Paragon Hard Disk Manage 17 Advanced pre-sale questions.

[zuzu]

Looking to switch from an oldish Ghost to something new. Perhaps Paragon Hard Disk Manager 17 Advanced single home license? My quick glance at what it claims to do looks fine, I just need to know some "under the hood" things.

Basically, what I do from time to time is image my current Windows 7/10 boots. I multiboot, sometimes several, Windows boots on the same PC. Different physical hard drives or same hard drive but different partition. (It depends over time how I set things up. I always have several more drives connected and working as "data" drives on the system too.) As is stands I use an older Symantec Ghost that is "standalone". (ie: basically portable - it can run from a USB stick and installs nothing - just runs.)

Whatever I am going to get, has to be able to do that. To image one of my "boots", I'd go into another boot (obviously, since you can't and shouldn't image an active Windows session) and from there image the one that isn't active. I'd usually save the image file to a data drive also connected to that PC, and obviously not on the drive/partition being imaged. That being done, if/when I want/need to restore the backed image (and of course only on the exact same system - any hardware updates and I discard the old image and re-make it anew) I'd, again, boot into another "boot" and restore from there - or boot via USB and restore that way. The important thing here is that in both instances my Ghost files are in "D":\UTILS\Ghost\> stored on a data drive that has no Windows system files. I just run the executable and no install is needed. It truly is portable. Importantly and obviously, the image when restored works too - Windows boots, pagefile if used is there and not "corrupt", etc. (Obviously this multi boot example is specific to me, but if I didn't multiboot like I do, I'd do/expect the same but instead of using other connected drives, I'd use a USB stick to first boot and then run "image software program x" from there.)

Is PHDM able to do it that way? Or does it require installation for imaging/restore to work? Does it require activation? If yes to the later, that basically tells me it's a "locked" software and not for me. Why? Because unless it has some "portable" module too, like my Ghost, that for example would work from USB stick when I take it to a "cabin in the woods" with no Internet and only one drive, it means it can't truly restore properly. If in order to restore a partition or full drive image I made earlier, the restore "side" of PHDM requires that I first "kiss" the internet or even install files, what when I have only a PC with the drive that needs restoring and nothing but USB ports? ..and the drive is "locked" and unbootable/usable, say, due to a crypto lock by Russian hackers.

To me, imaging software always has to work in the simplest from possible, for obvious reasons. I have no issue activating some "mother" module of PHDM that checks I own the license or whatnot, that's not the point. However, if the "full" program (that may be bulky --ie: "500MB"-- {my Ghost is under 10MB} and requires activation and all the modern b/s we have come to "accept") can, "birth" small portable backup/restore "modules" that require nothing but a USB stick, even if they are restricted to only being able to backup/restore, I'd be happy.

Is PHSM something for me, or shall I move on? I'm not fishing here, I'm ready to buy today! I just started looking and this is my first (and only?) "stop".

[zuzu]

??? What's happening here? Has the chrono virus killed all staff?

[fireworker]

Staff are reptiloids, they are not afraid of the coronavirus.

[zuzu]

Staff are reptiloids, they are not afraid of the coronavirus.

Yeah? More like assholeoids in my view - and afraid to answer. Their lack of engagement is my real answer. (For the last eight days they avoided answering, I kept looking. True Image 2020 it probably is then.)

[rtfm]

Support staff is busy with support tickets. If you want an answer, create a support ticket. This is a user-2-user forum. No staff here. And obviously no other user who wants to read or answer your tl;dr.

[fireworker]

PHDM can do almost everything that ATI + ADD can do(and even more). But, IMHO, PHDM is less intuitive.
I don't trust the "portable versions" in such an important matter. Typically, backup programs use their own drivers/services.
Why buy something that you don’t know how it works? Try the free or pirated version first, read the manual.
Paragon reptiloids are far from the "ideal sellers". They are cold-blooded. Even if you declare your readiness to buy a thousand licenses, they may ignore you.