable, or only the first one for a session, or without that function at all.

• Folder where the ISO image is to be placed. When the user decides not to physically burn a CD/DVD, but create an ISO image file, this very folder will be used to contain these images.

Hot Processing Options

In this section you may configure the hot processing mode:

• Enable hot processing. Mark the checkbox to enable the so called hot data processing mode that is specially designed to process data without restarting your operating system.

• Hot processing technology. From the pull-down list you can select the required hot processing technology.

• Always use hot processing. Select the option to process partitions without making them locked. Thus you will be able to keep working with them as usual.

• Use hot processing only when partition is locked. Select the option to use the hot processing only when partitions are locked and cannot be processed without restarting the computer. Please keep in mind, that once you start any operation on a partition in this mode, it will automatically be locked by the program, thus you won't be able to keep working with it as usual.

• Hot processing temporary drive. Here you can select a disk drive that will be used to store the temporary hot backup data (by default – C:).

• Attempts to start VSS. Here you can set how many attempts to start Microsoft VSS the program is to do before automatically rebooting the system and accomplishing the operation in a special boot-up mode.

• Timeout between attempts (in seconds). Here you can set a time period between different attempts to start Microsoft VSS.

• Switch between hot processing technologies. Mark the checkbox to automatically switch between Paragon Hot Processing and Microsoft VSS if one of them is unavailable at the moment.

By clicking the link at the bottom of the window you can jump to the Run

during Backup Options.

Run during Backup Options

In this section you can specify external applications to execute at various phases of the backup process. It can be particularly useful when imaging systems with high availability requirements (MS SQL, MS Exchange, etc.), since it enables to create a consistent snapshot even as the data is currently modified. The point is to provide a coherent state of all open files and databases involved in a backup, taking into account that applications may still keep writing to disks.

Actually the backup process consists of two phases: the preparation phase (snapshot) and the datacopying phase. There are three points of the backup when external commands/programs can be launched:

• Execute at the beginning of the backup process before taking a snapshot. Here you can specify an executable file that will help you to prepare running applications for taking a snapshot. It may contain specific commands/programs to delete unnecessary files, suspend services, flush transactions or caches, etc. Everything depends on the used applications.

• Execute after taking a snapshot. Here you can specify an executable file that will run just after taking a snapshot. It may contain specific commands/programs, e.g. to resume the previously suspended services, etc. Everything depends on the used applications.

• Execute after finishing the backup process. Here you can specify an executable file that will run after the backup process has been accomplished. It may include commands/ programs that will move the backup image to a particular location, etc.

By clicking the link at the bottom of the window you can jump to the Hot

Processing Options.

By clicking the Browse button you can get into the browser-like window to choose an executable file.

The program provides the ability to work with three types of executable files (.exe, .bat, .cmd). It is up to the user to write batch files to safely prepare applications for backup. There are some certain general requirements for that:

• All programs and commands must execute sequentially and finish before the .bat file completes its work.

• It is recommended to use external commands/programs in the following format - Start/wait program.exe. The wait option will help to start an application and wait until it completes its

work. This will guarantee that all included commands/programs complete their execution before the batch file does.

This function is only available when the Hot Processing mode is enabled.

The program enables to set parameters for an executable file directly from the line. However, if the file path contains word gaps it is necessary to enclose it in quotes in order to make the program distinguish between the path and the

used parameters.

By clicking the link at the bottom of the window you can jump to the Hot

Processing Options.

E-Mail Options

This section contains a set of options that will be taken into account during the Send log files and Send e-mail notification operations:

• Outgoing mail server (SMTP). To send messages by using the built-in mail client, it is necessary to have access to a computer running an SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) server. All outgoing messages are first sent to the SMTP server, which in its turn delivers them to the required recipients. The address may be represented as a traditional Internet host name (e.g.: mail.com) or as an IP numeric address (e.g. xxx.xxx.xxx.xx).

• User e-mail address. Specify an e-mail address that has been assigned by the Internet Service Provider or organization's e-mail administrator.

• My outgoing server requires authentication. Activate the option to allow the program to make authentication on the server before sending messages.

- User name. Enter the name that will be used to log in to the e-mail account.

- Password. Enter the password that will be used to access the mail server.

• Send e-mail notification on apply. Specify an e-mail to send notifications on the carried out operations.

- Send mail in HTML format. Activate the option to create messages in the HTML format instead of plain text.

- Send complete report after applying operations. Activate the option to create an in-depth report on the carried out operations and send it after performing the last operation.

- Send graphical view of the disk sub-system before and after apply. Activate the option to allow the program to attach two pictures of the disk layout made before and after the operation is completed.

By clicking the link at the bottom of the window you can jump to the Operation

Dependency Options.

Operation Dependency Options

This section contains a set of options that will be taken into account when the Send e-mail notification on apply function is enabled. By marking/unmarking a checkbox opposite the required operation you can choose whether to receive an e-mail notification on its completion or not.

You won't be notified if an operation requires the system restart.

Virtual Mode Options

In this section you may configure the virtual mode:

• Allow virtual mode. Mark the checkbox to enable the virtual mode. It is an effective way of protection from any troubles, since no operation will be executed until confirmation, thus giving you a second chance to weigh all pros and cons of this or that particular operation.

We strongly recommend you to enable this mode.

• Close progress dialog automatically. Mark the checkbox to automatically close the progress dialog after accomplishing operations.

File System Conversion Options

This section contains a set of options that will be taken into account when converting FAT and NTFS file systems. By default, the program takes locale (regional) settings from the system. Problems might occur however because of different standards for file names and file time stamps (Created, Modified and Last Access Time) of NTFS and FATxx file systems.

To tackle problems of that kind you can manually set:

• Time zone to use during the convert operation. NTFS keeps file timestamps in GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) while FAT uses a fixed local date and time. The program takes proper account of these differences and enables to adjust timestamp values.

An incorrectly chosen time zone might lead to inability to launch certain software.

• Language for file names to use during the convert operation. NTFS stores file names in Unicode while FAT/FAT32 uses ANSI to save short file names (also called the DOS aliases). The codepage information is required for the correct conversion of non-English file names from Unicode to ANSI and vice versa.

An incorrectly chosen codepage will certainly result in corruption of nonEnglish file names.

• Request confirmation of settings before NTFS < - > FAT/FAT32 conversion. Mark the checkbox to automatically display the local settings dialog to check and modify (if necessary) the default parameters before launching the convert file system operation.

Copy/Backup Exclude Options

In this section the program enables to specify what data should be automatically ignored during copy and sector-based backup operations. You can filter certain files or folders either by the manual selection or by creating masks, what is more preferable. Thus you will be able to effectively manage contents of your backup images or partition/hard disk copies.

By default, there are no available filters. To create a filter, please click the Add Category… button.

In the opened dialog the program allows the user to define the following parameters:

• Name. Give to the filter any name you like, but try to use an informative one;

• Filter. Press the Browse button to select files or folders you would like to be excluded or specify

a filter mask by using * or ? wildcards;

• Description. Add a short description to the filter not to miss it up later.

Click the OK button and you will get a new item on the list of filters. By marking/unmarking a checkbox opposite its name you can choose whether to use it or not.

By clicking the link at the bottom of the window you can jump to the General

Copy and Backup Options.

File Backup Exclude Options

In this section you can find a lot of ready-made exclude filters to effectively control contents of your file-based backup images. Please note, by selecting certain filters you specify what data will be ignored during file-based backup operations, thus you specify the data you’d like not to be added to the resulted archives.

Anyway you’ve got the option to create your own filter by clicking the Add category… button.

In the opened dialog the program allows the user to define the following parameters:

• Name. Give to the filter any name you like, but try to use an informative one;

• Filter. Press the Browse button to select files or folders you would like to be excluded or specify

a filter mask by using * or ? wildcards;

• Description. Add a short description to the filter not to miss it up later.

Click the OK button and you will get a new item on the list of filters. By marking/unmarking a checkbox opposite its name you can choose whether to use it or not.

File Backup Include Options

In this section you can find a lot of ready-made include filters to effectively control contents of your file-based backup images. Please note, by selecting certain filters you specify what data will be processed during file-based backup operations, thus you automatically ignore files that do not match, so they won’t be added to the resulted archives.

Anyway you’ve got the option to create your own filter by clicking the Add category… button.

In the opened dialog the program allows the user to define the following parameters:

• Name. Give to the filter any name you like, but try to use an informative one;

• Filter. Press the Browse button to select files or folders you would like to be excluded or specify

a filter mask by using * or ? wildcards;

• Description. Add a short description to the filter not to miss it up later.

Click the OK button and you will get a new item on the list of filters. By marking/unmarking a checkbox opposite its name you can choose whether to use it or not.

Log Files Options

In this section you can specify a storage life span for the stubact.log file

• Infinite not to empty the file ever;

• Minimal to have the file emptied all the time;

• Custom to set a certain storage life span for the file. Please note, once the defined period has

been expired, the file will be emptied.

We strongly recommend you not to choose the Minimal option, as in case of having problems with the program, our Support Team won’t be able to study operation logs, thus help you out.

Getting Information on Disks and Backup Images

The program provides some helpful tools to get information on the properties of disks and peculiarities of existing backup images.

Viewing Disk Properties

The main tool to view in-depth information on the properties of hard disks is the Disk Map represents the actual state of the computer’s hard disks.

Generally the hard disks are represented on the map by rectangular bars, which also contain smallsized bars. The small-sized bars represent logical disks (partitions). When you select a large-sized bar, the Explorer Bar

displays information about the disk in a bright, graphical form.

. It

The model and serial number of the disk serve as the title of the browsed page. The disk layout is shown in form of a circular graph, where the color of a sector corresponds to a file system of an appropriate partition. On the right you may see a table, which contains the following information:

• Type of hard disk (basic or dynamic),

• Total size (in GB),

• Information on geometry of the disk (amount of sectors per track, heads and cylinders).

Below there is a list of available wizards. If you click a corresponding record the appropriate wizard will be started. All default values for the operation parameters will correspond to the disk’s settings. The list of wizards contains a detailed description of tasks that can be performed by the wizard. This nullifies the possibility of selecting the wrong wizard.

When you select a small-sized bar (i.e. corresponding to a logical disk) the Explorer Bar will display information on it as well. The page title will contain a drive letter, which is assigned to the disk. The disk layout graph will be colored in accordance with the volume ratio of the used space to the free space (the light colored sector). The table on the right will contain the following information:

• Volume label (if available),

• Type of the logical disk,

• File system (represented by the color of the graph and the selected bar),

• Total size, used space and free space (in GB or MB).

Below there is a list of wizards, which may be called for this disk. All default values of parameters will correspond to the disk settings.

Viewing Image Properties

General information on backup archives can be obtained either with the help of the Restore Wizard or the Archive Database

Using the Restore Wizard

There are several ways to launch the Restore Wizard:

• In the Main menu: select Wizards > Restore…

• In Common Tasks bar: click the Restore item of the Wizards menu

• Select a hard disk/partition and then click the Restore an image of the entire disk/Restore the

logical disk from an image link on the Explorer Bar page.

At first, the wizard displays the Welcome page – simply click the Next button at the foot of the dialog window.

The next page refers to Browse for Archive. By clicking the Switch to Archive List View link, you can see a list of images contained in the Archive Database (if any).

To get a clear-cut picture on properties of the required image, just click on it and the section below will (i.e. Archive File Details) display a short description, including:

• Information on a type of the archive contents (whether it is sector-based or file-based),

• Whether the archive is compressed or not,

• Whether the archive is password protected or not,

• The date, when the archive was created.

In addition, there are some special graphical flags to indicate crucial properties:

FLAG FUNCTIONALITY

Disk archive

Partition archive

File archive

MBR archive

System archive

Encrypted archive

Compressed archive

Complex archive

Filtered archive

Differential archive

Incremental archive

File increment to a partition archive

To easily manage images in the Archive Database, the program provides the following functionality:

BUTTON FUNCTIONALITY

Refresh the contents of the database

Show only existing archives

Add the selected archive to the database

Delete the selected archive from the database

Besides you may filter backup archives to decide whether to show only file, partition or hard disk archives. To do that, please select the required filter in the left top corner of the page.

By clicking the Switch to File View link, you can find the required image in the browser-like window.

The section below (i.e. Archive File Details) displays a short description of the selected image, including:

• Information on a type of the archive contents (whether it is sector-based or file-based),

• Whether the archive is compressed or not,

• Whether the archive is password protected or not,

• The date, when the archive was created.

Moreover, on this page you’ve got the possibility to create new folders, delete existing files/folders or map network drives by clicking the appropriate buttons.

The next page (i.e. What to restore) displays detailed information about the contents of the archive.

If you want to restore the image contents, click the Next button. In order to cancel, click the Cancel button.

Using the Archive Database

To open the Archive Database, click the appropriate tab in the Explorer Bar. The database window can be conditionally subdivided into several sections that differ in their purpose and functionality:

1. Explorer Bar that displays properties of the selected image.

2. Volume Explorer that enables to access the selected image as a regular folder to explorer its contents or to retrieve certain files.

3. Archive List that displays a list of images contained in the Archive Database (if any). Besides the program provides all the necessary functionality to manage backup images in the database (add, delete, mount, refresh, etc.)

All panels offer a synchronized layout and are separated by vertical and horizontal expandable sliders, allowing the user to customize the screen layout.

Data Backup and Rescue

In this chapter you will find all the information necessary to establish a reliable data protection system.

Creating Backup Images

We have already mentioned that the most prevalent way to protect valuable data is to create backup copies (backup images in terms of the program) of it. Depending on a type of information you need to protect and the way this information should be processed, the program offers a number of handy backup wizards and dialogs.

Wizard Work Algorithm

To make your job with the program as easy and convenient as possible, all backup wizards share similar work algorithm. So let us just take as an example the Sector Backup Wizard to describe it in detail.

By going through steps of the wizard, you configure all the necessary settings to launch the backup operation. To minimize the possibility of making any mistake, the wizard provides auxiliary information on every single option. Moreover you can get an in-depth description to any setting, control, or field of the wizard just by clicking the hint button and then the object you need.

Startup

There are several ways to start the Sector Backup Wizard:

• In the Main Menu: select Wizards > Back up a Disk or Partition…

• On the Common Tasks Bar: click the Back up a Disk or Partition item of the Wizards menu.

• In the Toolbar: click the Back up a Disk or Partition button.

Setup

The wizard offers the following steps to accomplish the backup operation:

• The object to back up. You can back up either an entire disk or separate partitions of the disk (primary, extended or logical). In case of backing up an entire disk, you’ve got the possibility to include into the image such disk elements as the Master Boot Record (MBR) and the first track of the hard disk. This can be very helpful for serious disk recovery procedures.

• Backup destination. The wizard allows saving backup archives to local or network drives, to physical partitions (without drive letters assigned), to FTP Severs, the Backup Capsule or burning them to CD/DVDs. You need to select a destination, taking the estimated archive size and available space on the backup destination into account.

• Name and location of the resulted image. Provide a file name for the new image and its exact location. The program automatically offers an easy to understand name containing the date and the time of the archive creation, which can anyway be modified.

The program automatically calculates size of the future archive and informs the user about space available on the selected destination.

• Archive Comment. You can add some additional description to the archive that will later help to distinguish it from the others.

In addition, there is the possibility to make further detailed settings (although the default values will do in most cases). To activate the advance mode, you need to mark the appropriate option on the second page of the wizard. When it is marked, the next page enables to define:

• Whether the archive integrity will be controlled.

Checking archive integrity enables to guarantee that all backup images created with the program are 100 percent flawless. Nevertheless if you decided not to control the archive integrity, the backup operation would take about 3-5% less time.

• Whether image file names will be set automatically in complex archives.

• Compression level for the backup image (including the No compression variant).

• Whether the archive will be split (if yes, you can set the maximum size for the archive files).

Splitting images enables to tackle issues caused by a file size limitation of some file systems.

• Whether the archive will be protected by password.

• Whether the selected disk (or the selected partition) will be copied in the sector-to-sector

mode (including unused sectors as well).

• Whether the OS auxiliary files (pagefile.sys, hyberfil.sys) will be included in the backup image.

• Whether backup images stored in the Archive Database will be processed during the backup operation.

Skipping backups of the Archive Database may considerably decrease the resulted image file and time to carry out the operation.

• Recording speed when the user wants to burn the backup image onto CD/DVDs.

• ISO image folder where the archive that is to be recorded on a disc, is placed.

• Whether the operation will be performed without rebooting the system. The program needs to

reboot the system in order to have exclusive access to processing data. In a Windows environment this is difficult to achieve because even when all the other applications are closed, the system service programs are still running. However, there is a way to avoid rebooting. The mode of processing the backup operation without rebooting is named Hot Processing. You can also define specific parameters for the Hot Processing mode.

• The data to be automatically excluded from the resulted backup.

By default the program will take into account exclude filters set in the Settings dialog.

Result

After the backup operation is completed you receive an image of the selected disk (or the selected partition). This image is placed into the specified destination, its features defined by the wizard.

Dialog Work Algorithm

All backup dialogs share similar work algorithm as well. Unlike wizards, settings of a backup dialog concentrate on a single page. That’s why it cannot boast high level of the self-descriptiveness. Anyway with the context sensitive hint system you can get an in-depth description to any setting, control, or field of the dialog just by clicking the hint button and then the object you need.

We recommend the program’s dialogs for experienced users mostly.

So let us just take as an example the Partition Backup Dialog to describe its work algorithm.

Startup

In order to start the operation you should take the following steps:

1. Select a partition on the Disk Map;

2. Call the Partition Backup Dialog to set up the operation. There are several ways to do it:

- Select in the Main menu: Partition > Back Up Partition.

- Call the popup menu for the selected partition (right click of the mouse button) then select

the menu item: Back Up Partition…

Setup

Initially the program suggests some consistent values for all parameters. In most cases, you can just press the Backup button to confirm the operation.

• Archive Name. The program automatically offers an easy to understand name containing the date and the time of the archive creation, which can anyway be modified.

• Archive Description. You can add some additional description to the archive that will later help to distinguish it from the others.

• Compression Level. From the pull-down list you can select the desired compression level for the backup image (including the No compression variant).

• Archive Destination. Here you can manually enter a path where to place the future backup image to or press the Browse button to find the required location.

• Password Protection. By setting a password you can protect contents of the archive against unauthorized access.

In addition, there is the possibility to make further detailed settings (although the default values will do in most cases). To activate the advance mode, you need to click the More options button at the foot of the dialog page, so you will be able to define:

• Whether the operation will be performed without rebooting the system. The program needs to reboot the system in order to have exclusive access to processing data. In a Windows environment this is difficult to achieve because even when all the other applications are closed, the system service programs are still running. However, there is a way to avoid

rebooting. The mode of processing the backup operation without rebooting is named Hot Processing. You can also define specific parameters for the Hot Processing mode.

• Whether the archive will be split (if yes, you can set the maximum size for the archive files).

Splitting images enables to tackle problems caused by a maximum file size limitation of some file systems.

• Whether image file names will be set automatically in complex archives.

• Whether the OS auxiliary files (pagefile.sys, hyberfil.sys) will be included in the backup image.

• Whether the selected partition will be copied in the sector-to-sector mode (including unused

sectors as well).

• Whether backup images stored in the Archive Database will be processed during the backup operation.

Skipping backups of the Archive Database may considerably decrease the resulted image file and time to carry out the operation.

By default the program will take into account exclude filters set in the Settings dialog. You’ve got no option to change them directly from this dialog.

Result

After the backup operation is completed you receive an image of the selected partition. This image is placed into the specified destination, its features defined by the dialog.

Available operation scenarios:

• Backing up a hard disk or partition to the Backup Capsule

• Backing up a hard disk or partition to external media (CD/DVD)

• Backing up a hard disk or partition to a network drive

• Backing up a hard disk or partition to an FTP server

• Backing up a dual boot Mac to an external USB drive

• Backing up files to a local mounted/unmounted (without drive letter assigned) partition

• Creating a differential to a full partition backup

• Creating an increment to a full partition backup

• Creating an increment to a full file backup

• Backing up with Smart Backup Wizard

• Creating a cyclic partition backup

• Merging a full partition backup with one of its differentials

Restoring System and Data

The program includes a convenient and reliable restore wizard. With its help you can restore all types of backup images created with the program. It provides easy to understand instructions to configure and perform all the necessary settings. Moreover you can get an in-depth description to any setting, control, or field of the wizard just by clicking the hint button and then the object you need.

Startup

There are several ways to start the Restore Wizard:

• In the Main Menu: select Wizards > Restore…

• On the Common Tasks Bar: click the Restore item of the Wizards menu.

• In the Toolbar: click the Restore Wizard button.

Setup

The wizard offers the following steps to accomplish the restore operation:

• A backup image to be restored. The Browse for Archive page enables to find a backup image you need.

By clicking the Switch to Archive List View link, you can see a list of images contained in the Archive Database (if any).

To get a clear-cut picture on properties of the required image, just click on it and the section below will (i.e. Archive File Details) display a short description.

To know more on the subject, please consult the Viewing Image Properties chapter.

By clicking the Switch to File View link, you can find the required image in the browser-like window. The section below (i.e. Archive File Details) will also display a short description of the selected image.

Moreover, on this page you’ve got the possibility to create new folders, delete existing files/folders or map network drives by clicking the appropriate buttons.

To know more on the subject, please consult the Viewing Image Properties chapter.

File Backup Restore

• Data to restore. You’ve got the option to restore not only the entire archive, but separate items of it (the so called selective restore functionality) by marking checkboxes next to the data items you need.

• A place to restore. From the pull-down list you can choose whether to restore contents of the backup image to its original location or specify some other one.

Besides if you select the Original location option, you can additionally define whether to replace already existing files during the restore operation (good for recovering presumably corrupted files) or leave them intact (good for recovering accidentally deleted files).

Sector Backup Restore

If you select separate files or folders to restore, the wizard will continue working as though you’ve got to do with a file backup.

• A place to restore. Selecting the destination, please note - all contents on the disk selected for restoring purposes will be deleted during the operation.

To help you get a clear-cut picture of the operation outcome, the program allows inspecting the resulted disk layout.

Restoring Partition:

• Size of the restored volume and free space before and after it on the disk.

• Drive letter assignment after restore. The pull-down list contains vacant drive letters that can

be associated with the restored partition.

Restoring Hard Disk:

• Copy data and resize partitions proportionally. If this option is activated, the program proportionally changes the size of partitions keeping their relative order intact. The option can be useful when restoring to a larger hard disk.

• Perform surface test. Define whether the surface test will be accomplished during the operation or not.

All contents on the disk selected for restoring purposes will be deleted during the operation.

Result

The wizard will restore the archived data, and make it available to use in the operating system.

To make a Win2K+ operating system bootable on different hardware, please additionally complete the P2P Adjust OS Wizard

Available operation scenarios:

• Restoring a hard disk from the bootable Backup Capsule

• Restoring a system partition from external media (CD/DVD)

• Restoring a system partition from a network drive

• Restoring a system partition from a local drive

• Restoring a dual boot Mac from an external USB drive

• Restoring a file increment

• Restoring a file increment to a partition backup

• Copying of data from the corrupted system disk to another hard disk

• Burning of data from the corrupted system disk to CD/DVD

• Copying of data from a backup to the corrupted system partition

• Restoring separate files and folders from a backup

Copy Tasks

In this chapter you will find all the information necessary to make a copy of a hard disk or a separate partition.

Cloning Hard Disks

You can clone a hard disk of any file system. During the hard disk copying process, the program moves controlling records of used partitioning scheme, the bootstrap code and on-disk partitions. That’s why this operation cannot be substituted by simply copying all on-disk partitions.

The program offers two wizards that can help to clone a hard disk, i.e. the Copy Hard Disk Wizard and the One Button Copy Wizard

. Both wizards provide nearly identical functionality, but different in

the work concept.

Copy Hard Disk Wizard

The Copy Hard Disk Wizard is a traditional-like wizard. By going through its steps, you configure all the necessary settings to launch the copy operation. To minimize the possibility of making any mistake, the wizard provides auxiliary information on every single option. Moreover you can get an in-depth description to any setting, control, or field of the wizard just by clicking the hint button and then the object you need.

You need at least two hard disks to carry out this operation.

Startup

There are several ways to start the Copy Hard Disk Wizard:

• In the Main Menu: select Wizards > Copy Hard Disk…

• On the Common Tasks Bar: click the Copy Hard Disk item of the Wizards menu.

• In the Toolbar: click the Copy Hard Disk button.

Setup

The wizard offers the following steps to accomplish the copy hard disk operation:

• The hard disk to copy. Select a hard disk you want to copy.

• The target hard disk. Select a hard disk (if several) where all data of the source disk will be

copied to.

• Copy parameters. The wizard enables to specify the following options:

Copy options

- HDD raw copy to copy the hard disk in the sector-by-sector mode, thus ignoring its information structure (e.g. unallocated space or unused sectors of existing partitions will be processed as well). This can help to avoid problems with hidden data created by certain applications or the system administrator. However, it will take more time to accomplish the operation.

- Partition raw copy to copy the on-disk partitions in the sector-by-sector mode to successfully process unknown file systems. However it is not recommended to enable this option when working with supported file systems as it takes more time to accomplish the operation.

- Perform incremental copy to only copy changes on the hard disk from the moment of the last copy operation. The program will perform comparison between a previous copy of the hard disk and its current state. Only sectors that are different will be updated, thus considerably decreasing the amount of data to write.

- Change masks for files to exclude from copy to manage contents of the resulted duplicate. By default the program will take into account exclude filters set in the Settings

dialog. If you need to change them, please mark the checkbox and specify additional filters on the next page of the wizard.

Resize options

- Remove free blocks between partitions not to keep blocks of free space between partitions on the targeted hard disk.

- Copy data and resize partitions proportionally to make the program proportionally change the size of partitions keeping their relative order intact. The option can be useful when upgrading the hard disk to a larger one.

Verification options

This section allows you to define whether the Surface and/or the Writing verification tests will be accomplished during the operation.

Result

After the operation is completed, you receive a fully functional duplicate of the existing hard disk.

To make a Win2K+ operating system bootable on different hardware, please additionally complete the P2P Adjust OS Wizard

Available operation scenarios:

• Cloning System Hard Disk

One Button Copy Wizard

The One Button Copy Wizard is a new approach of accomplishing such a technically complicated operation as cloning of a hard disk. In fact with its help you can do it just by pressing one button.

Restrictions

So to successfully accomplish the operation your system should meet the following requirements:

• At least two hard disks, one of which should contain data and the other is empty

• The destination hard disk should have enough space to take contents of at least first partition

of the source disk

Startup

There are several ways to start the One Button Copy Wizard:

• In the Main Menu: select Wizards > One Button Copy Wizard…

• On the Common Tasks Bar: click the One Button Copy Wizard item of the Wizards menu.

Setup

If your system meets the mentioned above requirements, the wizard will automatically accomplish the copy operation after a ten-second pause.

There are a number of options you can modify:

• HDD raw copy to copy the hard disk in the sector-by-sector mode, thus ignoring its information structure (e.g. unallocated space or unused sectors of existing partitions will be processed as well). This can help to avoid problems with hidden data created by certain applications or the system administrator. However, it will take more time to accomplish the operation.

• Partition raw copy to copy the on-disk partitions in the sector-by-sector mode to successfully process unknown file systems. However it is not recommended to enable this option when working with supported file systems as it takes more time to accomplish the operation.

• Perform incremental copy to only copy changes on the hard disk from the moment of the last copy operation. The program will perform comparison between a previous copy of the hard disk and its current state. Only sectors that are different will be updated, thus considerably decreasing the amount of data to write.

• Change masks for files to exclude from copy to manage contents of the resulted duplicate. By default the program will take into account exclude filters set in the Settings

dialog. If you need to change them, please mark the checkbox and specify additional filters on the next page of the wizard.

• Copy without free space blocks to arrange partitions one after another.

• Resize proportionally to proportionally change the size of partitions keeping their relative order

intact.

To do that, press the Pause button, to continue execution press Start. To interrupt the operation, press the Cancel button.

Result

After the operation is completed, you receive a fully functional duplicate of the existing hard disk.

To make a Win2K+ operating system bootable on different hardware, please additionally complete the P2P Adjust OS Wizard

Cloning Partitions

You can duplicate partitions to protect oneself from downtime in case of a system malfunction or for cloning sample partitions. The program enables to duplicate all partition data including files, the exact structure of directories and file system metadata (location of files, security information, access quotas, etc.).

The Copy Partition Wizard will help you copy a partition of any file system. To minimize the possibility of making any mistake, the wizard provides auxiliary information on every single option. Moreover you can get an in-depth description to any setting, control, or field of the wizard just by clicking the hint button and then the object you need.

Startup

There are several ways to start the Copy Partition Wizard:

• In the Main Menu: select Wizards > Copy Partition…

• On the Common Tasks Bar: click the Copy Partition item of the Wizards menu.

• In the Toolbar: click the Copy Partition button.

Setup

The wizard offers the following steps to accomplish the copy partition operation:

• The partition to copy. Select a partition you want to copy.

• Destination disk. Select a hard disk with enough unallocated space to perform the operation.

The program enables to copy a partition to a block of free space, which is smaller than the partition itself, taking into account only actual amount of

1994-200

data.

• Copy parameters. The wizard enables to specify the following options:

- Partition size. Define the size (in Mb) of the copied partition.

- Free space before. Define the position (in Mb) of the copied partition relative to the beginning of the available range of disk space.

- Free space after. Define the amount of trailing free space (in Mb) at the end of the available range of disk space.

Partition size and position may also be defined by using the drag-and-drop technique. To do that, just carry out the required operation on the Disk Map.

Result

After the operation is completed you receive a fully functional duplicate of the existing partition.

To make a Win2K+ operating system bootable on different hardware, please additionally complete the P2P Adjust OS Wizard

Partition Management

In this chapter you will find all the information necessary to carry out partitioning operations supported by the program.

Basic Partitioning Operations

Here you can learn how to accomplish basic partitioning operations (create, format, delete).

Creating Partitions

The program provides the ability to create a new partition by using the DOS partitioning scheme. This operation can be accomplished with the Create Partition Dialog.

Restrictions

1. Do not use the Create Partition function in order to undelete the last deleted partition.

2. The program cannot create new partitions on Dynamic Disks. The current version of the program supports only hard disks that use the DOS partitioning scheme (in Windows 2000 and XP these disks are named Basic Disks).

3. According to the rules of the DOS partitioning scheme, the following combinations of partitions cannot be created:

- Two Extended Partitions on one hard disk

- Five or more Primary partitions on one hard disk

- If there is an Extended Partition on the disk, only three Primary partitions are allowed

4. The program allows creating new partitions only within blocks of un-partitioned space. It cannot convert a free space on an existing partition to a new partition.

Startup

In order to start the operation you should take the following steps:

1. Select a block of free space on the Disk Map;

2. Call the Create Partition Dialog to set up the operation. There are several ways to do it:

- Select in the Main Menu: Partition > Create Partition.

- Call the popup menu for the block of free space (right click of the mouse button) then

select the menu item: Create Partition.

Setup

Initially the program suggests some consistent values for all parameters. In most cases, you can just press the Yes button to confirm the operation.

• Define whether the partition will be Primary, Extended or Logical. You can choose the desired partition type from the pull-down list. As a matter of fact, the available alternatives fundamentally depend on the selected block of free space - within the Logical free space, only Logical partitions can be created; Within the Primary free space, both Primary partitions or the Extended Partition can be created.

• Partition Size. Define the size (in Mb) of the new partition.

• Free space before. Define the position (in Mb) of the new partition relative to the beginning of the block of free space.

• Free space after. Define the amount of trailing free space (in Mb) at the end of the new partition.

Partition size and position may also be defined by using the drag-and-drop technique. To do that, just carry out the required operation on the Disk Map. The virtual operations are to be available.

• File system for new partition. From the pull-down list select a file system the newly created partition will be formatted to, otherwise the partition will remain unformatted (so that it will not be ready to use).

• Volume label. Enter a label for the selected partition in this textual field. It is an irrelevant parameter usually used for drive identification.

• Drive letter assignment. The pull-down list contains vacant drive letters that can be associated with the newly formatted partition.

• Use OS built-in routine. Mark the option to restrict the available values according to the used OS.

• Whether the surface test will be performed. Define the level of the surface check to make the program find bad and unstable sectors and mark them unusable in the file system metadata.

• The amount of sectors per boot. This parameter is available exclusively for FAT16 and FAT32 file systems. Set the number of sectors to be reserved for the boot area on the partition with this spinner control.

• The amount of root entries. This parameter is available exclusively for FAT16 file system. Set the maximum amount of files/directories to be placed in the Root Directory on the FAT16 partition.

• The amount of sectors per cluster. Define the Cluster Size for the formatted partition with this spinner control.

Number of available options depends on the selected file system type.

Result

After the operation is completed you receive a fully functional partition.

Formatting Partitions

Any partition should contain some file system to be used for keeping data. The process of installing a file system is commonly known as formatting. A huge variety of file systems have been developed these days.

Supported File Systems

The program provides the ability to format partitions of the following file systems:

- FAT12 & FAT16

- FAT32

- NTFS

- Ext2

- Ext3

- Linux Swap v. 2

- Apple HFS

This operation can be accomplished with the Format Partition Dialog.

Startup

In order to start the operation you should take the following steps:

1. Select a partition on the Disk Map;

2. Call the Format Partition Dialog to set up the operation. There are several ways to do it:

- Select in the Main Menu: Partition > Format Partition.

- Call the popup menu for the selected partition (right click of the mouse button) then select

the menu item: Format Partition.

Setup

Initially the program suggests some consistent values for all parameters. In most cases, you can just press the Format button to confirm the operation.

• File system. From the pull-down list select the desired file system type. In fact, the program displays only those file systems that can correctly be placed to the selected partition, taking its capacity into account.

• Volume label. Enter a label for the selected partition in this textual field. It is an irrelevant parameter usually used for drive identification.

• Use OS built-in routine. Mark the option to restrict the available values according to the used OS.

• Whether the surface test will be performed. Define the level of the surface check to make the program find bad and unstable sectors and mark them unusable in the file system metadata.

• The amount of root entries. This parameter is available exclusively for FAT16 file system. Set the maximum amount of files/directories to be placed in the Root Directory on the FAT16 partition.

• The amount of sectors per cluster. Define the Cluster Size for the formatted partition with this spinner control.

Number of available options depends on the selected file system type.

Result

After the operation is completed you receive a fully functional partition formatted to the specified file system.

Deleting Partitions

With the Delete Partition Dialog you can delete a partition on a hard disk partitioned with the DOS partitioning scheme. Unlike the majority of other utilities (Windows Disk Manager included), the program can not only remove references to the deleted partition from the Partition Table, thus making it unavailable for the operating system, but also enables to irreversibly destroy its data. This feature will guarantee security of your personal information.

Startup

In order to start the operation you should take the following steps:

1. Select a partition on the Disk Map;

2. Call the Delete Partition Dialog to set up the operation. There are several ways to do it:

- Select in the Main Menu: Partition > Delete Partition.

- Call the popup menu for the selected partition (right click of the mouse button) then select

the menu item: Delete Partition.

Setup

Initially the program suggests you just to remove references to the selected partition from the Partition Table.

• Enter the volume label to confirm deleting. To confirm deletion of the selected partition, enter its Volume Label. The current volume label is displayed above.

• Do not ask volume label next time. Mark the option to inhibit confirmation next time you start the dialog.

To additionally destroy the on-partition data, click the More options button at the foot of the dialog page, so you will be able to define:

• Select the byte mask…. The HEX value spinner control enables to set a two-figure hexadecimal character value ("00" by default). The available range is from "00" to "FF". It is synchronized with the ASCII value.

• Specify the number of wiping passes. You can choose a number of passes for the wiping pattern.

• Verify wipe results. You can also choose whether to carry out residual data verification or not specifying the percentage of sectors to check.

Result

By default, the operation takes only a fraction of a second. However, the program waits until Windows completes the modification of the disk layout. In case you decide to wipe the on-partition data as well, the operation will take much longer, depending on the set wipe parameters.

Advanced Partitioning Operations

Here you can learn how to accomplish advanced partitioning operations (undelete).

Undeleting Partitions

When simply deleting a partition (without additional wiping) disk management software only removes references to it in the Partition Table, thus leaving the possibility to recover it later.

The program enables to find and recover these partitions. A restored partition will be fully functional, as long as other partitions were not created, moved or exceeded the disk space occupied by that partition. That is why the program offers this function only for blocks of free space.

The operation can be accomplished with the Undelete Partition Wizard.

Startup

There are several ways to start the Undelete Partition Wizard:

• In the Main Menu: select Wizards > Undelete Partitions…

• On the Common Tasks Bar: click the Undelete Partition item of the Wizards menu.

• Select a block of free space on the Disk Map and click the Recover Lost Partitions item on the

page that appears in the Explorer Bar.

• Call the popup menu for the block of free space (right click of the mouse button) then select the menu item: Recover Lost Partitions…

Setup

The wizard offers the following steps to accomplish the undelete partition operation:

• Free blocks to scan for lost partitions. Choose a free block from a tree-like list of available hard disks.

• Search method. By default, the wizard selects the fastest search method for your operating system. In most cases that will do to find any accidentally deleted partition. However if you're under Windows XP for instance (the Conventional Search option is selected), but the deleted partition you're looking for has been created with the Disk Management utility under Vista, the wizard won't be able to find this partition, unless you manually select the appropriate option (Quick Search for Partitions Created by Vista or Later OS). Moreover if the wizard still fails to find the partition you need, you can select the Thorough Search option to scan every single sector in the specified search area to get the most accurate results.

To know more on the available search methods, please use the context sensitive hint system.

• File system filter. By default, the wizard will search for all known file systems. However, by clicking on the appropriate option on the second page of the wizard, you can specify only those file systems you need.

• A partition to undelete (if several). By default, the program searches records of any deleted partition ever existed on the selected block of free space. So you can get several partitions to choose from.

Most likely the required partition will be found first. If so, you may abort the search operation by pressing the Stop search button.

Result

After the operation is completed you receive a fully functional partition.

Changing Partition Attributes

This chapter explains how you can change partition attributes (Active flag, Hidden flag, Partition ID, Volume Label, etc.).

Mark Partition Active/Inactive

The program enables to set an active/inactive flag for primary partitions of a hard disk. By default, an operating system will boot only if its partition is active or bootable.

In order to mark a partition active/inactive you should take the following steps:

1. Select a primary partition on the Disk Map.

2. Call the Mark Partition Active/Inactive Dialog to set up the operation. There are several ways to do it:

- Select in the Main Menu: Partition > Mark Partition as Active/Inactive.

- Call the popup menu for the selected partition (right click of the mouse button) on the Disk

Map, then select the menu item: Mark Partition as Active/Inactive.

3. The operation will be performed immediately after confirmation.

There can only be one active partition on a hard disk, otherwise your operating system will fail to boot.

Hide/Unhide Partition

The program allows you to hide/unhide primary and logical partitions. By default, an operating system does not mount hidden partitions, thus preventing access to their contents.

In order to hide/unhide a partition you should take the following steps:

1. Select a partition on the Disk Map.

2. Call the Hide/Unhide Partition Dialog to set up the operation. There are several ways to do it:

- Select in the Main Menu: Partition > Hide/Unhide Partition.

- Call the popup menu for the selected partition (right click of the mouse button) on the Disk

Map, then select the menu item: Hide/Unhide Partition.

3. The operation will be performed immediately after confirmation.

It is strongly recommended not to hide the system partition. Otherwise your operating system will fail to boot.

Set Label of a Partition

The Partition Label is a small textual field (up to 11 characters) that is located in the partition's boot sector. It is detectable by any partitioning tool and is used for notification purposes only.

In order to change a partition label you should take the following steps:

1. Select a partition on the Disk Map.

2. Call the Change Volume Label dialog to set up the operation. There are several ways to do it:

- Select in the Main Menu: Partition > Modify > Change Volume Label.

- On the Explorer Bar: click on the current volume label.

- Call the popup menu for the selected partition (right click of the mouse button) on the Disk

Map, then select the menu item: Change Volume Label.

3. Enter a label for the selected partition.

4. The operation will be performed immediately after confirmation.

Change Partition ID

Partition ID is a file system identifier. It is saved in the Partition Table and is used to quickly detect a partition of the supported type. By manually changing its value, you can manipulate accessibility of partitions.

In order to change a partition ID you should take the following steps:

1. Select a partition on the Disk Map.

2. Call the Change Partition ID dialog to set up the operation. There are several ways to do it:

- Select in the Main Menu: Partition > Modify > Change Partition ID…

- On the Explorer Bar: click on the current partition ID.

- Call the popup menu for the selected partition (right click of the mouse button) on the Disk

Map, then select the menu item: Change Partition ID…

3. Set a new ID for the selected partition.

• Predefined ID. Select from the pull-down list the required ID.

• Enter ID manually. With the spinner control set the required ID value. It has to be a 1-2

digit hexadecimal number.

4. The operation will be performed immediately after confirmation.

Change Serial Number of a Partition

FAT16, FAT32, and NTFS file systems include the Serial Number parameter. A partition's serial number is saved in the boot sector. Its value is generated while formatting.

The program enables to modify the serial number parameter for FAT16, FAT32, or NTFS partitions without re-formatting.

In order to change a serial number you should take the following steps:

1. Select a partition on the Disk Map.

2. Call the Change Partition Serial Number dialog to set up the operation. There are several ways to do it:

- Select in the Main Menu: Partition > Modify > Change Serial Number.

- On the Explorer Bar: click on the current serial number.

3. Enter a new serial number for the selected partition. It should contain 8 hexadecimal figures (0..9 or A..F). The operation cannot proceed until you enter all 8 symbols.

4. The operation will be performed immediately after confirmation.

Hard Disk Management

In this chapter you will find all the information necessary to carry hard disk operations supported by the program (Update MBR, Convert to Basic, Change Primary Slot).

Updating MBR

The program enables to overwrite the current bootable code in the MBR (Master Boot Record) by the standard bootstrap code. This can help to repair a corrupted bootable code of a hard disk resulted from a boot virus attack or a malfunction of boot management software.

In order to update MBR of a hard disk you should take the following steps:

1. Select a hard disk on the Disk Map.

2. Call the Update MBR dialog to set up the operation. There are several ways to do it:

- Select in the Main Menu: Hard Disk > Update MBR.

- Call the popup menu for the selected hard disk (right click of the mouse button) on the

Disk Map, then select the menu item: Update MBR.

3. The operation will be performed immediately after confirmation.

Converting Dynamic MBR to Basic

The program allows you to convert a dynamic MBR disk containing simple volumes into a basic one while keeping its contents intact.

In order to convert a dynamic MBR disk into basic you should take the following steps:

1. Select a dynamic MBR disk containing simple volumes on the Disk Map.

2. Call the Convert to Basic dialog selecting in the Main Menu: Hard Disk > Convert to Basic…

3. Set the required number of primary partitions if necessary. According to the DOS partitioning scheme a hard disk can have up to four Primary partitions. If there is an Extended partition on the disk, only three primary partitions are allowed. That is why if a dynamic disk contains several simple volumes the program enables to choose the number of primary partitions. The rest of them if any will automatically be converted to logical disks within the Extended partition.

The program can only process dynamic disks containing solid simple volumes (without extension).

Converting GPT to Basic MBR

The program allows you to convert a basic or a dynamic GPT disk containing simple volumes into a basic MBR disk while keeping its contents intact.

In order to convert a basic or a dynamic GPT disk into a basic MBR disk you should take the following steps:

1. Select a basic or a dynamic GPT disk containing simple volumes on the Disk Map.

2. Call the Convert to Basic MBR Hard Disk dialog selecting in the Main Menu: Hard Disk > Convert to Basic MBR Hard Disk…

3. Set the required number of primary partitions if necessary. According to the DOS partitioning scheme a hard disk can have up to four Primary partitions. If there is an Extended partition on the disk, only three primary partitions are allowed. That is why if a GPT disk contains several volumes the program enables to choose the number of primary partitions. The rest of them if any will automatically be converted to logical disks within the Extended partition.

The program can only process dynamic GPT disks containing solid simple volumes (without extension).

Changing Primary Slot

Different operating systems apply different approaches to enumeration of the primary partitions.

In Linux:

In Linux, every partition has a special symbolic name that encodes a hard disk containing a partition, and a partition itself. Partitions are addressed and accessed by using their symbolic names. Symbolic names are automatically generated by Linux in accordance with the order of hard disks in BIOS and the order of partition records in the Partition Table. Thus changing enumeration of the primary partitions can lead to changing of paths to some important resources.

In DOS:

The last versions of MS-DOS use a rather sophisticated algorithm for a drive letter assignment. A drive letter, which is assigned to a partition, depends on the order of records in the Partition Table. Thus changing enumeration of the primary partitions affects the drive letters assignment. In early versions of MS-DOS, it could even lead to the unavailability of a partition.

The program provides the ability to change enumeration of the primary partitions. This feature will allow you to fix problems concerning an inappropriate order of partitions.

In order to modify enumeration of the primary partitions you should take the following steps:

1. Select a hard disk on the Disk Map.

2. Call the Change Primary Slot dialog to set up the operation. There are several ways to do it:

- Select in the Main Menu: Hard Disk > Change Primary Slot.

- Call the popup menu for the selected hard disk (right click of the mouse button) on the

Disk Map, then select the menu item: Change Primary Slot.

3. In the opened dialog you can see the current enumeration of the primary partitions of the selected hard disk in the Partition Table. To help you distinguish partitions from one another, the program provides the following parameters for every partition:

- Slot

- Volume

- Partition type

- File system

- Partition size

- Volume label

There are two buttons on the right to move the selected partition up and down within the primary part of the Partition Table.

4. The operation will be performed immediately after confirmation.

Task Scheduling

Automation of operations can really help you out when you’ve got to accomplish certain routine operations on a regular basis as it enables to execute them without your involvement while optimizing your computer’s work-load.

Setting a Timetable

Thanks to the embedded Scheduler, you can set a timetable for execution of any operation. It has two categories for time settings (these correspond to appropriate items in the Schedule type menu):

• Initiating the operation by an event:

- One time only (i.e. the Once item)

- When the system starts (i.e. the At System Startup item)

- When the user logs on (i.e. the At Logon item).

• Initiating the operation periodically (i.e. Daily, Weekly, Monthly).

You need to select one of the variants. Depending on your choice, the scheduler displays a form that enables to set a timetable.

To run the task in the log-off mode, please specify administering login info by following the appropriate link in the left lower corner of the page.

The Shutdown System on Complete option enables to automatically switch off the computer on the successful accomplishment of the operation.

Managing Tasks

All scheduled tasks are placed in a separate list, which can be retrieved by clicking the Scheduled Tasks tab in the Explorer Bar:

On every task you can get in-depth information, including:

• The task name

• The full path to the generated script of the task

• Scheduled time of launch

• Statistics on the last launch

• Scheduled time of the next launch

• Used account information

• Comments to the task

To easily manage tasks, the program enables to arrange them according to a certain characteristic just by clicking on the required property.

This feature can be particularly beneficial when the Scheduled Tasks list contains too many items.

You can also enable/disable, rename, delete, refresh or modify properties of the selected task.

Task Editor

With the Task Editor you can easily modify properties of scheduled tasks. To do that, you should take the following steps:

1. Select a task on the Scheduled Tasks list.

2. Call the Task Editor dialog. There are several ways to do it:

- Click the Properties button on the Scheduled Tasks list.

- Call the popup menu for the selected task (right click of the mouse button), then select

the menu item: Properties.

3. In the opened dialog window you can see two tabs - General and Schedule. Click the General tab to modify:

• Full path to the macro-command program-interpreter, which describes the scheduled

task;

• Command line for starting the interpreter (i.e. the task described in macro-language)

• Comments referring to the task

• The option of enabling/disabling the task.

By clicking the Schedule tab you can modify the task timetable.

In order to apply the changes, you need to click the Apply button at the foot of the dialog.

Creating a Scheduled Task

You can set a timetable for execution of any operation. For backup and copy operations the program offers handy wizards, while all the others can be scheduled with the Save to Scheduler dialog.

To create a scheduled task you should take the following steps:

1. Make sure the virtual mode of execution is enabled

;

2. Carry out with the program all operations you need to schedule;

3. Call the Save to Scheduler dialog in the Main Menu: Tools > Save to Scheduler…;

4. In the opened dialog enter the required task name and specify the task timetable;

5. The operation will be performed immediately after confirmation.

This command is unavailable if there are no operations on the List of Pending Operations.

Scripting

The program actions can also be represented in form of a script. The script describes the appropriate operation with macro-language commands. There is an interpreter utility - SCRIPTS.exe, which is included in the program installation package. This utility works in the unattended mode, which enables to automate operations.

Startup

You have no need to write a script since the program has a convenient interface for such a task. In order to generate a script on the base of the entered parameters of the required operation, you should take the following steps:

1. Make sure the virtual mode of execution is enabled

;

2. Carry out with the program all operations you need to be scripted;

3. Call the Generate Script dialog in the Main Menu: Tools > Generate Script….

Setup

Initially the program suggests some consistent values for all parameters. In most cases, you can just press the Generate button to confirm the operation.

• Script file name and location. By default, the program offers to add the script to the Task List with a name containing its creation date and time. Unmark the Add to Task List checkbox to define an exact location and a filename for the script file. The default file extension that is reserved for scripting files is .psl, which however can be modified.

• Interaction with the user. Mark the option to pause the script interpreter during the execution to prompt the user’s confirmation or other input. Otherwise the program will not stop using default values for parameters if needed.

• Commit after each operation. Mark the option to commit changes after each operation.

• Check for errors after each operation. Mark the option to insert a special code in script, which

checks the status of the last executed operation and stops the script processing if there are errors of any kind.

• Discard all operations on close. Mark the option to empty the List of Pending Operations after generating the script.

Result

After the operation is completed you receive a new script file. It is placed into the specified destination, its features defined in the dialog.

This command is unavailable if there are no operations on the List of Pending Operations.

To learn more about scripts please consult the Paragon Scripting Language manual.

Paragon Backup Recovery - 10 Suite User Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

Introduction

Key Features

Product Components

Getting Started

Distribution

Distributive CD

Online Distribution

Registration

To register as a new user

To register a new product

How to Download Updates/Upgrades

Contacting Paragon Technology GmbH

System Requirements

Windows based set of utilities

Linux/DOS based recovery environment

WinPE based recovery environment

Additional requirements

Installation

First Start

With System Backup

Manually

Building Bootable Recovery Media

Booting from the Linux/DOS Recovery Environment

Startup

Boot menu

Normal Mode

Safe Mode

Low Graphics Safe Mode

Booting from the WinPE Recovery Environment

Startup

Adding specific drivers to WinPE

Basic Concepts

System and Data Protection

File Backup versus Sector Backup

Backup Types

Full and Differential Sector Backups

Full and Incremental File Backups

File Increment to a Sector Backup

Backup Storage

Known Issues on FTP

Adaptive Restore

Adaptive Restore for Windows 2000/XP/Server 2003

Adaptive Restore for Windows Vista/7/Server 2008

Adaptive Restore Application

Known Issues

System Virtualization

Known Issues

Paragon Hot Processing & Volume Shadow Copy Service

Offline versus Online Data Processing

Paragon Hot Processing Technology

Volume Shadow Copy Service

Dynamic Disks

GPT versus MBR

Apple Boot Camp

64-bit Support

Copy Operations

Drive Partitioning

Scheduling

Drive Backup Pro Functionality

Interface Overview

General Layout

Main Menu

Toolbar

Virtual Operations Bar

Common Tasks Bar

Disk Map

Explorer Bar

Backup Image Options

Partitioning Options

General Copy and Backup Options

CD/DVD Recording Options

Hot Processing Options

Run during Backup Options

Operation Dependency Options

Virtual Mode Options

File System Conversion Options