Paragon Drive Backup - 11.0 Server Operation Manual

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PARAGON Software GmbH

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

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

Internet www.paragon-software.com  Email sales@paragon-software.com

Drive Backup™ 11 Server

Use r Manual

Contents

Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 7

What’s New in Drive Backup 11 ................................................................................................................... 7

Product Components ............................................................................................................. 9

Features Overview ................................................................................................................. 9

Features ..................................................................................................................................................... 9

User Friendly Fault Minimizing Interface ................................................................................................................................ 9

Backup Facilities ...................................................................................................................................................................... 9

Restore Facilities ................................................................................................................................................................... 11

Copy Facilities ....................................................................................................................................................................... 11

Virtualization Facilities .......................................................................................................................................................... 11

Partition/Hard Disk Management Facilities .......................................................................................................................... 11

Automatization Facilities ...................................................................................................................................................... 12

Auxiliary Facilities ................................................................................................................................................................. 12

Supported Technologies ............................................................................................................................. 12

Supported Virtualization Software ............................................................................................................. 13

Supported virtual hard drive types ....................................................................................................................................... 14

Supported virtual machines for P2V scenarios ..................................................................................................................... 14

Supported File Systems .............................................................................................................................. 14

Supported Media ....................................................................................................................................... 15

Getting Started .................................................................................................................... 15

Distribution ............................................................................................................................................... 15

Distributive CD ...................................................................................................................................................................... 15

Online Distribution................................................................................................................................................................ 15

Registration ........................................................................................................................................................................... 15

How to Download Updates/Upgrades .................................................................................................................................. 16

Contacting Paragon Software GmbH .......................................................................................................... 16

System Requirements ................................................................................................................................ 17

Installation ................................................................................................................................................ 18

First Start ................................................................................................................................................... 19

Building Recovery Media ............................................................................................................................ 19

Booting from the Linux/DOS Recovery Media ............................................................................................. 21

Startup .................................................................................................................................................................................. 21

Boot menu ............................................................................................................................................................................ 21

Booting from the WinPE Recovery Media ................................................................................................... 23

Startup .................................................................................................................................................................................. 23

Basic Concepts ..................................................................................................................... 24

System and Data Protection ....................................................................................................................... 24

File Backup versus Sector Backup ......................................................................................................................................... 25

Backup Types ........................................................................................................................................................................ 25

Backup Storage ..................................................................................................................................................................... 28

Adaptive Restore .................................................................................................................................................................. 29

System Virtualization ................................................................................................................................. 30

Paragon Hot Processing & Volume Shadow Copy Service ............................................................................ 31

Offline versus Online Data Processing .................................................................................................................................. 31

Paragon Hot Processing Technology .................................................................................................................................... 31

Volume Shadow Copy Service .............................................................................................................................................. 32

Dynamic Disks ............................................................................................................................................ 32

GPT versus MBR ......................................................................................................................................... 33

Apple Boot Camp ....................................................................................................................................... 33

64-bit Support ............................................................................................................................................ 33

Copy Operations ........................................................................................................................................ 34

Drive Partitioning ....................................................................................................................................... 34

Scheduling ................................................................................................................................................. 35

Windows Components ........................................................................................................ 35

Interface Overview .................................................................................................................................... 35

General Layout ...................................................................................................................................................................... 35

Main Menu ........................................................................................................................................................................... 36

Tool Bar ................................................................................................................................................................................. 40

Virtual Operations Bar .......................................................................................................................................................... 40

Common Tasks Bar ............................................................................................................................................................... 41

Disk Map ............................................................................................................................................................................... 42

Explorer Bar .......................................................................................................................................................................... 43

Legend Bar ............................................................................................................................................................................ 44

Status Bar .............................................................................................................................................................................. 45

Settings Overview ...................................................................................................................................... 45

General Options .................................................................................................................................................................... 45

Backup Image Options .......................................................................................................................................................... 46

General Copy and Backup Options ....................................................................................................................................... 47

CD/DVD/BD Recording Options ............................................................................................................................................ 48

Hot Processing Options ......................................................................................................................................................... 49

Run during Backup Options .................................................................................................................................................. 50

Partitioning Options .............................................................................................................................................................. 51

E-Mail Options ...................................................................................................................................................................... 52

Operation Dependency Options ........................................................................................................................................... 53

Virtual Mode Options ........................................................................................................................................................... 53

File System Conversion Options ........................................................................................................................................... 54

Copy/Backup Exclude Options .............................................................................................................................................. 55

File Backup Exclude Options ................................................................................................................................................. 56

File Backup Include Options.................................................................................................................................................. 57

Log Files Options ................................................................................................................................................................... 58

FTP Sites Options .................................................................................................................................................................. 58

Application-level Exclude Options ........................................................................................................................................ 59

Viewing Disk Properties ............................................................................................................................. 60

Viewing Image Properties .......................................................................................................................... 61

Using the Restore Wizard ..................................................................................................................................................... 61

Using the Archive Database .................................................................................................................................................. 65

Data Backup and Rescue ............................................................................................................................ 66

Creating Backup Images ........................................................................................................................................................ 66

Restoring System and Data ................................................................................................................................................... 69

Copy Tasks ................................................................................................................................................. 73

Cloning Hard Disks ................................................................................................................................................................ 73

Cloning Partitions .................................................................................................................................................................. 75

Partition Management ............................................................................................................................... 77

Basic Partitioning Operations ............................................................................................................................................... 77

Advanced Partitioning Operations........................................................................................................................................ 81

Changing Partition Attributes ............................................................................................................................................... 83

Hard Disk Management ............................................................................................................................. 86

Converting Dynamic MBR to Basic ....................................................................................................................................... 86

Converting GPT to Basic MBR ............................................................................................................................................... 87

Converting Basic MBR to GPT ............................................................................................................................................... 87

Updating MBR ....................................................................................................................................................................... 88

Changing Primary Slot ........................................................................................................................................................... 88

Task Scheduling ......................................................................................................................................... 90

Setting a Timetable ............................................................................................................................................................... 90

Managing Tasks .................................................................................................................................................................... 91

Creating a Scheduled Task .................................................................................................................................................... 92

Scripting .................................................................................................................................................... 93

Extra Functionality ..................................................................................................................................... 94

View Partition/Hard Disk Properties ..................................................................................................................................... 95

Volume Explorer ................................................................................................................................................................... 95

File Transfer Wizard .............................................................................................................................................................. 96

Mount Partition .................................................................................................................................................................... 98

Mount Archive ...................................................................................................................................................................... 99

Test Surface ........................................................................................................................................................................ 100

Check File System Integrity ................................................................................................................................................. 101

Check Archive Integrity ....................................................................................................................................................... 101

Check Recovery Discs .......................................................................................................................................................... 103

Edit/View Sectors ................................................................................................................................................................ 103

Send Log Files ...................................................................................................................................................................... 104

View Logs ............................................................................................................................................................................ 105

Typical Scenarios ............................................................................................................... 106

Backup Scenarios ..................................................................................................................................... 106

Creating the Backup Capsule .............................................................................................................................................. 106

Backing up a hard disk or partition to the Backup Capsule ................................................................................................ 108

Backing up a hard disk or partition to external media (CD/DVD) ....................................................................................... 110

Backing up a hard disk or partition to a network drive ...................................................................................................... 112

Backing up files to an FTP/SFTP server ............................................................................................................................... 114

Backing up a dual boot Mac to an external USB drive........................................................................................................ 117

Backing up files to a local mounted/unmounted (without drive letter assigned) partition .............................................. 119

Creating a differential to a full partition backup ................................................................................................................ 122

Creating a sector increment to a full partition backup ....................................................................................................... 125

Creating a file increment to a full partition backup ............................................................................................................ 127

Creating an increment to a full file backup ........................................................................................................................ 130

Creating a cyclic partition backup ....................................................................................................................................... 132

Merging a full partition backup with one of its differentials .............................................................................................. 134

Recovery Scenarios .................................................................................................................................. 136

Fixing MBR after a boot virus attack ................................................................................................................................... 136

Correcting BCD (Boot Configuration Data) ......................................................................................................................... 138

Fixing Windows startup ability ........................................................................................................................................... 139

Restoring a hard disk from the bootable Backup Capsule .................................................................................................. 142

Restoring a system partition from external media (CD/DVD) ............................................................................................ 144

Restoring a system partition from a network drive ............................................................................................................ 147

Restoring a system partition from a local drive .................................................................................................................. 150

Restoring a dual boot Mac from an external USB drive ..................................................................................................... 153

Restoring a file increment................................................................................................................................................... 155

Restoring a file increment to a partition backup ................................................................................................................ 157

Copying of data from the corrupted system disk to another hard disk ............................................................................. 160

Burning of data from the corrupted system disk to CD/DVD ............................................................................................. 162

Copying of data from a backup to the corrupted system partition .................................................................................... 164

Restoring separate files and folders from a backup ........................................................................................................... 167

System Migration Scenarios ..................................................................................................................... 172

Migrating system to a new HDD (up to 2.2TB in size) ........................................................................................................ 172

Making system bootable on different hardware (P2P Adjust OS) ...................................................................................... 174

Virtualizing the current system (P2V Copy) ........................................................................................................................ 181

Virtualizing system from its backup image (P2V Restore) .................................................................................................. 185

Creating an empty virtual disk (Create VD) ........................................................................................................................ 189

Making Windows Vista/7 backup bootable on virtual hardware (P2V Adjust OS) ............................................................. 190

Connecting a virtual disk (Connect VD) .............................................................................................................................. 192

Exchanging data between physical and virtual environments ........................................................................................... 198

Copying data from a parent virtual disk to one of its snapshots ........................................................................................ 199

Migrating from one virtual environment to another (V2V) ................................................................................................ 200

Migrating from a virtual environment to physical (V2P) .................................................................................................... 200

Migrating a Windows 7 vhd ................................................................................................................................................ 200

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

Adding specific drivers ........................................................................................................................................................ 201

Configuring network ........................................................................................................................................................... 202

Saving log files ..................................................................................................................................................................... 205

Troubleshooter .................................................................................................................. 206

Glossary ............................................................................................................................. 208

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.

Introduction

Paragon Drive Backup™ 11 Server is a complex disaster recovery and system migration solution. Compared to its predecessor, the current version can boast more efficiency and flexibility. Incremental chains to sector-based disk images and automatic exclusion of supported enterprise-level applications provide for better backup performance, minimize backup storage requirements, and eliminate any interference with special-purpose backup tools. Improved Paragon Adaptive Restore™ makes bare metal restore to dissimilar hardware easy and fast. After P2V migrations you’ve got not a bunch of virtual disks, but ready-to-use virtual machines. You can even get access to and connect disks of Windows guest machines hosted by ESX Server for maintenance or migration, etc.

In this manual you will find the answers to many of the technical questions, which might arise while using the program.

What’s New in Drive Backup 11

 Incremental backup to a sector image is a further way of optimizing the process of disk imaging. Unlike

differentials, it may not only contain data changed since the time of creating a full sector-based archive, but one of its increments as well, thus allowing to save more time and the backup storage. Introduction of a special index file that stores backup meta-information minimizes time and resources to create this type of archives.

 Exclude filters for supported enterprise-level applications (MS Exchange, SQL, SharePoint, Hyper-V, VMware

Server) to provide for better backup performance of your Windows server, to minimize backup storage requirements, to eliminate any interference with special-purpose backup tools.

 The updated P2P Adjust OS Wizard to successfully start up a Windows physical system on a different hardware

platform (P2P) by allowing injection of all required drivers and the other actions crucial for this type of migration. Including the third generation of Paragon’s Adaptive Restore™ technology, it now can:

- Analyze all installed drivers inside a target system to report on devices without drivers.

- Search for and install lacking drivers from the built-in Windows repository.

- Notify the user about boot critical devices without drivers (HDD/RAID controllers, etc.), automatically

prompting to provide a path to a driver repository.

- Name all devices according to their model description, not some alphanumeric code, which requires

additional deciphering.

- Determine and install drivers not only for boot critical devices, but for physically connected NICs as well.

 The updated P2V Copy/Restore Wizards to migrate a Windows physical system (live or from a Paragon’s

backup) to a virtual environment of one of the supported virtualization software vendors. In the latest version of the product the wizards enable to:

- Create and properly configure virtual machines according to your preferences. Depending on the selected

virtualization vendor you’ve got the option to specify a version of the future virtual machine, its name, location, RAM to allocate, a disk controller, the guest OS, etc. So when the migration is over, you’ll get not

only a virtual disk that contains an operating system and/or data, but a ready-to-use virtual machine.

- Convert any combination of hard disks and partitions to migrate your entire computer or certain partitions

in one operation. Complex backups that contain partitions from different hard disks are supported as well.

- Employ MS VSS (Volume Shadow Copy Service) to synchronously migrate from several hard disks, thus

ensuring data consistency during online migration of a system, which seats on several partitions or hard disks. This is achieved by taking a point-in-time snapshot of the whole disk subsystem.

- When migrating from several hard disks, all their signatures will be kept intact, so you’ll get the same drive

letters in a virtual environment.

 The updated P2V Adjust OS Wizard allows creation of virtual machines as well, so besides its primary function,

you can now build virtual machines out of supported virtual disks or Windows Vista/7 backup images.

 Create VD Wizard to create an empty virtual disk or with specific data of one of the supported virtualization

vendors.

 Improved Connect VD to connect a virtual disk as if it’s an ordinary physical disk, thus opening up all

functionality available for physical disks to virtual. You’ve now got the option to:

- Mount Paragon’s backups (.pbf images).

- Mount a virtual disk in the non-destructive mode. It’s a special read/write mode, when all changes on the

connected disk are being saved to a snapshot, thus providing complete safety for the original disk’s

contents. If needed, this snapshot can later be merged with its parental disk by using standard tools of virtualization software vendor.

- Connect to ESX Server through vSphere interface to accomplish drive partitioning, data exchange, or OS

migration of Windows virtual environments hosted by ESX. You’ve got the option to do these operations from one of Windows OS guests or from outside.

- Mount a virtual disk in the read-only mode to make sure no data will be changed on the virtual disk during

copy or any other operation on it.

 Support of Oracle VirtualBox 4.0.  Backup files or entire disks to an FTP/SFTP server to provide a new level of system and data protection.  Better performance for backup operations by employing asynchronous data transfer.  Automatic backup/restore of ACL (Access Control List) for file backups to inherit access permissions for backup

contents when restoring to a different location.

 Password protection for file backups to prevent unauthorized access to your personal data.  Automatic partition alignment during partitioning/copy operations to optimize performance of your hard disk.  Check FS Integrity and Data Loss Policies to let you specify the acceptable balance between the operation

performance and the risk of data loss.

 Conversion of basic MBR disks to basic GPT to enjoy all benefits of the newest partitioning scheme with

minimal effort.

 The updated Boot Corrector for WinPE that now equals the functionality of the Linux/DOS counterpart.  WinPE traceroute/ping utility to get detailed information on particular routes and measure transit delays of

packets across an Internet Protocol (IP) network.

This feature is only available for the Windows installation of the program.

 Support of the restart-free installation.

Product Components

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

 Windows based set of utilities is the crucial part of the product. With the help of an easy to use 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 is a multi-platform bootable media that enables to 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 discs. 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. Especially for keen followers of Windows, our product offers the option to

prepare a WinPE 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.

Features Overview

This chapter dwells upon key benefits and technical highlights of the product.

Features

Let us list some of the features:

User Friendly Fault Minimizing Interface

 Graphical representation of the data to gain a better understanding.  A handy Launcher to easily find and run the required tasks.  Comprehensive wizards to simplify even the most complex operations.  A context sensitive hint system for all functions of the program.  Previewing the resulting layout of hard disks before actually executing operations (so-called virtual

operations).

Backup Facilities

 Archive Database to help the user easily manage backup images (get properties, add, delete, mount, etc.).

 Available location for backup images:

- Backup to local mounted partitions.

This feature is only available for the Windows installation of the program.

- Backup to local unmounted (without drive letter assigned) partitions.

- Backup to an external mounted storage to provide for a higher level of data protection and system independence.

- Backup 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.

- Backup to external media (CD/DVD) to guarantee a high level of data protection as long as the backup media is kept secure.

- Backup to a network drive to stand a better chance of success in case of a hard disk failure.

- Backup to an FTP/SFTP server to provide a new level of system and data protection.

 Smart Backup Wizard to secure system and data with the minimal efforts possible. With a 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.

 Differential backup to a sector image to only archive changes since the last full sector-based image, thus

considerably saving the backup storage space. To restore this kind of backup you will require a full image and one of its differentials.

 Incremental backup to a sector image is a further way of optimizing the process of disk imaging. Unlike

 Incremental backup to a file image to only archive changes since the last full or incremental file-based image.

An incremental image is smaller and takes less time to create, but you will require the initial full image and all of its incrementals to restore the latest point of this kind of backup.

 File backup to a sector image. It 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 disk imaging 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 sectorbased backup to keep updated only information that is critical for you. Thus you will considerably save your system resources.

 Cyclic backup to automate the backup of separate partitions. It is an ideal option if you want to establish a self-

acting data protection system.

 Synthetic backup to change any property (merge a given differential image with its full image, split/un-split,

compress/de-compress, etc.) of an existing backup image without carrying out a physical backup operation.

This feature is only available for the bootable recovery environment.

Copy functionality can also be used as an alternative way of data protection.

Virtualization is the latest trend in the system migration, protection, and evaluation.

 Bootable Backup Capsule to get the choice to launch the Linux or PTS DOS recovery environment every time

you start up the computer. With its help you will be able to run utilities under Linux or PTS DOS, and that way to get access to your hard disk for maintenance or recovery purposes.

Restore Facilities

 Restore an entire disk, separate partitions or only files you need from the previously created backup image.  Restore with Shrink to restore a backup image to a free block of smaller size taking into account only the

amount of actual data of the image.

 Adaptive Restore to successfully migrate a Windows 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.

Copy Facilities

 Partition/hard disk copy to successfully transfer all on-disk information including standard bootstrap code and

other system service structures, thus maintaining the operating system’s working capability.

Virtualization Facilities

 Connect VD to connect a virtual disk as if it’s an ordinary physical disk, thus opening up all functionality available

for physical disks to virtual.

 P2V Copy to migrate a Windows physical system to a virtual environment in the online mode.  P2V Restore to migrate a Windows physical system backed up with a Paragon disaster recovery tool to a virtual

environment.

 P2V Adjust to recover the startup ability after unsuccessful virtualization with a 3rd party tool.  Create VD to create an empty virtual disk or with specific data of one of the supported virtualization vendors.

Partition/Hard Disk Management Facilities

 Basic functions for initializing, partitioning and formatting hard disks (create, format, delete). Instead of the

standard Windows disk tools, the program supports all popular file systems.

 Mount a partition (assign a drive letter) of any file system type to make it available for your operating system.

Scheduling is only available for the Windows installation of the program.

Boot Corrector is only available for the bootable recovery environment.

 Modify file system parameters (make active/inactive, hide/unhide, etc.).  Undelete Partitions Wizard to recover an accidentally deleted partition.

Automatization Facilities

 Task scheduling to automate routine operations. It can be particularly effective when you have to repeat a

sequence of actions on a regular basis.

 Scripting to make the program create a script of any set of operations you need. Besides support of all

operations available in the interactive mode, the unattended mode provides some additional features, such as conditional execution, subroutines, repeatable iterations, disk/partition properties analysis, errors management, etc.

Auxiliary Facilities

 Conversion of basic MBR disks to basic GPT to enjoy all benefits of the newest partitioning scheme with

minimal effort.

 File Transfer Wizard to make such operations as transferring of files/directories or burning of them to CD/DVD

as easy and convenient as possible. Providing access to Paragon backups as regular folders, it may also help to replace corrupted data from a previously created image in case of an operating system failure.

 Volume Explorer is a handy tool when you have different file systems on the disk, whether they contain an

operating system or just data. Volume Explorer will let you explore a file system of any type and provide access to the necessary files and directories regardless of their security attributes.

 Recovery Media Builder to create a bootable recovery media on a CD, DVD disc, or flash memory, which can

later be used to boot and recover your computer in case of an operating system failure. Moreover, with its help you can save data from partitions of your hard disk directly to compact discs or burn ISO-images. The utility supports various formats of laser discs: CD-R/RW, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, DVD-R, DVD+R double layer, Blu-ray and can handle multi-session burning.

 Network Configuration Wizard to establish a network connection on a bootable recovery media either to save a

backup of a partition/hard disk or just several files on a network computer or retrieve a previously made backup from a network computer for recovery purposes.

 Boot Corrector to fix most of the system boot problems that can be a result of a human factor, program error or

a boot virus activity.

Supported Technologies

Along with using innovative technologies from outside, Paragon has developed a number of its own original technologies that make its products unique and attractive for customers:

The maximum number of simultaneously connected virtual disks is limited:

For ESX 4.x – 9 direct connections or 27 through vCenter Server;

For ESXi 4.x – 11 direct connections or 23 through vCenter Server;

For ESXi 5.x – depends on the workload of the host’s hardware resources.

VMware products with prohibited vStorage API (Freeware ESXi, etc.) are not supported.

 Paragon Hot Backup™ technology to back up locked partitions and hard disks under Windows NT+ family

operating systems providing both high operating efficiency as well as low hardware requirements.

 Paragon Hot Copy™ technology to copy locked partitions and hard disks under Windows NT+ family operating

systems providing both high operating efficiency as well as low hardware requirements.

 Paragon Adaptive Restore™ technology to successfully migrate a Windows physical system to a different

hardware platform (P2P).

 Paragon Power Shield™ technology to provide data consistency in case of a hardware malfunction, power

outages or an operating system failure.

 Paragon UFSD™ technology to browse partitions of any file system including hidden and unmounted, modify

and copy files and folders, etc.

 Paragon Restore with Shrink™ technology to restore a backup image to a free block of smaller size taking into

account only the amount of actual data of the image.

 Paragon Smart Partition™ technology to securely perform hard disk partitioning operations of any complexity.  Paragon BTE™ technology to set tasks for execution during the system restart, thus saving from the need to use

a bootable media when modifying system partitions.

 Paragon VIM™ (Virtual Image Management) technology that enables Paragon products work with virtual disks

as though they are physical hard disks.

 Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) to provide the copy/backup infrastructure for the Microsoft

Windows XP/Vista/7/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.

 Microsoft Dynamic Disk (simple, spanned, striped, mirrored, RAID-5) to offer more management flexibility

without the partition limitation of basic disks. Dynamic storage can be particularly beneficial for large-scale businesses when dealing with many physical hard disks involving complex setup.

 GUID Partition Table (GPT). It is the next generation of a hard disk partitioning scheme developed to lift

restrictions of the old MBR. GPT disks are now supported by Windows Vista/7, Server 2008, Mac OS X and Linux.

Supported Virtualization Software

For remote connection to virtual hard drives

 VMware ESX 4.x and higher  VMware ESXi 4.x and higher  VMware ESXi 5.x and higher

For direct access to virtual hard drives

Snapshot disks of Oracle VirtualBox are not supported.

Unfortunately, support of non-Roman characters for the HFS+ file system is unavailable at the moment. The company is about to implement it in the nearest future.

 Microsoft Virtual PC 2007  Microsoft Windows Virtual PC  Microsoft Virtual Server  Microsoft Hyper-V R1/R2  Oracle Virtual Box 1.0-4.x  VMware Player  VMware Workstation  VMware Server  VMware Fusion

Supported virtual hard drive types

 VMware - Virtual Machine Disk Format (VMDK)  Microsoft - Virtual Hard Disk (VHD)  Oracle - Virtual Desktop Image (VDI)  Paragon’s backups (PBF)

Supported virtual machines for P2V scenarios

 Microsoft Virtual PC  Microsoft Virtual Server  Microsoft Hyper-V  VMware Workstation  VMware Fusion  VMware ESX Server  Oracle VirtualBox 4.0

Supported File Systems

 Full read/write access to FAT16/FAT32 partitions.  Full read/write access to NTFS (Basic Disks) under Windows, Linux and PTS DOS. Compressed NTFS files are also

supported.

 Full read/write access to Ext2FS/Ext3FS/Ext4FS partitions.  Limited read/write access to Apple HFS+ partitions.

Supported Media

 Support of both MBR and GPT hard disks (2.2TB+ disks included)  IDE, SCSI and SATA hard disks  SSD (Solid State Drive)  AFD (Advanced Format Drive)  Non-512B sector size drives  CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, DVD-R, DVD+R double layer and also Blu-ray discs  FireWire (i.e. IEEE1394), USB 1.0, USB 2.0, USB 3.0 hard disks  PC card storage devices (MBR and GPT flash memory, etc.)

Getting Started

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

Distribution

Paragon Drive Backup 11 is distributed in two ways:

 Boxed package from Paragon Software 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 recovery environment with auto-run of the Windows installation, thus it can be used as a ready-made solution. 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).

Online Distribution

Drive Backup 11 purchased over the Internet will be in form of an MSI package. After installing the product you can launch the Recovery Media Builder to prepare a recovery media.

Registration

Paragon Software 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 Drive Backup 11, 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 Software GmbH

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

Service

Contact

Visit Paragon Software web site

www.paragon-software.com

Registration & updates web-service

www.paragon-software.com/support

Knowledge Base & Technical Support

kb.paragon-software.com

Pre-sale information

sales@paragon-software.com

You can download Microsoft .NET 4.0 from Microsoft’s website:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0a391abd-25c1-4fc0-919fb21f31ab88b7&displaylang=en

During the installation additional free space (up to 1GB) will be required.

System Requirements

For the Windows installation package

 Windows XP SP3  Windows Server 2003 SP2  Windows Vista  Windows Server 2008

 Windows 7  Windows Server 2008 R2  Windows SBS 2011

Additional requirements:

 To install and run the product the target OS should have Visual Studio C++ 2010 Runtime Library installed

(comes with the installation package – you will be prompted to install it, if it’s not been found in the system).

 To install and run the product the target OS should have Microsoft .NET 4.0 or later installed (you should

download and install it yourself).

 If you installing our product on Windows Server 2003 SP2, you additionally need to have Visual Studio C++ 2005

SP1 Runtime Library installed (you should download and install it yourself).

For the Linux bootable environment

 Intel Pentium CPU or its equivalent, with 300 MHz processor clock speed  256 MB of RAM  SVGA video adapter and monitor  Keyboard  Mouse

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

You can download Microsoft .NET 4.0 from Microsoft’s website:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0a391abd-25c1-4fc0-919fb21f31ab88b7&displaylang=en

For the WinPE bootable environment

 Intel Pentium III CPU or its equivalent, with 1000 MHz processor clock speed  At least 512 MB of RAM  SVGA video adapter and monitor  Keyboard  Mouse

Installation

Before the installation, please make sure the systems requirements are met. If everything is OK, please do the following to install the product:

1. Click on the supplied setup file to initiate the installation. First your system will be checked for the presence of

Visual Studio C++ 2010 Runtime Library and if not found, you will be prompted to install it (comes with the installation package). Click Install to continue.

2. Then your system will be checked for the presence of Microsoft .NET 4.0 or later. If not found, the installation

won’t continue with the corresponding warning:

3. The Welcome page will inform that the application is being installed. Click Next 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.

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.

To know more on how to handle the product’s interface and accomplish typical operations,

please consult the Windows Components chapter.

4. Please Read Paragon License Agreement carefully and then select the appropriate option to accept. Otherwise

you won’t be able to proceed with the installation. By clicking the Print button, the license agreement may also be printed out.

5. Provide your product key and serial number.

6. On the Customer Information page you are to provide the standard customer 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.

7. On the next page, click Change to install the utility to a different location (by default C:\Program Files\Paragon

Software\Paragon Drive Backup™ 11 Server\). Otherwise click Next to continue.

8. On the Ready to Install the Program page click Install to start the installation or Back to return to any of the

previous pages and modify the installation settings.

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

First Start

To start Paragon Drive Backup 11 under Windows, please click the Windows Start button and then select Programs > Paragon Drive Backup™ 11 > Paragon Drive Backup™.

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.

Building 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;  Create from the master CD the Linux/DOS recovery environment on a CD/DVD disc, or flash memory.

There are other ways to start up this function, please consult the Interface Overview chapter to know more on the subject.

Please use Boot Media Builder to prepare the WinPE recovery environment, which you can get here: www.paragon-software.com/my-account/.

Below you can find how to build our Linux/DOS 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. In the Main Menu: select Tools > Recovery Media Builder…

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

4. Select the Flash Memory option.

5. Select the Typical option.

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.

Recovery Media Builder can help you prepare our recovery environment either on a

CD/DVD disc or a thumb drive.

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

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

Booting from the Linux/DOS Recovery Media

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 nonstandard 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.

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

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;

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.

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

 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.

Normal Mode

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

 Drive Backup (enables to run wizards and dialogs, to specify program settings, to visualize the operating

environment and the hard disk configuration);

 Simple Restore Wizard (allows restoring hard disks and partitions);  Disk Copy Wizard (helps to clone a hard disk);  Undelete Partition (allows recovery of accidentally deleted partitions);  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);

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

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.

Please use Boot Media Builder to prepare the WinPE recovery environment, which you can get here: www.paragon-software.com/my-account/.

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

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

 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 for 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 discs.

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 Media

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 the WinPE recovery media.

The WinPE 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 scenario to know how to tackle this issue.

2. Once it has been loaded 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.

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.

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?

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

It allows archiving data of the same 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 amount of data is being changed.

It cannot be used to back up a system partition. It is much slower when processing large amount of data.

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.

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.

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

Full, Differential, and Incremental 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.

Incremental archive is a further way of optimizing the process of disk imaging. Unlike differentials, it may not only contain data changed since the time of creating a full sector-based archive, but one of its increments as well, thus allowing to save more time and the backup storage. The main principal here is the shorter the interval between increments, the less data is backed up. In general this type of backup is great except for one thing – when you restore an incremental archive there will be processed the initial full image and all increments between, which depending on the size of your backup chain, may take plenty of time. Anyway unlike backups, the restore operation is an emergency, which might not happen at all.

Paragon’s incremental sector-based archive employs an innovative technology that significantly improves the backup performance. Its core is in introduction of a special index file (.pfi) that keeps meta-information on the corresponding incremental image. It’s much smaller than the image itself and is used to calculate the difference between the current and previous state of a backup object. Thus, when you’re going to do an increment to a full archive of your system partition stored on the network, only its index file is processed over the net (a couple of megabytes at most), not the entire image, which minimizes both, the network traffic and backup time. Another new thing is change of a backup format – all increments are saved in .vhd (Virtual Hard Drive) containers.

Please note that the current version of the product has a number of limitations regarding sector-based increments:

 Increments can only be created for full archives of the new type (with a .pfi index file). Any of our flagship

products since Hard Disk Manager 12 supports this functionality;

 Increments can only be created for full archives stored on a local mounted drive or a network share;  Increments cannot be created for archives of entire GPT disks;  Increments can only be restored under Windows or WinPE;  Increments cannot be processed with the Synthetic Backup Wizard;  Increments cannot be processed with the Check Archive Integrity Wizard;  Increments cannot be processed with the Create File Complement Wizard;  Increments cannot be browsed in Volume Explorer;  Increments can only be used with our software;  Increments cannot be compressed;  Increments cannot be encrypted;  Increments cannot be splitted.

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 several 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 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/SFTP

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. You cannot restore data selectively (with Restore Wizard) from an FTP/SFTP server.

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

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

Adaptive Restore

Technology Background

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.

In 2008 our company came with an exclusive technology called Paragon Adaptive Restore™. Initially aimed at restore of Windows Vista or Server 2008 from a backup to a different hardware configuration, its current realization, available in the P2P Adjust OS Wizard, enables to make any Windows OS since XP bootable on dissimilar hardware by allowing automatic injection of all required drivers and the other actions crucial for this type of migration.

Technology Concept

Let’s take a closer look at how Paragon Adaptive Restore works.

As you see, successful migration of a Windows system to a different hardware platform involves several actions:

1. Change of the Windows kernel settings according to the new configuration. The program detects the given

hardware profile and automatically installs the appropriate Windows HAL and kernel.

2. Installation of drivers for boot critical devices. The program detects those without drivers and automatically

tries to install lacking drivers from the built-in Windows repository. If there’s no driver in the repository, it prompts the user to set a path to an additional driver repository, strongly recommending not to proceed until all drivers for the found boot critical devices are installed. In case drivers for these devices are installed, but disabled, they will be enabled.

3. Installation of drivers for a PS/2 mouse and keyboard. This action will only be accomplished for Windows

XP/Server 2003.

Though all Windows systems have built-in driver repositories, please be prepared to have additional drivers when dealing with Windows XP/Server 2003, because for these systems they are very modest.

4. Installation of drivers for network cards. The program detects those without drivers and automatically tries to

install lacking drivers from the built-in Windows repository. If there’s no driver in the repository, it prompts the user to set a path to an additional driver repository.

These actions guarantee a Windows system will start up on dissimilar hardware. After the startup, Windows will initiate

reconfiguration of all Plug'n'Play devices. It’s a standard procedure, so please don’t worry and prepare the latest drivers

at this step to get the most out of the system.

Technology Application

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

 If you need to migrate to a different hardware platform with minimal effort  If you need to upgrade hardware while keeping all programs and settings intact  If you need to replace failed hardware and cannot find an exact match for original system specifications

Known Issues

1. After transferring Microsoft Vista and later versions to different hardware, 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.

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. 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.

3. If your system hosts several Windows OSes, our program will find them all and automatically patch to run in a

virtual environment. However we cannot guarantee smooth startup of all found Windows systems, but the guest OS, for its configuration parameters may be incompatible with the others.

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.

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

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-intime 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.

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.

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.

 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 Intelbased 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.

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, systemlevel 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 defragmentation 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 work-load. 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.

Windows Components

In the given section you can find all the information necessary to successfully work with the Windows version of the product.

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

MENU ITEM

FUNCTIONALITY

Tools

View Log Files

View logs on the carried out operations

Send Log Files

Compress and send the log to the Paragon Support Team

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:

Log Saver

A wizard will help you collect and send logs to the Paragon Support Team

Recovery Media Builder…

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

Check Recovery Discs…

Verify the recovery media for integrity and ability to boot from

File Transfer Wizard…

Transfer data from any media

Settings...

Edit the general settings of the program

Exit

Exit the program

Changes

Generate Script…

Generate a script for the task

Save to Scheduler…

Schedule pending operations

Undo `the last virtual operation`

Cancel the last virtual operation on the List of Pending Operations

Redo `the last virtual operation`

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

View Changes…

Display the List of Pending Operations

Apply Changes

Launch the real execution of virtual operations

Discard All Changes

Cancel all virtual operations on the List of Pending Operations

Reload Disk Info

Refresh the current information about disks

Wizards

Undelete Partitions…

Recover an accidentally deleted partition

Smart Backup…

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

Differential Backup…

Create a differential to a partition backup

Incremental Backup…

Create an increment to a full or incremental backup of a partition or hard disk

Create a File Complement…

Create a file increment to a full partition backup

Create a File Increment…

Create an increment to a file backup

Restore…

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

P2P Adjust OS…

Make your system bootable on different hardware

Manage Backup Capsule…

Create and manage the backup capsule

Check Archive Integrity…

Perform integrity check for the required backup image

Cyclic Backup…

Automate a partition backup

Synthetic Backup…

Change any property of an existing archive (splitting, password protection, compression level, etc.) without accomplishing the backup operation

Create Virtual Disk…

Create an empty virtual disk or with specific data of one of the supported virtualization vendors

P2V Copy…

Migrate a live Windows physical system to a virtual environment

P2V Restore…

Migrate a Windows physical system backed up with a Paragon disaster recovery tool to a virtual environment

P2V Adjust OS…

Make Windows Vista/7 backups bootable on virtual hardware; recover the startup ability after unsuccessful virtualization with a 3rd party tool

Copy Hard Disk…

Create a hard disk copy

Schedule Hard Disk Copy…

Set a timetable for a hard disk copy

Copy Partition…

Create a partition copy

Schedule Partition Copy…

Set a timetable for a partition copy

Hard Disk

Back Up Hard Disk…

Create a backup archive of the selected hard disk

Burn Hard Disk to CD or DVD…

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

Restore Hard Disk…

Restore the selected hard disk from a backup image

Convert to Basic…

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

Convert to Basic MBR hard

disk…

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

Convert to GPT hard disk

Convert a basic MBR disk into a basic GPT disk

Update MBR

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

Change Primary Slots…

Modify the primary partitions enumeration for the selected hard disk

Copy Hard Disk…

Create a copy of the selected hard disk

Edit/View Sectors…

View/edit sectors of the selected hard disk

Connect a Virtual Disk

Connect a virtual disk to work with it as if it’s a physical disk

Disconnect a Virtual Disk

Disconnect a virtual disk

Properties…

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

Partition

Create Partition…

Create a partition

Format Partition…

Format a partition

Delete Partition…

Delete a partition

Back Up Partition…

Create a backup archive of the selected partition

Burn Partition to CD or DVD…

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

Restore Partition…

Restore the selected partition from a backup image

Assign Drive Letter…

Assign drive letter to the selected partition

Remove Drive Letter…

Remove drive letter for the selected partition

Hide Partition…

Make the selected partition unavailable for the operating system

Unhide Partition…

Make the selected partition available for the operating system

Mark Partition as Active

Make the selected partition bootable by default

Mark Partition as Inactive

Make the selected partition non-bootable by default

Change Volume Label…

Change volume label of the selected partition

Change Serial Number…

Change serial number of the selected partition

Change Partition ID…

Change identifier of the selected partition

Test Surface…

Test surface of the selected partition/block of free space

Check File System

Integrity…

Check the selected partition for possible file system errors

Edit/View Sectors…

View/edit sectors of the selected partition

Properties…

Get in-depth information on the properties of selected partition

View

Layouts

Manage the Launcher layout with several predefined profiles

Toolbar

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

Status Bar

Display the Status Bar

Common Tasks Bar

Display the Common Tasks Bar

Disk Map Legend

Display the Disk Map legend

Disk Map Location

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

Help

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

About

Open the dialog with information about the program

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

BUTTON

FUNCTIONALITY

Back up exactly what you need with Smart Backup Wizard

Restore a disk, partition, or files

Copy a hard disk

Copy a partition

Collect and send logs to Support

Open the Help system

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

Tool Bar

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

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.

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:

Backup Tasks

Starting the Smart Backup Wizard to 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.

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

Advanced Backup Tasks

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.

Virtualization Tasks

Starting the Create Virtual Disk Wizard to create an empty virtual disk or with specific data of one of the supported virtualization vendors.

Starting the P2V Copy Wizard to migrate a Windows system to a virtual environment by converting all installed software and data into a virtual machine.

Starting the P2V Restore Wizard to restore a Windows physical system from a backup directly to a virtual environment.

Starting the P2V Adjust OS Wizard to restore functionality of a virtual environment after unsuccessful virtualization with 3-rd party tools; prepare

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. Each tab includes a separate button bar which can be folded by clicking it.

virtual machines out of supported virtual disks or Windows .vhd backup images.

Copy Tasks

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

Starting the Copy Partition Wizard to copy a partition.

Tools

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.

Starting the Log Saver Wizard to collect and send logs to Support.

Help 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.

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

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.

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

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

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

 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

 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:

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



To get a detailed description to any setting, control, or field of the program just click the hint button and then the object you need.

- 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.

General Options

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

 Partition Alignment mode. There are three options you can choose from:

- Legacy. DOS and Windows OSes before Vista required that partitions had to be aligned to the “disk cylinder”

or 63 sectors to address and access sectors correctly. It was OK, until 4K hard drives came into scene. When partitions are aligned this way on this type of disk, each logical cluster is linked to two physical 4K clusters, thus resulting in a double read-write operation.

- Vista. Since Windows Vista, operating systems do not use the archaic CHS (cylinder/head/sector) addressing

scheme, but the Logical Block Addressing (LBA), where sectors are addressed continuously over the whole disk drive. It is optimal for both, 512B and new 4K disk drivers.

- Inheritance. Select the option to disable automatic alignment of partitions.

 Check FS integrity policy. Accomplishment of any data-sensitive operation (resize, move, merge, redistribute,

change cluster size, etc.) is potential with data loss. To minimize this risk, it’s recommended to check integrity of your file system before this type of operations, despite the fact that it’s quite time consuming. We offer you several options to let you choose, which is best for you:

- Always. Maximum protection, but minimal performance. The file system integrity will be checked each time

it’s necessary to guarantee the maximum protection for the on-disk data.

- Once. Standard protection with acceptable performance. The file system integrity will be checked for each

volume only once just before accomplishing data-sensitive operations.

- Never. No protection, but maximum performance. If you’re not 100% sure your disk is rock solid, please do

not use this option.

 Data Loss Protection mode. To guarantee safety for your information when a data-sensitive operation has been

abruptly interrupted as a result of a computer reset, or a power outage, there are several techniques, that correspond to the options below:

- Do not protect. No protection, but maximum performance. If you’re not 100% sure you’re completely safe

from a power outage, or an accidental reset of your computer, please do not use this option.

- Reset. Standard protection with acceptable performance. Maintaining a special journal, our program

enables to automatically complete a data-sensitive operation interrupted by an accidental reset of your computer from our bootable recovery media, thus reviving the corrupted partition.

- Power loss. Maximum protection, but minimal performance. Besides journaling, our program will also

disable cache of your disk when accomplishing data-sensitive operations to avoid data loss even in case of a power outage.

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.

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

 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.

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

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.

By clicking the link at the bottom of the window you can jump to the Copy/Backup Exclude

Options.

 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.

 Automatic BCD Update. Unmark the checkbox to suppress automatic update of BCD (Boot Configuration Data)

after copy/restore operations.

CD/DVD/BD Recording Options

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

 Burn every CD/DVD/BD 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/BD 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/BD 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/BD.

 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/BD boot capability. The program enables to choose whether any recorded CD/DVD/BD 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/BD, but

create an ISO image file, this very folder will be used to contain these images.

Hot Processing Options

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

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 Hot Processing

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

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.

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.

Partitioning Options

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

 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.

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.

When you’re ready with the settings, click on the Send test e-mail button to check if everything is OK.  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.

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

We strongly recommend you to enable this mode.

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 email notification on its completion or not.

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.

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

An incorrectly chosen codepage will certainly result in corruption of non-English file names.

 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.

 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.

 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

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

Backup 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.

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:

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:

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.

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.

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.

FTP Sites Options

In this section you can manage online backup storages located on FTP or SFTP servers. By clicking on available buttons, you can create, modify, delete an FTP/SFTP location, etc.

To create an FTP/SFTP location, you’ve got to specify a number of options:

You need to check out yourself Windows Firewall or programs of this kind let our program work with the required port (21 for FTP and 22 for SFTP by default).

 Use SFTP connection. Mark the option to connect to the desired SFTP server if necessary;  Address. Type in an address to the desired server;  Port. Specify the required port (21 for FPT and 22 for SFTP by default);  Anonymous login. Mark the option to set up anonymous connection. Typical username for this type of login is

“anonymous”;

 Use Active Mode (only for FTP). Mark the option if your provider requires this type of authentication;  Allow Open SSH key-based authentication (only for SFTP). If your provider requires this type of authentication,

mark the option to specify public and private keys and a passphrase;

 Login. Enter a login;  Password. Enter a password. Click Remember password to save it next time you back up to this location;  Name. By default, the program uses the provided address as the connection name, which can be modified

however.

By clicking the Connect button the provided location will be checked. If ok, you’ll get a new item on the list named after this location. By clicking the + icon you can browse it to specify a more exact location for your backups.

Application-level Exclude Options

In this section you can see all found enterprise-level applications supported by our program (if any installed). Please select those, which are protected with specially designed tools, thus excluding them from backup operations. It will help

By manually selecting a writer, you exclude the corresponding file or application from all disk imaging tasks (system writers included). Thus careless use of this functionality may cause corruption of your Windows OS after restore.

you to significantly improve backup performance of your Windows server, minimize backup storage, and eliminate any interference.

Supported enterprise-level applications:

 MS Exchange 2003  MS Exchange 2007  MS Exchange 2010  MS SQL 2005  MS SQL 2008  MS SQL 2008 R2  MS SharePoint 2007  MS SharePoint 2010  MS Hyper-V  VMware Server 2.x

Additionally the program displays all other VSS writers running in the system at the moment for you to decide those you don’t need to back up.

Viewing Disk Properties

The main tool to view in-depth information on the properties of hard disks is the Disk Map. It 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 small-sized bars. The smallsized 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.

There are other ways to start up this function, please consult the Interface Overview chapter to know more on the subject.

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 with the following tools:

Using the Restore Wizard

 In the Main menu: select Wizards > Restore…

FLAG

FUNCTIONALITY

Disk archive

Partition archive

File archive

MBR archive

System archive

Encrypted archive

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:

Compressed archive

Complex archive

Filtered archive

Differential archive

Incremental archive

File increment to a partition archive

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

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

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:

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

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. To make your job with the program as easy and convenient as possible, all backup wizards share similar work algorithm. 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.

There are other ways to start up this function, please consult the Interface Overview chapter to know more on the subject.

If selecting Disk or Partitions or Other Files and Folders you will need to specify more exactly the object of operation. To know more on the subject, please consult the Backup

Scenarios chapter.

Smart Backup Wizard Startup

 In the Main Menu: select Wizards > Smart Backup

Smart Backup Wizard Setup

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

 The object to back up. Click on a section you find answering to your task.

- Disk or Partitions to create a sector-based backup of the whole disk system, or only separate partitions;

- E-mail to create a file-based backup of e-mail databases, accounts and address books of MS Outlook, MS Express, and Windows Mail;

- Media Files to create a file-based backup of all media files (photo, video, music, etc) stored in the My Documents folder;

- Documents to create a file-based backup of all office documents stored in the My Documents folder;

- Other Files and Folders to create a file-based backup of any files and folders.

 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.

Result

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

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 files to an FTP/SFTP 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 a sector increment to a full partition backup  Creating a file increment to a full partition backup  Creating an increment to a full file backup  Creating a cyclic partition backup

There are other ways to start up this function, please consult the Interface Overview chapter to know more on the subject.

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

 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

 In the Main Menu: select Wizards > Restore…

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

 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. 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.

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

To make Windows bootable on different hardware, please additionally complete the P2P

Adjust OS Wizard.

 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.

Result

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

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

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

There are other ways to start up this function, please consult the Interface Overview chapter to know more on the subject.

 Restoring a file increment to a partition backup  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.

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.

Startup

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

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.

- Use exclude masks. By default the program doesn’t take into account exclude filters set in the Settings

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

- Don’t estimate size after excludes. You can save time by suppressing calculation of the resulted amount of

data to copy after using excludes. Please note however, if you use this option, drives that smaller in size than the source disk will be unavailable to use as destination.

 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

To make Windows bootable on different hardware, please additionally complete the P2P

Adjust OS Wizard.

There are other ways to start up this function, please consult the Interface Overview chapter to know more on the subject.

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.

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.

Result

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

Available operation scenarios:

 Migrating system to a new HDD (up to 2.2TB in size)

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

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

Setup

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

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

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 data.

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.

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

 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.

Result

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

To make Windows bootable on different hardware, please additionally complete the P2P

Adjust OS Wizard.

There are other ways to start up this function, please consult the Interface Overview chapter to know more on the subject.

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 within a block of un-partitioned space.

Restrictions

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

2. 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.

3. The program cannot create new partitions on Dynamic Disks.

Dialog Startup

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

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

Dialog 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.



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.

 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.

 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.

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. Depending on the chosen file system, the following options become available:



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

There are other ways to start up this function, please consult the Interface Overview chapter to know more on the subject.

 Use OS built-in routine. Mark the option to restrict the available values according to the used OS.  The amount of sectors per cluster. Define the Cluster Size for the formatted partition with this spinner control.

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

- HFS+

- NTFS

- Ext2

- Ext3

- Ext4

- Linux Swap v. 2

Dialog Startup

1. Select a partition on the Disk Map;

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



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

Dialog 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 checkbox to restrict the available values according to the used OS.  The amount of sectors per cluster. Define the Cluster Size for the formatted partition with this spinner control.

Result

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

Deleting Partitions

Dialog Startup

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

1. Select a partition on the Disk Map;

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

There are other ways to start up this function, please consult the Interface Overview chapter to know more on the subject.

Dialog 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.

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.

Advanced Partitioning Operations

Here you can learn how to accomplish advanced partitioning operations.

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

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

Setup

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

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

 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.

 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.

There are other ways to start up this function, please consult the Interface Overview chapter to know more on the subject.

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

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

3. The operation will be performed immediately after confirmation.

There are other ways to start up this function, please consult the Interface Overview chapter to know more on the subject.

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

There are other ways to start up this function, please consult the Interface Overview chapter to know more on the subject.

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

3. The operation will be performed immediately after confirmation.

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. Select in the Main Menu: Partition > Modify > 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:

There are other ways to start up this function, please consult the Interface Overview chapter to know more on the subject.

1. Select a partition on the Disk Map.

2. Select in the Main Menu: Partition > Modify > 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 reformatting.

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

1. Select a partition on the Disk Map.

2. Select in the Main Menu: Partition > Modify > Change 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.

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

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.

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. Select 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 GPT 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. Select 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.

Converting Basic MBR to GPT

The program allows you to easily convert a basic MBR disk into a basic GPT disk while keeping its contents intact. The operation is quite safe for the on-disk data, but you should know that only 64-bit Windows OSes since Vista are able to boot from this type of disks. So if you’ve got a 32-bit Windows OS accommodated on a disk you’d like to convert to GPT, it won’t start up after the operation is over.

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

1. Select a basic MBR hard disk on the Disk Map.

2. Select in the Main Menu: Hard Disk > Convert to GPT hard disk.

The program can only convert basic MBR disks.

There are other ways to start up this function, please consult the Interface Overview chapter to know more on the subject.

3. The operation will be performed immediately after confirmation.

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

3. The operation will be performed immediately after confirmation.

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

There are other ways to start up this function, please consult the Interface Overview chapter to know more on the subject.

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. Select in the Main Menu: Hard Disk > 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.

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.

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.

This feature can be particularly beneficial when the Scheduled Tasks list contains too many items.

There are other ways to start up this function, please consult the Interface Overview chapter to know more on the subject.

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.

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. Click the Properties button on the Scheduled Tasks list.

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…;

This command is unavailable if there are no operations on the List of Pending Operations.

4. In the opened dialog enter the required task name and specify the task timetable;

5. The operation will be performed immediately after confirmation.

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.

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.

 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.

Extra Functionality

This chapter describes the supplementary functionality available in the program.

There are other ways to start up this function, please consult the Interface Overview chapter to know more on the subject.

View Partition/Hard Disk Properties

The program enables to obtain in-depth information on the properties of hard disks and partitions. Besides the general information, such as capacity, used space or file system type it provides the possibility to get info on hard disk geometry, cluster size, exact partition location, etc.

To get properties on a partition/hard disk, please do the following:

1. Choose a partition/hard disk on the Disk Map.

2. Select in the Main Menu: Partition/Hard Disk > Properties…

In the opened dialog information will be grouped according to its properties, thus by clicking tabs you can get information you need.

Volume Explorer

Volume Explorer is a special tool to browse and export contents of the local mounted/unmounted volumes formatted to FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, Ext2FS, Ext3FS, Ext4FS file systems. Besides it enables to access Paragon backups as regular folders to explorer their contents or to retrieve certain files.

To launch the Volume Explorer you should click Disk View tab in the Explorer Bar and then choose Volume Explorer:

There are other ways to start up this function, please consult the Interface Overview chapter to know more on the subject.

Call the popup menu for the selected file/folder (right click of the mouse button) to export it to some other location (local or network drive, etc.).

Available operation scenarios:

 Restoring separate files and folders from a backup

File Transfer Wizard

File Transfer Wizard is designed to make such operations as copying of separate files/directories or burning of them to CD/DVD as easy and convenient as possible. It may be of particular use in case of a system malfunction, caused either by a virus attack or files corruption, in order to get the system back on track again. Besides it provides access to Paragon backups as regular folders to browse through their contents or copy required files.

Startup

 Select in the Main Menu: Tools > File Transfer Wizard.

Files/directories deleted from the Clipboard remain intact on source disks.

Setup

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

 Place to look for files/directories. Select a source disk from the pull-down list in the left pane of the page. The

program enables to process both mounted and unmounted (without drive letter assigned) partitions. Besides it is possible to map a network drive.

 Object(s) of operation. Choose files/directories you want to copy and place them to Clipboard by pressing the

Add button. To delete a file/directory from the Clipboard, select it in the Clipboard pane and press the Remove button. You can also create a new folder, rename or irreversibly delete existing files/directories of the left pane by pressing the appropriate buttons.

 Destination to store the object(s). The File Transfer Wizard allows copying data to local or network drives, to

physical partitions (without drive letters assigned), or burning them to CD/DVDs. Choose the way the data will be stored.

There are other ways to start up this function, please consult the Interface Overview chapter to know more on the subject.

 Revision of changes. The Transfer Summary page provides structurally divided information on all the actions

made in the wizard. Check the changes and come back to any step of the wizard (if necessary) by following the required hyperlink.

Result

After the operation is completed the required data will be placed into the specified destination.

Available operation scenarios:

 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

Mount Partition

The program enables to assign or remove drive letters of existing formatted partitions.

Assign Drive Letter

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

1. Select a partition on the Disk Map.

2. Select in the Main Menu: Partition > Assign Drive Letter…

3. Specify a drive letter for the selected partition. Initially the program suggests some consistent value for this

parameter. So you may just press the Yes button to confirm the operation.

However you can manually define the required letter by selecting it from the pull-down list of available drive letters.

4. The operation will be performed immediately after confirmation.

There are other ways to start up this function, please consult the Interface Overview chapter to know more on the subject.

Modifying drive letter of the system partition will result in inability to boot the operating system.

After having processed partitions with installed software, some programs may not run properly.

There are other ways to start up this function, please consult the Interface Overview chapter to know more on the subject.

Remove Drive Letter

In order to un-mount a partition you should take the following steps:

1. Select a partition on the Disk Map.

2. Select in the Main Menu: Partition > Remove Drive Letter.

3. The operation will be performed immediately after confirmation.

Mount Archive

The program provides the ability to assign a drive letter to a partition backup image. As a result of the operation you will get a new read-only partition in the system to easily browse through its contents and copy the required information even with the standard Windows tools.

Assign Drive Letter

In order to mount an archive you should take the following steps:

1. Select a backup image in the Archive Database.

2. Select in the Main Menu: Archives > Mount the Selected Archive.

3. Specify a drive letter for the selected backup image. Initially the program suggests some consistent value for this

parameter. So you may just press the Yes button to confirm the operation.

However you can manually define the required letter by selecting it from the pull-down list of available drive letters.

100

The current version of the program allows the user to mount archives of separate partitions only.

There is no possibility to mount archives located on physical (unmounted) partitions or in the bootable capsule.

Archives will only be mounted for the current session and won’t be available after the

system restart.

It is strongly recommended not to un-mount backup images with Windows Disk Manager or other third side software.

There are other ways to start up this function, please consult the Interface Overview chapter to know more on the subject.

4. The operation will be performed immediately after confirmation.

Remove Drive Letter

In order to un-mount a backup image you should take the following steps:

1. Select a backup image in the Archive Database.

2. Select in the Main Menu: Archives > Unmount the Selected Archive.

3. The operation will be performed immediately after confirmation.

Test Surface

The program enables to test surface of existing partitions and blocks of free space for bad or unstable sectors. If found any it automatically marks them unusable in the file system metadata, thus minimizing the risk of data loss.

In order to start the surface test you should take the following steps:

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

2. Select in the Main Menu: Partition > Test Surface…

3. From the pull-down list choose the level of the surface check.

4. The operation will be performed immediately after confirmation.

Paragon Drive Backup - 11.0 Server Operation Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual