free backup software

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PARAGON Software Group have released Free Drive Backup Express – disk backup software Note: this is basic backup software. See Paragon Drive Backup features for a comparison between and versions.

Joe

--Joe

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Are you pleased with this product (free version)? Does anyone else have any comments on it?

Thanks, Curious

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I don’t use it. Just ran across the offer and thought I’d post it. I’ve used an older version of their partition manager before and was pleased with it.

Joe

--Joe

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I have been studying the back up options of both Shadow Protect and the Acronis TI Home 2009 and both seem a bit complex, given that all I really want to do is to back up my complete hard disc every so often … say every 3 months or sooner if large software programmes are updated eg Vista. I already regularly back up my personal files onto CD/DVD and now (more recently) onto an external hard disc.

This Paragon free version may be just what I need … does anyone have personal experience of using it please. Any recommendations or otherwise?
Ron

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Ron, please note that the free version doesn’t seem to restore individual files, if I’m reading the chart correctly. Selected file restoration can be important. I realize you said you already do that in another manner. And once again, may I say respectfully that both TI and SP are quite easy to use. You may be concerned about a difficulty level that I don’t see.

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Hei Al,
I am probably being a bit paranoid in case I ‘stuff up’ and wreck my hard disc info … I spent hours setting up things like wireless security and the like so the KISS principle is upmost in my brain. I guess that the more flexible imaging programmes can be ‘simple’ or ‘complex’ depending on how ‘deep’ into backup one wants to get.
I will ‘hang around’ for a bit to see if there are any Paragon users out there who can comment on this free software. If nothing comes of this then I am favouring ShadowProtect. I have looked at quite a few reviews on this one and the TI that seem to lead Woody’s dicussion threads and I have not noted any cautions over SP.
Thanks Al for all your help.
Ron

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You didn’t ask for this, but just to (hopefully) give you a “comfort level” on the ease of doing the backup imaging work, I created a .DOC file with a brief example of MY backup experience with Shadow Protect. True Image is very much the same as what you will see here. The file is too large, even to ZIP, so I’ve placed it on my web domain at:

http://www.alhoffman.org/Shadow_Protect_Tutorial.doc%5B/url%5D

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A very helpful tutorial. Thanks.

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Certainly makes me improve my comfort level about this sort of software. How clever they get.
Thanks Al for spending time to assist.
Ron

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Hei Al
Well, I made a (retired GGM) management decision and decided to initially cut my teeth on imaging software in a simple way by downloading Paragon Drive Backup 9.0 Express (English). I have to say that it was a very easy process, excellent ‘walk-through’ prompt wizard pages etc. And the service from Paragon (for a free software no less!) was best practice with same day replies to my basic questions about updating software. All in all a very small ‘stress level’ only for this amateur. I have looked at the ‘restoring’ notes that they provide and think that I could also handle that process … hoping of course that there ain’t ever no need!
One final query I seek your advice about. I copied my hard disc C only and not the D partition which is the Recovery section created by HP eg the ‘back to basics, no SP1, unwanted virus software (I chose Kaspersky rather than HP offering), etc. Should I also clone this part of my pc disc … apart from the drive D I have a set of Recovery discs if all else fails.
Thanks Al (and others) for all your inputs. I hope that this exercise has assisted other Woody Loungers.
CYa
Ron

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Since you have a set of recovery disks I’d not worry about the recovery partition. Most likely, if the disk drive fails that partition will be gone anyway.

Joe

--Joe

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I think Joe’s right in his advice, but there’s always the “belt and suspenders” approach.

My Dell is a couple of years old now and it has TWO un-lettered partitions on the primary drive. When I first got the machine, I made separate images of each of those (one is support tools, the other recovery) even though I would most likely never need either one. (I did it again last year when I switched to Shadow Protect.)

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