Re: FULL Paragon Drive Backup 9.0.5541 Pro Portable
Edel Dieringer
I have both Windows 10 and Windows 11. I have been using Paragon Backup & Recovery software for about a little over a month now. Because the new feature release is coming out soon for both Win 10 & 11. I would like to be prepared. However I have only had my laptop for about a month now and it has Win 11 Home on it. How do I take an image backup of my HD using Paragon? Does this process take a while? Do I really need to do a full image backup?
Another question: Is it possible to copy my current C: drive (in my laptop) as in an image backup using Paragon Backup & Recovery software onto an external HD? I already have a Recovery USB for both my desktop and laptop.
Why do you want a copy of C? Are you thinking of using a clone to slot in if you have a show stopper on the existing?
I always make images because they are much smaller, more flexible and can be restored anywhere (I use VMs for testing).
I can create/restore drive images from within Windows, from the other side of my dual boot, from the Windows Recovery Environment (Settings > Windows update > Advanced options > Additional options > Recovery > Advanced startup > Restart now), from my TBWinRE USB boot drive, or from my BootIt UEFI partitioning USB boot drive.
Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things. We were all once "Average Users".Computer Specs
As a new user of Paragon Backup & Recovery, you created it to ask how to make an image backup using that S/W and, as a long time Paragon user myself, I provided instructions for the method I use that I know works.
I have an additional question regarding my backups. With Paragon, do I need to perform both files/folders backup and disk drives backup on either of my Win 10 and Win 11 machines? Or does the disk drives backup combine what is already in my files and folders upon backing up?
File backup is to allow you to retrieve an old file, either because you deleted it or changed something and need the original. You run these more often, only backup modified files and have multiple backups of your files. They are also a lot smaller and faster than a disk backup.
You could save the files from your laptop to the desktop, then backup the desktop occasionally.
Then you only need to make an image of the laptop once every few months / after a major update or software install.
While the imaging and whole drive/partitions functions that are present in Hard Disk Manager are disabled, all the options the average user will need for file backups are active: compression, post-backup notification and verification, logging, backup retention policies (days, # of backups, out of room), as well as full, incremental (all data since last backup), and differential (all data since last full backup) backups. You may also back up to network locations, which is not always a given in the free backup-software realm.
Uniquely, you can also set combinations of full and incremental/differential backups. This mimics the standard IT strategy of periodic full backups as well as smaller incremental and differential backups. Usually, one full backup a week with incremental or differential backups the other six days.
The logic stems from full backups restoring faster, with incremental (really fast) and differential (fast) backups saving time during the backup phase, which occurs far more often than restoration (hopefully!), where they slow the process.
Backup & Recovery CE uses the Windows Scheduler to run backups. I heartily approve. Many programs install their own scheduler, which to me simply means another unnecessary program running in the background sucking up CPU cycles. Yes, we have processing power to spare these days, but using less of it is more. The minimum interval is daily, but you can also back up each time you log on or run the computer.
What I am sweating is the failure of the disaster recovery restore. The recovery disc, which uses the same GUI and the aforementioned Windows PE, booted fine, and the restore process proceeded apace for the first couple of partitions, but then seemingly had issues creating the actual Windows partition, noting some sort of Windows error.
Jon Jacobi is a musician, former x86/6800 programmer, and long-time computer enthusiast. He writes reviews on TVs, SSDs, dash cams, remote access software, Bluetooth speakers, and sundry other consumer-tech hardware and software.
I have the free version of Paragon back-up software. When I make a back-up image of my C-drive, I note that it is made up of 18 separate files of about 4 MB each. Other back-up software produces only one file that I save to an external hard drive. Is there any way to do this with Paragon?
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Mike
I've tried many drive-image back-up programs and all of them have failed me in some way, sometimes in a major way. That is, except for Paragon. I tested its ability to create and then restore disk images several times. Most recently I used it to clone a boot drive and restore its image to a different drive. The full Paragon Hard Disk manager does lots of other disk management tasks besides system backups - and it does them better than Windows. I like it so much that I even bought extra licenses for it to cover all my computers.
The only fly in the ointment regarding Paragon is that the newest versions do not allow you to make a Windows emergency boot disk easily. You now have to download all kinds of crapola from Microsoft to do this. Paragon apparently lost their right to use the Windows emergency boot program as part of their own emergency boot disk.
At this point, I trust Paragon - certainly more than the other available backup software. However, I'll never again make the mistake of relying on just one backup method again. I've been burned too many times in the past. I suggest that you additionally use a copy-paste kind of backup program for all of your critical data. SyncBack (free) is the one I've been using for several years but there are plenty of other such programs available.
I have the free version of Paragon back-up software. When I make a back-up image of my C-drive, I note that it is made up of 18 separate files of about 4 MB each. Other back-up software produces only one file that I save to an external hard drive. Is there any way to do this with Paragon?
I deal with this issue mostly in data centers, but a big issue with a lot of these products is they allow you to conveniently back-up your system drives, but aren't very reliable when it comes to restoring.
I think the smaller the number for file split size, the greater the resulting number of files in the archive folder , so reducing the GB should result in many more files in the archived backup. I don't even know what would happen if this was set to zero.
Perhaps checking that box and manually raising it to the estimated size (found on one of the screens as you set up the backup) of the archive would result in only a single large file in the folder, but I've never tried this.
Great program but absolutely terrible documentation. I've contacted Paragon several times a few years ago and even their own techs couldn't explain lots of things. I figured out most of what I needed it to do through trial and error and running practice backups and restores on an extra drive.
I recently made the switch to Macrium Reflect FREE Edition. It's smaller, faster, and simpler -- much nicer to use. So far, it seems to work well. I have only run one full recovery operation but that was smooth as silk.
I did try to change the Paragon "capsule setting" under advanced tools to make the file larger. It asked me to reboot the computer and when I did it locked me into a process I could not recover from. So I powered off the computer and then restarted. When I did I got the message -- "Your computer was unable to start. Startup Repair is checking your system for problems". Fortunately, Windows 7 was able to repair itself and the computer now works. The Paragon software is the only disc imaging software I have ever used that exhibited this problem, so I think it is a dangerous program to use. I read that the current Paragon does not offer a disc recovery. However I note one in the 2012 version of Paragon Tools as seen here:
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