i'm confused.

[pjh42]

I'm an experienced Windows user but I'm puzzled by a few things.

I installed the free version of the backup and recovery program. My physical drive 1 is showing early signs of failure so I want to replace it. I was under the impression that I should make an image backup so I did that. I ended up with about 45 files, most of which were about 4GB in size. (Drive 1 has two partitions- F: 300 GB of which 293 are free, and H: 631Gb with 457 free.) The directory (on drive 2) where I have these files is about 173 GB in size.

Does this make sense to you?

If so, I will pop out drive 1 and replace it with a new identical drive. Then I'll boot up, run paragon and restore the image to my new drive 1. Does that make sense?

Thanks.

[aoz987]

yes, the defaults in paragon are to create the backup, and it stores the image in files sizes of max 4 gigabytes, and just keeps making sequential backup additions to this (I believe it is so you can use a fat32 disk to boot from, store the backups on, and recover from them)

FIORST, do NOT destroy the original drive.
second, click on that backup job/task in your list, and make sure you pick the option to CHECK INTEGRITY first, to make sure that the backup is fully readable.
then do the restore to the new drive.
then go through your data on the new drive,make sure it boots up ok, see random data on it, try to start a couple of your main programs, etc.
then hold onto the old drive for a while.

just my personal suggestions for making sure you get reliable data restore, etc. not that I don't trust paragon - they have saved my rear end many times. BUT, it is my general distrust of any data migration, preservation, etc.

[pjh42]

yes, the defaults in paragon are to create the backup, and it stores the image in files sizes of max 4 gigabytes, and just keeps making sequential backup additions to this (I believe it is so you can use a fat32 disk to boot from, store the backups on, and recover from them)

FIORST, do NOT destroy the original drive.
second, click on that backup job/task in your list, and make sure you pick the option to CHECK INTEGRITY first, to make sure that the backup is fully readable.
then do the restore to the new drive.
then go through your data on the new drive,make sure it boots up ok, see random data on it, try to start a couple of your main programs, etc.
then hold onto the old drive for a while.

just my personal suggestions for making sure you get reliable data restore, etc. not that I don't trust paragon - they have saved my rear end many times. BUT, it is my general distrust of any data migration, preservation, etc.

Why do you think I would destroy the original drive? Did I say something that led you to that conclusion?

"Second" is after I replace the original drive with the new one, right? Can I check integrity before changing drives?

The new drive is not the bootable one in my system (It's F: and H. But I will check random files.

Thanks.

[aoz987]

thanks for reply
re: destroying original drive - no, you did not say anything to lead me to that conclusion. but after having worked with systems for 30+ years, it is just a comment I add, because I've seen drives inadvertently destroyed by accident, etc, so it is just a word of caution.

step above, the SECOND step - no, that step is BEFORE you do the transfer. you do the backup with paragon. when done, in yoiur backup list, you select the item that says CHECK BACKUP. on the left, you will see a line that says something like "NOT CHECKED" - mine says VALID, because I had run the "check backup" option. If there is an error in those files, you will get a flag that says NOT VALID, or some such verbiage.
this step takes a while, because it is reading the whole backup to make sure it is a solid backup

I hope that helps clarify the backup.

[RPMtl]

I turned off image splitting in the program's 'Backup image options'. I think it's there for folks who might want to save backups onto a bunch of DVDs. I too was a bit confused when I first experienced that 'feature'. I'm not sure it makes any real difference, but I prefer one large backup file.

Note that Fat32 is limited to 2GB so that might be a reason to split the backup into 2GB pieces. Both ExFat and NTFS support file sizes of 16 EB (16000000 Terabytes ) so there should be no problem there ;-)

[aoz987]

re: fat32 -FAT32 took over from FAT16 and has a maximum drive size of 2TB. Its
maximum file size is 4GB
the 4gb size allows multiple 4g files to be stored on a fat32 drive - the advantage of the fat32 is that is the format that is required for some drives (emergency utility drives) to be bootable, and with the 4g files, multiple ones of them can be put onto the same fat32 drive, and allow emergency restores from the bootable recovery media made in paragon.

[pjh42]

Don't mean to be so stupid, but....

I think you're saying that I should the backup nd then immediately check its integrity, right?

[aoz987]

yes, i personally believe that is a better method. in fact, if you set up a BACKUP JOB, paragon has the OPTION that after every backup creation under that JOB CHAIN, you can select to AUTOMATICALLY do the verification as the next step in the operation. they do NOT have that option in the single backup task section; it has been suggested by others and myself to ADD that option, but they have not done so at present.
They DO have some option that does something that checks integrity AS the backup is made (takes about 2 to 3 percent longer), but i do not believe that THAT option does a COMPLETE verification. they were not clear as to WHAT that option did.

[pjh42]

Another area of confusions...

When I start "Paragon Backup Recovery 16 Free", it opens in "Main View". Then I have to select "My Backups" (at the bottom!!) so I can see "Check Archive". That's what you're talking about, right?

[aoz987]

send me a screen capture, I believe that is the option, but need to see it to be sure : - )