Paragon Drive Backup
Reviewed January, 2007
 

What’s it do?

Creates backup image of hard disk, including operating system with all user preferences and settings, applications, and data files.


Does it Do What It Promises?

Reviewer 1: Both yes and no. At first I had no problems making a backup, but that was only the first time around. After that, I had some difficulties in getting it to work. So the answer to that question is, well, maybe. The program promises a wealth of different choices for backing up and restoring, from backing up an entire hard disk to making an ISO image to differential backups or backups partition-wise. But, I couldn’t really ascertain all these promises in the end.

Reviewer 2: When I ran this software on both Windows SP Professional and Home Editions, with a Pentium 4 and 256 MB RAM, I found the backup process to be resource-intensive and troublesome. Imaging the Hard drive took all the resources possible, to the point that the computer seemed to hang up completely for long periods of time. The Restore process was much less problematic, although in the case of the first two computers, it did require that they be booted from the separately burned Recovery CD. The complete images exactly as they had been backed-up, so in that sense, it was successful.

Reviewer 3: Paragon Drive Backup 8 Professional delivers what is promised. It uses the technique of “Drive Imaging” to protect your files, a stronger technique than standard backup, especially when you are trying to restore your operating system. I found it to be able to carry out the functions promised, but not in as intuitive or user-friendly manner as I would have hoped.

Reviewer 4: Yes. The Paragon Web site claims to deliver cost-effective, easy-to-use and reliable protection for your desktops and laptops, providing all features necessary for network backup, HDD imaging backup, hard disk cloning and fast restore. The “easy-to-use” statement, however, may be questionable.

Reviewer 5: Yes, every promised function I tried worked as described. The images I created to hard drive, USB drive and DVD ran flawlessly and rendered accurately for functions and files tested, including program files which did not require reinstallation. Restoration was a breeze, likely saving many hours of work, had this been a real situation rather than a test. The program’s title implies that it provides only backup functions; but, more importantly, this is imaging/cloning software that will store exact images including an operative operating system


Was It Easy To Install?

Reviewer 1:  Yes. The program was very easy to install and didn’t take long at all. There were no real warnings in the EULA analysis.

Reviewer 2: Yes, relatively so. It is a standard Windows installation. I prefer to put programs in a folder of my own choice, rather than to the default location. I found in this case that it was a good idea to create the folder first, then browse to it during the installation; otherwise, as soon as I touched the keyboard (rather than browse with the mouse) the browse function ceased. As you do the installation, you are given 3 additional functions that you can choose: Net Burner Server, Net Burner Client and Net Burner Service. I did not find their descriptions to be too instructive. The EULA (End Users License Agreement) specifies that the program is limited to one computer, although it is available to all users on that computer. The license is only for that version of the program, and any "patches" to that version. New versions require purchase at full price. When you have completed the installation the computer must be rebooted. Registration of the software has to be done on Paragon’s Web site, requiring an account registration.

Reviewer 3: Installation was fast and simple. During installation, there is an option to install Net Burner Client, Server, and Service in order to use a remote CD/DVD burner. After selecting these, the user is notified that they require the opening of two ports. This is a security hazard when you are connected to the internet and I was surprised not to see a warning of the risk. I chose not to install this portion of the program.

Reviewer 4: No. I continually encountered dialogue boxes indicating that the file was corrupted and could not be installed, in addition to other such missing or corrupted files which prevent installation. As other review panelists do not seem to encounter this problem I assumed this might be some quirkiness of my particular platform—notwithstanding that I have no other such problems with any of the other countless programs I download. Paragon support claims it is my system and not a problem with their download files as they are aware of no other such problems. HOWEVER, if you will take a quick look at VNUNE Forums  or the forums at PC Pro let alone the Paragon forums themselves, you will find that these download and installation problems—specifically “corrupt download files” are not unique to this writer. My copy of this program was downloaded from a CD copied and provided by another of the NNT review panel members so that this review could be written.

Reviewer 5: I had absolutely no problem with the download nor the install. Everything was straightforward and uncomplicated. During installation, my screen went black momentarily, only to reappear a second later. This temporary screen shutdown also occurred to me twice during my first imaging trial run to USB drive, but not on subsequent runs (to DVD and hard drive. This was possibly an aberration of my system or the electrical supply.


Good Points.

Reviewer 1: The program promises a lot and I was optimistic when trying it out for the first time. The menus are nicely structured and non-cluttered. The program starts up quickly and efficiently and doesn’t seem to place any hidden boot files on the computer. The user interface is well-organized with many wizards that are supposed to help you with the numerous operations. I was also able to see that the restore operation would work, but didn’t go through it since I saw no reason to overwrite my disk. User manual, knowledge base and user forum can all be reached from within the program. Information available while doing a backup is extremely nice. A backup to a new, fairly fast hard disk takes a while, though (RW-speed of 13.7 Mbps. 51 MB took about an hour), but this isn’t bad, considering integrity checking etc. Scheduled backups work as they should.

Reviewer 2: The backup process was difficult but did eventually work. The Restore function, with the aid of the Recovery CD, worked flawlessly. At first glance the opening screen looks a bit complicated, until you realize that some of the functions that appear on the main screen are duplicated in the panes on the left. The wizards are very easy to follow, and with the default settings take less than one minute to complete. You can create a “Backup Capsule”, a section of your hard drive visible only to the backup program, to contain all Paragon backups. . Only with the Paragon “Manage Backup Capsule” functions can data be resized or returned to Windows, in which case any Paragon backups there would disappear. The advantage of this system is that if ever your “Windows” drive becomes unusable, the Paragon Backup capsule is still there (unless the drive has been physically destroyed), so it could be used to Restore to another drive. The Recovery Media Builder burns a Recovery CD to allow bootup in the event one’s system goes down completely, and you cannot boot from your hard drive. Tools check the recovery disks or the backup archives themselves, to make sure that they are complete and functional. The archive verification is very extensive and thorough; by the time that it is finished, you are sure that your backup is exactly correct. The Help files are easy to navigate. The Paragon support was excellent; however, it did give me some concerns, as described below.

Reviewer 3: The user interface is clearly and logically displayed to show available drives and backup options. The “Image Explorer” allows browsing through the directories and files contained in the backup image and selectively restoring them. The “Update MBR” function is potentially very useful and is not a feature I have seen on other backup software. The MBR (Master Boot Record) is a section of the hard drive referenced by the BIOS at startup. It is subject to compromise by disk damage and virus attacks. The “Update MBR” feature will replace the current MBR with a “standard” MBR to allow the system to function if the MBR has been compromised. Another feature not found on most backup software is the ability to create, delete, and manage partitions. Partitions are dedicated sections of the hard drive which are treated by the operating system as if they are independent disks. Partitions are useful in organizing files and these partitions can be selectively backed up at different intervals and in a more manageable manner. Partitions are needed to use two or more operating systems on the same computer. The “Recovery Media Builder” creates a bootable floppy, CD, or DVD to allow restoring files in the event that the system is no longer bootable. Options are available to do a standardized recovery file set, a customized set, or even to add additional software tools of one’s choice to the disk. This is enhanced by the “Check Recovery Media” feature that checks the integrity of the recovery disk without having to do a system reboot. Both of tools worked easily and flawlessly.

Reviewer 4: While Paragon Drive Backup has all of the features you would expect from a professional drive imaging program, there were some unique features which worked especially well and distinguished Paragon from some of its competitors. For example, whenever one or more actions are selected, they will not be put into effect until the Apply button is clicked. Thus, the actions can be viewed in the preview window and changes can be made before starting the action, a nice safety feature for cautious users. The program provides a detailed summary of all of your settings before the backup is performed, e.g., the size of the backup, additional backup options, and so on. Another feature not seen on other similar programs is that enabled by default, Paragon does not backup or image the system swap and hibernation files. This reduces the overall size of the backup or image and is unnecessary as Windows recreates these files automatically on boot up. The backup or imaging process proved to be error-free and quite fast when not using the “Hot Backup” mode—taking about eight minutes on my first test with all default settings or options enabled and my computer not being used. A later, more complete test on my Pentium IV 3.8G system with 1G RAM, proved similar. I used the fast compression settings and the 8.7GB image took eight minutes 28 seconds copying to a Maxtor USB 200GB external hard drive. I did find that the times were much slower when copying to media such as disc or DVDs with the times quadrupling. Scheduling, copying, and differential backup tools worked without a problem (see note under weaknesses on differential backups), but creating recovery disks with Windows auxiliary files would not work. The full system restore operation was fast and smooth; although; it does so a bit unusually if the recovery CD (which can be built with an included utility) is not used. Otherwise, it boots to Windows and starts the process with no GUI visible, a bit disconcerting without any idea what is happening. The “One Button Copy” function simplifies migrating to a new hard drive (or copying the contents a drive) and worked easily and smoothly. There is a Help option with screenshots, always of great value to novices.

Reviewer 5: The program images, even mixes, entire drives or partitions, even mixing, as an example FAT32 and NTFS file systems. The archive (less ancillary folders, temp files, etc.) are compressed (variably) and can be passworded. Data may be backed up to CD/DVD, hard drive, USB drive, network, or firewire storage medium. Paragon Backup will inspect and verify archived files for integrity, even verifying data “on-the-fly”. .The burning process runs very smoothly and spanning from one disk to another presented no problem. Full image or incremental updating may be performed in the program’s “hot” mode, while working on other applications. The program does not require rebooting during its operation. Backups can be created at any time using manual function or schedule automatic backups. This program meets expert needs with many options in a rich feature set. A novice can use it effectively, after overcoming a moderate learning curve. The advanced features are not intermingled with the basic ones, thereby providing a cleaner interface and less confusion for non-experts. The online knowledge base is very thorough and well-written and the help section functional and valuable since the learning curve is a little steeper than some. Email assistance was satisfactory. A response to my support question was received within two days. Paragon Backup allows the user to create a rescue disk that, in the event of hard drive failure, can be used in DOS mode to access the archive disk. The image creation time required was reasonable. To reduce space and time requirements, my source drive of 41GB was reduced to 27 GB by removing unnecessary files and blank spaces. This 27 GB was then processed and archived to a USB drive in 62 minutes, which seemed quite short, particularly in view of the speed limitations of a USB connection (2.0).


Weak Points.

Reviewer 1. After my first successful backup I was unable to get the program to function. I tried this numerous times with different kinds of media, both an internally installed hard disk, two different external hard disks and both CD and DVD. The backup function began, the wizards seemed to work perfectly, and after a few seconds, the program advised that the backups had been completed successfully, although they had not. I looked through the help files, but could find no answer to my problem. I looked on the knowledge base and found that you have to accept changes before going ahead with the wizard, but the Apply button couldn’t be pressed after choosing which changes to apply. In the end, I finally realized that the so called “wizard” had to be completed and THEN you could apply changes. This is a very confusing interface. The wizard, upon completion, should produce a message advising what to do next. Copying to CD/DVD was difficult. I got failures after burning started. I figured out a workaround by choosing the option to burn to an ISO-image and there was no problem after that. Paragon Drive Backup seems to be a good program, but the interface for starting operations is very confusing,

Reviewer 2: The Hot Backup module is intended to create a complete, exact image of the hard drive while simultaneously using other programs on that same drive. This required almost all the resources of the computer to do the backup so that other work was practically impossible. In the case of the computer with more RAM, the backup to the DVD drive went reasonably well; however with 256 MB RAM backing up to CD took several hours for 7 GB of data. Long delays were experienced until the program eventually got things organized enough to write the date to the CD and carry on with the process. I really do not like the support system offered by Paragon. First, one must have an account. This is simple to set up, but you must log-on to their site through that account at all times. All support requests and responses are dealt with on their site. You receive an email notifying you that “State of request has been changed.” You then log-on to your account to read what response you have received. The support is limited to the 60 days and additional support must be purchased. A sliding scale of support options ranges from very expensive to exorbitant. Urgent questions were answered within one day. In one case, when the Recovery Media Builder Tool was unable to create a reliable bootable CD, I was sent a file that was even better than the one that I would have been able to create with the Builder Tool in the program. Other requests for information or clarification frequently went unanswered for days or even weeks.

Reviewer 3: As I was imaging the partition where my data was stored, the entire partition was locked so I could not view files from that partition from Internet Explorer, nor could I open them with MS Word. While the program is creating an image, access to Paragon Drive Backup help and all other program functions is suspended. The “Backup Wizard” walks you through the steps to create your backup, but when you are finished with it, it leaves you hanging. I would have expected that it would have either start the backup automatically, or provide options to schedule the backup, but it did neither. When the toolbar item “Apply Changes” was clicked, the backup ran as the Wizard configured it. Drive or partition Volume letters are shown in the display, but Volume Labels (the name assigned to the drive or partition) is not. Displaying the Volume Label would make negotiating the system more intuitive. (Volume Labels were appropriately displayed when navigating through the drive structure when using the Recovery Media, but not when using the standard program within Windows.) Restoring individual files from a drive image was possible, but was not an option listed in the “Restore Wizard”. The “Restore Wizard” only gave the option to overwrite the entire volume and erase all data contained there. One must use the “Image Explorer” to restore individual files or directories. The contents of many of the archive files in the archive folder displayed by “Image Explorer” appear blank and each one must be explored to find the correct files listing. The Help section could benefit from some more hyperlinks to help define terms. For example, there is a description of how to do a “synthetic backup”. A hyperlink to a definition would have made this much easier to understand. The software gives the backed up file archives fairly complex names such as “arc_12107093554425.pbf”. Other than the date of the file, there is not much intuitive about what the contents of the archive might be. While there is an option to write comments about the contents of the backup during the creation process, these comments are not visible when selecting the file to restore. Updates to the program were more difficult to do than with most programs. There was no automatic checking for updates/upgrades after the program license is activated. Web site account registration is necessary to obtain updates. After one month of free upgrades moving up to the next major version release, maintenance service must be purchased at a present annual cost of $29.95 for a single user.

Reviewer 4: Much is made by Paragon about a new Windows Explorer-like GUI (Graphic User Interface)—the what you see). In fact, it looks to me more like a copy of the Acronis True Image program, with a task panel on the left side and a large window on the right showing available disc space, etc. Unlike Acronis, however, Paragon is not exactly user-friendly, at least not to novices. Visuals are very few but textual details are in fair supply. The overall effect is that the GUI is not very intuitive and to find what is needed. For example, clicking the Wizards button produces 14 shortcuts. I first selected the "Copy Hard Disk Wizard" but was advised: "You have only one hard disk......The Wizard cannot continue". So, I try the “Backup Wizard,” but it advised: "This wizard helps you back up your hard disk data" and doesn't mention that it will backup the OS. There are other confusing options in the “Advanced Backup Settings,”: 1. Do not control archive integrity, 2.Process all sectors, one by one , 3. Skip OS auxiliary files, 4. Enable Hot processing. 5. Always use hot processing or Use only when partition is locked. For #4 above, I noticed that I can't use VSS. Considerable research in help files and forums revealed the solution, but novices would have probably given up at that point. The differential backup process does not overwrite the previous backup so, if the user is unaware of this, the hard drive or other backup media will soon run out of space. There needs to be an option for overwriting previous differential backups. Worse still is the “Backup Capsule.” This is a separate partition created by Paragon on one’s hard disk to store backups/images. Size limits can be set, but the partition tends to grow at an alarming rate. since it is not recognized by Windows, the user may not realize that he is running out of space until it is too late. This capsule also interferes with defragging of the hard drive and could have potential for affecting the Master Boot Record partition. A real flaw in the program, however, involves the “Hot Backup” feature. This is a feature that supposedly allows imaging of the operating system files while the computer is in use. This feature is essentially useless. I have a rather powerful Pentium IV 3.8G platform with 1G RAM and the “Hot Backup” feature slowed my system down to a crawl, making it virtually unusable for anything but the most minor applications such as reading email slowly. The Paragon program lists system requirements as Intel Pentium or compatible, 233 MHz or higher processor, and 128MB ram (256MB Ram or higher recommended). That is simply not an accurate representation of system requirements. I would defy anyone from Paragon to try to do a full disc image using the “Hot Box” feature with a 233MHz processor and using 128MB Ram, let alone being able to use their computer for other applications. I will not recommend this product because there are only 60 days of free support provided. Afterwards, the user must pay for support on a per-incident basis or purchase one of the support packages which begin at $99.99 per year and range upward to a cost that is not published on Paragon’s Web site.

Reviewer 5: The program does not provide for auto-updating notification. Only full partitions or drives can be imaged, not specific folders or files, although these can be selected in the restore process. Since the program is teeming with features, it does take a longer time to learn to navigate and determine functions. When I finished with the initial wizard, nothing happened until I clicked on the “Apply” button to begin the operation. I found no mention of Linux compatibility so I assume the program does not support Linux. The program is rather taxing on memory. The task manager indicated that Paragon Backup was using 29% of my memory (1024 kb). Using other applications while this program ran was not very productive. Overnight backup is probably advisable.


Other Comments

Reviewer 1: All in all, this seems to be a competent program, but it is somewhat lacking in user-friendliness, despite the GUI that seems simple at first glance. Other backup programs have been easier to use.

Reviewer 2: It is possible that the difficulties I had in getting the program to work well may be due to the limitations of the computers that I have to test it on, particularly those with low RAM. However, the computers do meet the minimum requirements posted on Paragon’s Web site. For the home user, the “lighter” version, Paragon Drive 8.5 Personal Version would be more appropriate. You can see shockwave demos of this program on the Web site. The costs of the program are significant. Not only is there the original purchase price, but also fees for access to upgrades or support beyond the initial 60 days.

Reviewer 3: Imaging 6.6 GB of data required 33 minutes.

Reviewer 4: I refuse to pay for software or hardware support and so should you. For too long, the computer industry and its subsidiaries have been allowed to operate as if they are an exception to the rules of consumer rights. They offer no guarantees, monopolize pricing and all but violate antitrust statutes. They charge for upgrades (and even in some instances, updates). Hardware and software manufacturers have every right to charge for their products what the market will bring. However, to sell their products at market prices and then not include accepted consumer protection in their products is, to me, unethical. If a developer believes in his product, he will gladly provide support for the product. If support costs make free support impractical, then the producer should look at what is wrong with his product, not ask the consumer to pay for the right to be volunteers to their research and development team.

Reviewer 5: The program is accurate and dependable. It has a wide array of features, more than most will need. The price seems very reasonable. I was pleased with its performance except for the impact on the overall performance when working on other applications while it was running.


Will You Continue To Use It?

Reviewer 1:  Yes. I like the program, but DVD-burning could be improved on.

Reviewer 2: Although this is a good program, I will not continue to use it, largely because of the cost of continuing maintenance and support.

Reviewer 3: No. Although Paragon Drive Backup 8 Professional seems to provide powerful and reliable capabilities for protecting drive integrity and data, I will opt for a program which is more intuitive and user friendly in regular use.

Reviewer 4: No.

Reviewer 5: Yes, I think so, until something better comes along. Everything I've tried to do with it has been successful, both in storing and recall. With regard to ease of use and dependability, it is superior to a competing product I use.
 

OPERATING SYSTEMS USED IN THIS REVIEW
Windows XP Pro, XP Home, 2000

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