What is a backup to a "virtual container"

[benjamingslade]

Looking in the help section, I didn't see this described.

Ben

[rtfm]

Please refer to our knowledgebase entry "Archive formats".

Thanks for the hint: I've added a reference to Virtual Containers. This term had not been mentioned in the article so far.

[benjamingslade]

That help page says

We create a pVHD file with dynamic size and then perform a copy of the selected items (HDD, partition or files/folders) to this file.

So it creates a file of dynamic size. How is that good or bad for me? Looking at the main menu, I don't see any other backup options. Is there some way to backup not using a virtual disk?

ParagonBackupMainMenu.jpg

This option is great for virtualizing purposes, but certain backup features like password protection or file splitting are not available then.

Why is it great for virtual machines? If I'm not using a virtual machine, then I shouldn't use this?

[benjamingslade]

So a "virtual disk" is just a backup file containing everything backed up. Where you can do a later incremental backup and it gets written to the same backup file (er, virtual disk).

Looking at https://www.pcworld.com/article/3203...on-review.html it says:

"What’s the big deal about virtual hard drives? Windows itself will mount VHD files, so you can grab files off of a VHD with any PC, not just a machine with Backup & Recovery installed. You can also attach a VHD file directly to a virtual machine and use it there. It’s convenient for users in a number of ways a proprietary format is not."

So that's a really cool advanced feature, but as a new user, I just want to do a backup. If a virtual hard drive is the way to do it, fine, but I shouldn't have to care about the implementation and industry standards for virtualization. The home/express screen should just have the options:

* Make a full backup
* Make an incremental backup (defaulting to the same VHD as the last backup)
* Create a bootable recovery disk
* Restore selected files (defaulting to the most recent backup as source)
* Full restore (defaulting to the most recent backup as source)

[benjamingslade]

Well, actually, looking at version 17, the menus are much close to my suggestions. Never mind.