Paragon Hard Disk Manager - 14 Suite Operation Manual

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

Hard Disk Manager™ 14 Suite

User Manual

Contents

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

What’s New in Hard Disk Manager 14 ......................................................................................................... 7

Product Components ............................................................................................................. 8

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

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

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

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

Restore Facilities ................................................................................................................................................................... 10

Copy Facilities ....................................................................................................................................................................... 10

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

Boot Management Facilities ................................................................................................................................................. 11

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

Wipe Facilities ....................................................................................................................................................................... 11

Automatization Facilities ...................................................................................................................................................... 11

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

Supported Data Erasure Algorithms ........................................................................................................... 12

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

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

Supported virtual hard drive types ....................................................................................................................................... 13

Supported virtual machines for P2V scenarios ..................................................................................................................... 13

Supported File Systems .............................................................................................................................. 13

Supported Media ....................................................................................................................................... 13

Getting Started .................................................................................................................... 14

System Requirements ................................................................................................................................ 14

Installation ................................................................................................................................................ 15

First Start ................................................................................................................................................... 16

Building Recovery Media ............................................................................................................................ 16

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

Startup .................................................................................................................................................................................. 17

Boot menu ............................................................................................................................................................................ 17

Booting from the WinPE Recovery Media ................................................................................................... 20

Startup .................................................................................................................................................................................. 20

Basic Concepts ..................................................................................................................... 21

System and Data Protection ....................................................................................................................... 21

File Backup versus Sector Backup ......................................................................................................................................... 21

Backup Types ........................................................................................................................................................................ 22

Backup Storage ..................................................................................................................................................................... 24

Adaptive Restore .................................................................................................................................................................. 24

System Virtualization ................................................................................................................................. 26

Paragon Hot Processing & Volume Shadow Copy Service ............................................................................ 26

Offline versus Online Data Processing .................................................................................................................................. 26

Paragon Hot Processing Technology .................................................................................................................................... 27

Volume Shadow Copy Service .............................................................................................................................................. 27

pVHD Support ............................................................................................................................................ 28

GPT versus MBR ......................................................................................................................................... 28

uEFI Boot Challenges .................................................................................................................................. 28

Apple Boot Camp ....................................................................................................................................... 29

64-bit Support ............................................................................................................................................ 29

Copy Operations ........................................................................................................................................ 29

Drive Partitioning ....................................................................................................................................... 30

Data Sanitization........................................................................................................................................ 30

Data Security Standards ............................................................................................................................. 31

Scheduling ................................................................................................................................................. 32

Windows Components ........................................................................................................ 32

Interface Overview .................................................................................................................................... 32

General Layout ...................................................................................................................................................................... 32

Tool Button ........................................................................................................................................................................... 33

Ribbon Panel ......................................................................................................................................................................... 34

Virtual Operations Bar .......................................................................................................................................................... 34

Express Mode Button ........................................................................................................................................................... 34

Disk Map ............................................................................................................................................................................... 35

Disk and Partitions List .......................................................................................................................................................... 35

Context-sensitive Menu ........................................................................................................................................................ 36

Properties Panel .................................................................................................................................................................... 37

Status Bar .............................................................................................................................................................................. 38

Settings Overview ...................................................................................................................................... 38

General Options .................................................................................................................................................................... 38

Backup Image Options .......................................................................................................................................................... 39

General Copy and Backup Options ....................................................................................................................................... 40

CD/DVD/BD Recording Options ............................................................................................................................................ 41

Hot Processing Options ......................................................................................................................................................... 42

Wipe Options ........................................................................................................................................................................ 43

Partitioning Options .............................................................................................................................................................. 43

E-Mail Options ...................................................................................................................................................................... 44

Virtual Mode Options ........................................................................................................................................................... 44

File System Conversion Options ........................................................................................................................................... 45

Copy/Backup Exclude Options .............................................................................................................................................. 46

File Backup Exclude Options ................................................................................................................................................. 47

File Backup Include Options.................................................................................................................................................. 48

Log Files Options ................................................................................................................................................................... 49

FTP Sites Options .................................................................................................................................................................. 50

Viewing Disk Properties ............................................................................................................................. 51

Viewing Image Properties .......................................................................................................................... 51

Using the Restore Wizard ..................................................................................................................................................... 51

Using the Archive Database .................................................................................................................................................. 54

Data Backup and Rescue ............................................................................................................................ 55

Creating Backup Images ........................................................................................................................................................ 55

Restoring System and Data ................................................................................................................................................... 58

Copy Tasks ................................................................................................................................................. 63

Cloning Hard Disks ................................................................................................................................................................ 63

Cloning Partitions .................................................................................................................................................................. 66

Boot Management ..................................................................................................................................... 67

Partition Management ............................................................................................................................... 68

Basic Partitioning Operations ............................................................................................................................................... 69

Advanced Partitioning Operations........................................................................................................................................ 77

Changing Partition Attributes ............................................................................................................................................... 88

Hard Disk Management ............................................................................................................................. 90

Converting Basic MBR to GPT ............................................................................................................................................... 90

Updating MBR ....................................................................................................................................................................... 90

Wipe Tasks ................................................................................................................................................ 91

Task Scheduling ......................................................................................................................................... 94

Setting a Timetable ............................................................................................................................................................... 94

Managing Tasks .................................................................................................................................................................... 95

Creating a Scheduled Task .................................................................................................................................................... 97

Extra Functionality ..................................................................................................................................... 97

View Partition/Hard Disk Properties ..................................................................................................................................... 97

Volume Explorer ................................................................................................................................................................... 98

File Transfer Wizard ............................................................................................................................................................ 100

Mount Partition .................................................................................................................................................................. 101

Mount Archive .................................................................................................................................................................... 102

Test Surface ........................................................................................................................................................................ 104

Check File System Integrity ................................................................................................................................................. 104

Check Archive Integrity ....................................................................................................................................................... 105

Check Recovery Discs .......................................................................................................................................................... 106

Send Log Files ...................................................................................................................................................................... 107

View Logs ............................................................................................................................................................................ 107

Typical Scenarios ............................................................................................................... 108

Backup Scenarios ..................................................................................................................................... 108

Creating the Backup Capsule .............................................................................................................................................. 108

Backing up a hard disk or partition to the Backup Capsule ................................................................................................ 110

Backing up a hard disk or partition to external media (CD/DVD) ....................................................................................... 112

Backing up a hard disk or partition to a network drive ...................................................................................................... 114

Backing up files to an FTP/SFTP server ............................................................................................................................... 119

Backing up a dual boot Mac to an external USB drive........................................................................................................ 122

Backing up files to a local mounted/unmounted (without drive letter assigned) partition .............................................. 124

Creating a differential to a full partition backup ................................................................................................................ 127

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

Creating an increment to a full file backup ........................................................................................................................ 133

Recovery Scenarios .................................................................................................................................. 135

Correcting EFI parameters .................................................................................................................................................. 135

Correcting BCD (Boot Configuration Data) ......................................................................................................................... 136

Fixing Windows startup ability ........................................................................................................................................... 137

Restoring a hard disk from the bootable Backup Capsule .................................................................................................. 140

Restoring a system partition from external media (CD/DVD) ............................................................................................ 142

Restoring a system partition from a network drive ............................................................................................................ 145

Restoring a system partition from a local drive .................................................................................................................. 152

Restoring a dual boot Mac from an external USB drive ..................................................................................................... 155

Restoring a file increment................................................................................................................................................... 157

Restoring a file increment to a partition backup ................................................................................................................ 160

Copying of data from the corrupted system disk to another hard disk ............................................................................. 162

Burning of data from the corrupted system disk to CD/DVD ............................................................................................. 164

Copying of data from a backup to the corrupted system partition .................................................................................... 166

Restoring separate files and folders from a backup ........................................................................................................... 169

Resize Scenarios ....................................................................................................................................... 174

Creating a new partition to detach operating system from the rest of data ..................................................................... 174

Increasing size of a system partition by taking unused space of an adjacent partition ..................................................... 175

Increasing size of a system partition by taking unused space from any other ................................................................... 176

Increasing size of a system partition by taking unused space of an adjacent logical partition .......................................... 179

Separating OS from media data .......................................................................................................................................... 180

Merging a system partition with an adjacent logical partition........................................................................................... 183

Shrinking a system partition to increase size of a data partition ....................................................................................... 184

Resizing partitions of Apple Boot Camp ............................................................................................................................. 187

Creating Dual Boot Systems ..................................................................................................................... 189

Windows Vista + Windows XP ............................................................................................................................................ 189

Windows XP + Windows Vista ............................................................................................................................................ 194

System Migration Scenarios ..................................................................................................................... 196

Migrating Windows OS to a solid state drive (Migrate OS to SSD) .................................................................................... 196

Migrating system to a new HDD (up to 2.2TB in size) ........................................................................................................ 199

Making system bootable on different hardware (P2P Adjust OS) ...................................................................................... 201

Virtualizing the current system (P2V Copy) ........................................................................................................................ 208

Hard Disk Utilization ................................................................................................................................ 211

Extra Scenarios for WinPE ........................................................................................................................ 213

Adding specific drivers ........................................................................................................................................................ 213

Configuring network ........................................................................................................................................................... 214

Saving log files ..................................................................................................................................................................... 217

Troubleshooter .................................................................................................................. 218

Glossary ............................................................................................................................. 220

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.

In the current version the pVHD support has a promotional goal. In future releases pVHD will gradually take the primary role.

Introduction

Paragon Hard Disk Manager™ 14 Suite is an integrated set of powerful tools that is specially designed to tackle most of the problems you might face while using PC. Its functionality covers all aspects of a computer life cycle beginning from carrying out all the necessary partitioning operations to install the system from scratch and providing its data reliable protection to secure utilization of an outdated hard disk.

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 Hard Disk Manager 14

 Complete uEFI support. Below you can find only new features introduced in this version:

- A 64-bit Windows OS system configured to the uEFI boot mode can be adjusted to successfully start up on

another hard disk during copy/restore accomplished directly under Windows. Previously the uEFI fixup was only available under WinPE;

- A 64-bit Windows OS system configured to the uEFI boot mode will successfully start up in a virtual

environment after P2V migration;

- The Linux-based recovery environment supports systems configured to the uEFI boot mode.

 Enhanced backup format. Paragon introduces a pVHD (Paragon Virtual Hard Drive) format – a special VHD,

optimized for storing backups of virtual and physical machines. It’s very efficient in handling incremental chains,

data de-duplication and synchronization. pVHD allows obtaining backups that are up to four times smaller than original backup objects. What you get by using pVHD:

- Incremental imaging works much faster and rock-stable in comparison with the old PBF;

- Only pVHD images can be used to do immediate virtualization;

- With the new backup technology, Paragon has also achieved easy support of any virtual containers (VMDK,

VHD, etc.).

 Copy/Restore to dissimilar sector size. Previously not allowed, now you can for instance copy or restore

contents of a 512-byte hard disk to a 4k hard disk with no additional actions from your side.

 New UIM (Universal Image Mounter). Apart from PBF images, Universal Image Mounter enables to mount

(assign a drive letter to) pVHD backup images (full and incremental) to browse their contents and retrieve data both, in the program and directly under Windows OS.

 GPT/uEFI compatible Backup Capsule. Paragon's bootable backup capsule is compatible with 64-bit Windows

systems resided on GPT volumes. If having to do with this type of configuration, by selecting one additional option in the Manage Backup Capsule Wizard, you can build a WinPE-based bootable backup capsule to successfully start up PC from it in case of emergency. To accomplish this action, you will need to provide a path

to an .ISO image of the WinPE recovery environment, which can be prepared either with Paragon's Recovery Media Builder or Boot Media Builder.

 Uplifted Recovery Media Builder. Paragon’s Recovery Media Builder, a simple alternative to Boot Media

Builder, can help you prepare either Linux or WinPE-based bootable environment on a USB thumb drive or in an

ISO file (previously only creation of WinPE images on USB was supported). Unlike Boot Media Builder, it doesn’t

require to have Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK) or Automated Installation Kit (WAIK) installed in the system. However, it can only be used under Windows 7 or higher, and its functionality is rather limited.

 Complete support of Windows Storage Spaces. Windows 8 has come with a storage management feature called

the storage spaces. It enables to easily manage large storage pools. In fact it's an expandable virtual container of

defined data size, allowing users to add it as many physical drives as they want until the defined virtual disk’s

limit is reached. This makes it easy to include additional storage devices without having to set up and manage each attached physical storage drive.

 Uplifted Linux Recovery Environment. Started from HDM 14 the Linux-based recovery environment is based on

SuSe 12.3 (more hardware devices supported) and includes:

- P2P Adjust OS Wizard to successfully migrate a Windows physical system to a different hardware platform

(P2P);

- uEFI fixup to clone, restore, migrate 64-bit Windows systems configured to the uEFI boot mode;

- ConnectVD to connect a virtual disk as if it were an ordinary physical disk, thus opening up all functionality

available for physical disks to virtual.

 Separate x86 and x64 installation packages. Please note that started from HDM 14 installation packages do not

include Recovery Media Builder, thus customers can build Linux or WinPE-based recovery media only through special utilities (Recovery Media Builder or Boot Media Builder) obtained from Paragon's website.

 Windows 8.1 support. Our product has been tested to work fine on Windows 8.1 RTM.  New user-friendly interface that is fully compatible with the Windows 8 streamlined, tile-oriented interface:

- Metro-style Express Launcher;

- Ribbon-based full scale launcher.

GUI of the Linux recovery environment has also been uplifted.

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.

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

 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.

- 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.

 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.

This feature is only available for the bootable recovery environment.

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

For PBF images:

 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 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 increments 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.

For pVHD images:

 Backup to VD Wizard to protect separate partitions or entire hard disks.

Restore Facilities

 Restore an entire disk, separate partitions or only files you need from the previously created backup image (for

PBF and pVHD).

 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

 Migrate OS to SSD to move any Windows OS since XP from a regular hard disk to a fast SSD (Solid State Drive)

even of a smaller capacity, thanks to advanced data exclusion capabilities.

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

Virtualization Facilities

 P2V Copy to migrate a Windows physical system to a virtual environment in the online mode.

Boot Management Facilities

 Boot Manager Setup Wizard to easily manage several operating systems on one computer.

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.

 Express Create Partition Wizard to create a new partition in the most appropriate place of a hard disk, format it

to NTFS and then make it available in the system by assigning a drive letter.

 Split Partition Wizard helps you separate OS and data or different types of data by splitting one partition to two

different partitions of the same type and file system.

 Merge Partitions Wizard to consolidate the disk space, which originally belongs to two adjacent partitions

(NTFS, FAT16/FAT32), into a single, larger partition.

 Redistribute Free Space Wizard to increase free space on one partition by up-taking the on-disk unallocated

space and the unused space of other partitions.

 Express Resize Partitions Wizard to increase free space on one partition by up-taking the unused space of an

adjacent partition of a hard disk (including partitions of Apple Boot Camp).

 NTFS hot resize upward to enlarge an NTFS partition (system, locked) without rebooting Windows and

interrupting its work.

 Convert a file system (FAT16/32, NTFS, Apple HFS) without reformatting.  Mount a partition (assign a drive letter) of any file system type to make it available for your operating system.  Modify file system parameters (make active/inactive, hide/unhide, etc.).  Install New OS Wizard to make a system ready to install a new operating system.  Undelete Partitions Wizard to recover an accidentally deleted partition.

Wipe Facilities

 Data wiping to successfully destroy all on-disk information including the standard bootstrap code and other

system service structures.

 Free space clearing to destroy any remnants of deleted files/directories left on disk without affecting the used

data.

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.

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

Boot Corrector is only available for the bootable recovery environment.

To know more on the subject, please consult the Data Security Standards section.

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.

 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 Data Erasure Algorithms

 US DoD 5220.22-M  Custom algorithm

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:

 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.

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.

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

and copy files and folders, etc.

 Paragon Hot Resize™ technology to enlarge NTFS partitions (system, locked) without rebooting Windows and

interrupting its work.

 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.

 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.

 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

Supported virtual hard drive types

 VMware - Virtual Machine Disk Format (VMDK)  Microsoft - Virtual Hard Disk (VHD)

Supported virtual machines for P2V scenarios

 Microsoft Virtual PC  VMware Workstation  VMware Fusion

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

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

 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.

System Requirements

For the Windows installation package

 Windows XP SP3  Windows Vista  Windows 7  Windows 8  Windows 8.1

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).

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

For the WinPE bootable environment

 Intel Pentium III CPU or its equivalent, with 1000 MHz processor clock speed  At least 1 GB of RAM  SVGA video adapter and monitor  Keyboard  Mouse

Additional requirements

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

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.

 Network card to send/retrieve data to/from a network computer  Recordable CD/DVD drive to burn data to compact discs  External USB hard drive to store data.

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

3. 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.

4. Provide your product key and serial number.

5. 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.

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

Software\Paragon Hard Disk Manager 14 Suite Edition\). Otherwise click Next to continue.

7. 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.

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

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.

First Start

To start Paragon Hard Disk Manager 14 under Windows, please click the Windows Start button and then select Programs > Paragon Hard Disk Manager™ 14 > Paragon Hard Disk Manager™.

The first component that will be displayed is called the Express Launcher. Thanks to a well thought-out categorization and hint system, it provides quick and easy access to wizards and utilities that we consider worth using on a regular basis. With its help you can also start up the traditional launcher, the help system or go to the program’s home page.

Building Recovery Media

WinPE- and/or Linux-based recovery environments should be prepared on-site with Paragon’s Recovery Media Builder or Boot Media Builder, which you can download from Paragon’s web site, the My Account section (www.paragon-

software.com/my-account/).To know more on the subject, please consult documentation that comes with these

utilities.

Please use Recovery Media Builder or Boot Media Builder to prepare Paragon's recovery environments on CD/DVD, flash, or in an ISO-image. You can get these utilities 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.

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

32-bit environment

 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.

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

system.

64-bit environment

fails to work properly;

 Reboot. Restart the computer.  Power off. Shut down the computer.

Normal Mode

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

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

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.

 Hard Disk Manager (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);  Wipe Wizard (enables to destroy all on-disk information or only remnants of deleted files/directories);  Express Resize Wizard (enables to increase free space on one partition by up-taking the unused space of an

adjacent partition);

 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);  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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

Full and Differential Sector Backups

A full sector-based backup image includes all contents of a partition or a hard disk at the moment of its creation. If you roll back your system to the initial state on a regular basis, that’s exactly what you’re looking for. But if you want to have multiple backup archives of the same partition reflecting certain time stamps, unchanged data will inevitable be

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

pVHD Support

Paragon introduces a pVHD (Paragon Virtual Hard Drive) format – a special VHD, optimized for storing backups of virtual and physical machines. It’s very efficient in handling incremental chains, data de-duplication and synchronization. pVHD

allows obtaining backups that are up to four times smaller than original backup objects.

In the current version of the product backup images can be made either in the old PBF or the new pVHD. Please note that the pVHD support has a promotional goal. In future releases pVHD will gradually take the primary role.

Below is the list of wizards that allow working with pVHD:

 Backup to VD Wizard (Linux, Windows, WinPE);  Restore from VD Wizard (Linux, Windows, WinPE).

What you get by using pVHD:

 Incremental imaging works much faster and rock-stable in comparison with the old PBF;  Only pVHD images can be used to do immediate virtualization;  With the new backup technology, available for customers as a new backup image format pVHD, Paragon has

also achieved easy support of any virtual containers (VMDK, VHD, etc.).

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)

uEFI Boot Challenges

Introduced back in 2005 by Intel to lift restrictions of the old MBR (Master Boot Record) and PC BIOS (Basic Input/Output System), uEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) is now a recommended platform for new 64-bit Windows 8 computers. And the reason is easy to catch – besides other unique features impossible for the traditional tandem of BIOS+MBR, only a uEFI-based platform enables to accommodate Windows OS on a partition larger than

2.2TB.

Despite all uEFI advantages however, it has one quite naughty issue: a pretty standard operation with a bootable device

for instance involving its connection to another SATA port results in unbootable Windows. You’ll get the same result if

trying to boot from a cloned system hard disk or from a restored hard disk. All these problems originate from the way uEFI+GPT bundle is organized.

Microsoft provides how-to guides to tackle this type of problems, but they demand a great deal of experience from the user, involving the use of the cmd, diskpart and bcdedit tools.

Paragon has a better way! Introducing an elegant technology, realized at the user side as one simple option, you can define a system GPT volume you’re willing to boot from.

Below is a list of wizards where the uEFI switch boot device option can be found:

 Copy Hard Disk Wizard;

The uEFI switch boot device option is only available through the 64-bit WinPE media at the moment.

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.

 Copy Partition Wizard;  Restore Wizard;  Migrate OS to SSD Wizard;  Boot Corrector.

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.

Data Sanitization

Data security is a two-sided problem. It is to be made clear, that providing confidentiality implies not only information to be stored properly, but also be destroyed according to certain rules. The first step to protecting yourself is to know exactly which security precautions work and which do not.

Many people believe the misconception that repartitioning a disk will result in complete destruction of its contents. Actually that is not quite so. Repartitioning the drive only alters references to partitions in the Partition Table, leaving all file data intact. In fact, there are a number of programs available to successfully recover previously deleted partitions.

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Paragon Hard Disk Manager - 14 Suite Operation Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual