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Paragon Backup and Recovery 11 Compact  Giveaway
$29.95
EXPIRED

Giveaway of the day — Paragon Backup and Recovery 11 Compact

Paragon Backup and Recovery 11 Compact is a simple and powerful backup and recovery solution to secure stand-alone Windows desktops and laptops.
$29.95 EXPIRED
User rating: 671 110 comments

Paragon Backup and Recovery 11 Compact was available as a giveaway on November 16, 2011!

Today Giveaway of the Day
$36.00
free today
Download music from 1000+ sites anytime and anywhere!

Paragon Backup and Recovery 11 Compact is a simple and powerful backup and recovery solution to secure stand-alone Windows desktops and laptops. It quickly backs up your files and folders, operating system or even your entire hard disk to any storage you choose. Compact edition ensures that your system and valuable data is protected and can be restored in case of any disaster! Now supports the latest HDD standards!

Key and new features:

  • Support for the latest HDD standards. Enjoy support for AFD (Advanced Format Drive), 2TB+ and non-512B sector size drives.
  • Boot Corrector. Powerful utility that recovers the operating system’s startup ability.
  • Selective Restore. Extract individual files and folders from an archive without restoring an entire image. Use the Restore Wizard and simply check the files that you’d like to restore.
  • Partition alignment for bare metal restore. Partition alignment during restoring to new hard drives ensures that there will be no performance loss due to incorrect partition alignment.
  • Smart Backup Wizard. Easily secure valuable data without additional configurations.
  • Encrypted Backup. To avoid unauthorized access to your backup files, you can easily encrypt them within our backup wizards.

Limitations: WinPE recovery media is not included in this download

Technical Support:
During the Giveaway period Paragon Software provides technical support at www.giveawayoftheday.com. Please, post your questions if you have any troubles while downloading, registering and using the software. Paragon Software’s support team will reply you as soon as possible.

System Requirements:

Windows 2000/ XP/ Vista/ 7 (x32/x64)

Publisher:

Paragon Software

Homepage:

http://www.paragon-software.com/home/brc/

File Size:

304 MB

Price:

$29.95

Comments on Paragon Backup and Recovery 11 Compact

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#110

To those of you having problems with Norton... Norton flags executable files it hasn't seen before and prevents them from running. It's doing it's job. Since these giveaways are brand new files every day, it will prevent the first downloaders from running the setup file until it sees the file a few times and stops flagging it. The way around this is simple. Extract the setup file, right click and go to Norton Security Suite or 360 or whatever Norton you have, then click on Norton File Insight. A dialog box opens up. One of the headings says the file is Unproven. Just click on the Trust Now link, and the file will now execute with no problems. Hope this helps.

Reply   |   Comment by Evan Foley  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-1)
#109

A problem with Paragon - it won't work. When I try to create a DVD boot disk it says it has done it but it hasn't! If I choose "PLDS DVD+RW DH......................" It says put in a CD but it doesn't see it. I can click "Next" for evermore. If I choose "Emulator CD/DVD" It goes though the procedure with the scan from left to right. The problem is you can't boot from this disk. Though the computer is set to boot from CD/DVD first it boot ups as normal and the Paragon startup menu does not appear. It is Rubbish!

Reply   |   Comment by Ty Buchanan  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-1)
#108

I forgot to post this yesterday (which would have been optimum).

Is Paragon offering an upgrade option? We would appreciate a special offer to the full version after we have registered and tested the "Compact" version.

Some of us also own businesses, so a discount for the "business" edition would also be deeply appreciated. :-)

Reply   |   Comment by Luis P  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-1)
#107

Size does matter

I downloaded the file, but by the time downloading had finished, the offer had expired.

An extra few hours of registration-time would be reasonable if downloading itself takes so much extra time.

I usually have a very fast connection. Apparently more people had this experience.

Reply   |   Comment by Rene  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#106

with 1 min left 2 install & Activate, i suggest keeping the activation loop open for another couple of hrs. seriously huge file and slow downloads will drive people to give up (of the day) !

Reply   |   Comment by Paragon Fan  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-1)
#105

@therube post #105:

There is an 'Advanced Interface'

See post #102 from ric, quote:

For those who have already registered the software, you will typically first see the “Express” interface when you first run the software.
In Express mode, the user is helped along by Wizards to accomplish back or recovery tasks.

On the bottom left corner, you can click on “Open Advanced Interface” which will bring up a screen-interface familiar to most of us who have used any hard disk back up software...
>snip

Reply   |   Comment by VP  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-1)
#104

***
Download Ok. install ok. Got my registry code ok, but the program does not allow me to register it. Every time I click on registration it opens the registration page. So, what’s up? I cannot register it. Advice?
If you already got product key and serial number there's no need to click "registration" again. Simply insert key and serial into corresponding fields and complete installation.

***
Help!! Like several others, I have the registration code but can’t find where to insert it in order to get the product registered…I don’t see an answer given…have I missed it, perhaps?
You will need to enter them during installation, at the step where you have "registration" button :-)

***
You really should have a table comparing ALL your many versions—including Special and Compact. It always takes an incredible amount of research to find out whether a given version is more than or less than what we already have……
Thanks for suggestion, we'll try to add such comparison to future giveaways :-)

***
I have Acronis installed. Will installing this application cause anything to break. Like causing redirection of something that one or the other needs?
i.e., will they play nice together?

Yes, you can have both installed, but please don't run them at the same time. In this case there might be a conflict about VSS and system resources.

Reply   |   Comment by paragon  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#103

i have always liked paragon software (i have migrate OS to SSD special ed 2.0) but guess what?
# paragon SW is always huge.
# they do not provide enough info to distinguish clearly among their software versions.
# i was about to download this at the eleventh hour, but after reading comments about grub and OS mess-up, i am not comfortable anymore.

Reply   |   Comment by mukhi  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#102

Hi Folks,

Probably a nice product. Personally I think you should not try to do too much in one software.

A file-by-file backup program should be clean and lean (Backup4All, Cobian, possibly Easeus, not sure if Paragon has a product with just that as the focus). Here you do not back up OS, simply data and config files and email and such. Know your data.

An imaging program I find dubious, except right after an OS install (since it has the drivers and such). If your system crashes, reinstall fresh using the data backup. Takes some time, but your system is guaranteed clean and lean.

Partition and recovery (Windows PE, Linux Recovery CDs) software is a separate issue. Unless you want to get fancy with hidden partitions and such for backup (hi-tech) they really do not overlap with backup software.

My view :).

Thanks to Paragon, though. Nice company policies.

Steven

Reply   |   Comment by Steven Avery  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-2)
#101

giveawayoftheday,please help me .
I've got password from paragon-soft and they say
We'll send to you key & serial number soon but I still did not get it

Reply   |   Comment by leo  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-3)
#100

Win7 x64

download includes both 32 & 64-bit versions

REQUIRES PRODUCT KEY: & SERIAL NUMBER: (from email)

serial, surprisingly /can/ be copied/pasted (en-mass)

gives NO option WHERE to install, so in my case,
that would be to my E: (System) drive - NOT a
place I would like it to be!

installer is an MSI
\Windows\Installer gets a 120 MB file
program itself goes into \Program Files (x86)\Paragon Software
(again no choice in the matter) at 150 MB (including a 60 MB
recovery ISO.

did i start the program correctly? it only offers a Wizard
format? i don't care for Wizards. i like to see a program
in all its glory, with everything laid out & accessible to
me, with all options available. a Wizard is not my style.

(recently went through a number of partition programs, starting with
Easeus, then Paragon, then a couple others. Easeus was not working
as I expected. i had an older version of Paragon (GAOTD), but
figured i'd try the latest free (more up to date & all), but turns
out that the free only offers a Wizard. so then i installed my
(older) version & that offered the more advanced interface, but still
not to my liking. off two a couple other partition managers. after
experimenting with all of them, realized what i needed to do for
Easeus, & did all my partitioning with that.

OK, the Wizard.

initial though. small window & lots of information. (i have a bunch
of drives.) confusing. then i see i can drag the window to enlarge
its size. big difference. suddenly less confusing. still i have to
concentrate on what i'm seeing, realize the differences between say,
"Basic MBR Hard Disk 2" at 931 GB & "Music (M:), Logical" also at
931 GB. not sure i understand the difference? (note: no Help button
on the dialog.)

not sure what will happen or not if i mix & match? will i end up with
something bootable (on restore)? i don't know what i should select or
not?

if i backup Disk 0, First HDD Track, Master Boot Record, but skip C:
(C: is NOT my system drive, E: is, though the boot files ARE on C:) &
include E: (Windows) & skip L: (all of these are on Disk 0), if i had
to restore, would i have a bootable system? & would it leave my
existing data on C: & or elsewhere, alone, all the while restoring
everything i had selected on backup?

given my doubts as to what is going to happen, i do not forsee myself
concluding the operation (hence this utility may be of little or no
value to me).

some of the wording in the Advanced options does not read well. again,
no Help. looks like by default archives are split at 4GB increments.
by default pagefile.sys & hibernat.sys are excluded. that's good IMO.
there are some default exclusion categories (not selected by default).
anyhow, i clicked the 'Delete category' link & well, deleted two of
the three default exclusion categories. (i wanted to see if it would
prompt on delete. it did NOT. after the first click, didn't realize
anything had happend, so clicked again, & at that point realized i
had just blown away two categories.)

a CD backup says "HDD first tracks & MBRs *cannot* be saved to CD".
at this point in time, i'm well past the part where i chose (or did
i?) first track/MBR? (again no Help.) so if i did choose, what
will happen or not?

well my first backup attempt, after it had started, stated that it
needed to restart my system, which i am not in a position to let it
do, so i cancelled it.

log file incorrectly shows "succeeded". (well if you consider it
created a 100 KB PBF file before i cancelled the operation "success",
then may it did "succeed".)

email, media, docs, other files - Wizard. can't say i care for
the layout. a very simple tree style. simple in that it does not
give me enough control, enough information for me to use it
effectively or efficiently.

that is a quick first look.

with enough study, perhaps i'd become comfortable with the program,
but as it is now, too many unknowns, & an interface that does not
work the way i do.

backup seemed slow? not a lot of information provided during the
backup. not even the time it took when it finished. my 16 GB
flash drive was "compressed" to 15 GB on my HDD.

restore Wizard, again a dialog box that i manually have to expand.
name shown is cryptic. again a simple tree structure layout. no
way to select by extension or wildcard or anything that could be
remotely useful. only all, or hunt & peck individual leaves on
the tree. file date/time are not shown. only name, "type"
(which is relatively meaningless as it is not "type" as in
"extension", but "type" as in a "file" & not a "directory". file
size is shown in mixed format (MB or KB or bytes if small enough).
columns are not sortable.

where to restore, oddly presents of Windows Disk Manager layout-like
display rather then a tree. perhaps because of what & how i backed
up? not sure? (that must be it.) NOTE THAT IF YOU SELECT AN
EXISTING HDD OR PARTITION, ITS CONTENT WILL BE *DELETED* & REPLACED
WITH THE ONE FROM THE ARCHIVE. (emphasis mine. IOW danger will
rogers, danger!)

now even though i backed up (i suppose) a drive/partition, along
with the option to restore to another (& overwrite if existing)
drive/partition, why wouldn't it also offer me to restore to a
directory, not overwriting anything?

thwarted again!

Cancel.

so now i've got these 15 GB of "data" sitting on my HDD that it
looks like the ONLY thing i can do, presumably at some point in
the future is to restore it back to some partiton (so presumably
back to my flash drive or to a new flash drive, as that would
be the only logical place), but otherwise it does me no good.
no way to "mount" it & read it "live", to copy individual files
out & place them on my desktop (or whatever).

so read, study, (hopefully) understand, get me to think in terms
of their methodology.

sorry, not the way i work.

so far, i have not seen anything useful to me. (gotta go)

Reply   |   Comment by therube  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-6)
#99

To all those having trouble installing this program. This might work, no guarantees, but take note of the following:

- Get your registration code by clicking on the following link.
http://www.paragon-software.com/registration/brcompact11.html

Hotmail/live/msn/gmail, etc, will not always work (or maybe in this case it does). Paragon is not a spammer - I only get an email from them once every 2 or 3 months. Therefore do not hesitate in providing your personal email addy.

- When running the set-up file, right click and chose "Run as Adminstrator"

- Make sure your firewall provides privalges to the GOTD setup file. Your firewall should prompt you - just chose YES.

- If it doesn't work the first time, then perhaps its because it took to long for the setup file to run while you allowed access via your firewall. Therefore, try again a second time and it should work.

- Once the set-up file runs, it should prompt you to enter the product code and license key, which you would have received via email.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Reply   |   Comment by niko-las  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-1)
#98

Thanks for all the great feedback; I really like all the Paragon products I've tried. Solid and dependable, not too complex or granular - and better compatibility (SSD) with new versions.

Reply   |   Comment by Brian  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-1)
#97

For those who have already registered the software, you will typically first see the "Express" interface when you first run the software.
In Express mode, the user is helped along by Wizards to accomplish back or recovery tasks.

On the bottom left corner, you can click on "Open Advanced Interface" which will bring up a screen-interface familiar to most of us who have used any hard disk back up software. Paragon identifies the hard disks on your system with some details like manufacturer, size, etc...

You can return to the Express Mode anytime you wish by clicking on the left most icon in the top row menu.

Reply   |   Comment by ric  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-1)
#96

Downloaded ok (1 hour). Registration at Paragon ok (1 minute). Unzipping ok (1 minute). Creation of temp folder ok (2 minutes). But...Installation FAILED.

Windows error message about "another version" of the software being installed and having to have me go to "add / remove" programs to fix that. Anyway, I don't have another one of these installed. What a waste of time.

This was a Windows error box. Is the vendor aware of this?

Reply   |   Comment by UKgal  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#95

This is to Paragon and any other software developer that has similar software. It should be as simple as "1 Click" Full Backup of System as in the current Windows 7, "2 Clicks" Back up of media and documents, "3 Clicks" an incremental backup or "4 Clicks" a differential backup. Or 4 buttons with those options. All you should need to do is select the media, eg DVD, Blu-ray, External HD, etc

Reply   |   Comment by Hrad  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#94

I tried this giveaway on a Dell laptop on Win7 64 bit and backed up an image of the C: drive to D: drive and then successfully restored that image back to C: drive. The laptop booted okay.

However, the bootable CD that I created from the program was useless. Though the burning process completed successfully, the CD was unbootable as it had no files. I burned another CD ... this time using ImgBurn. Again the burning process completed successfully but the CD was with no files. Without a working bootable CD for last resort, the program is practically useless for me.

I have no problem using EaseUS Todo Backup Free 3.0 on this laptop.

Reply   |   Comment by Jon K  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+3)
#93

here is a link to compare the different editions

http://www.paragon-software.com/home/brf-automated/comparison.html

Reply   |   Comment by falcon  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#92

I have several Paragon backup programs already on my computer. Some are older and I don't use them, but I'm afraid to uninstall in case they uninstall some component that the newer version uses... is this likely to happen? I'd like to clean things up a bit.

Reply   |   Comment by Stan  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-1)
#91

cannot get it to install on W7 64bit. Got the registration key okay, but program will just not install - tried 3 times.

Reply   |   Comment by Nina  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-1)
#90

I posted a min ago. perhaps this one will make it in. As I install this I get only one page and this page is unzipping and installing at the same time. Next I get the paragon page with options as to what I want to do. If I want to use this tool each time I must go to the file and unzip it and run it all over again.

Reply   |   Comment by ron  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-1)
#89

ok people there is a problem either on one wants to answer or no one knows how. I have seen it asked 2 times now. HOW AND WHERE DO YOU ENTER THE CODES YOU RECIEVE IN THE EMAIL? HELLOOOOO?

Reply   |   Comment by ron  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-3)
#88

re download size and speed,
while my connection supports faster, it did take 14 minutes at 390 KBps, file size is 304 MB.
Their online site states;
Disk space: 250 MB (during the installation additional free space (up to 1GB) will be required).
So it is definitely HUGE - not sure why so large a program, when many other backup solutions are significantly smaller.

Reply   |   Comment by Bruce Tech Guy  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-1)
#87

305 MB for a backup software is simply ridiculous for me and not just because I'm on a slow connection!!

BEST FREE ALTERNATIVE??

No doubt ==> GFI BACKUP HOME EDITION 2011!!!

Restore your data in minutes using common ZIP format
Back up to nearly any storage device
Easy-to-use wizard-driven interface
Synchronize files and folders
Backup program settings for various applications
Incremental and differential backups
Military-strength 256-bit AES strong encryption
Predefined searching filters
Backup Windows Registry
Built-in easy-to-use task scheduler
Detailed logs of all backup operations.

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Back-Up-and-Recovery/GFI-Backup-Home-Edition.shtml

Reply   |   Comment by Giovanni  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#86

I got the product key and serial and inserted for registration. I then got a message that there was an error "invalid drive F". I don't have a drive F except that my computer seems to think that my external Seagate drive is drive F and tries to go there even when it is not connected. How to I redirect this so it will install or should I install it to the external drive? Thanks for the help.

Reply   |   Comment by MarthaE  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-1)
#85

I was running BR10 Home Edition SE previously, which was given away last year. I thought I'd unistall it so I can give BR11 compact edition a go. BR10 Home Edition SE actually has more features, such as backing-up to virtual drives, etc.

Well, I guess Compact Edition, really does mean its "Compact" and therefore cut-down. I'd say, If you like all the extra bells and whistles with BR10 Home Edition SE, then stick with it.

I have simple backup requirements, therefore I personally don't need any additional bells and whistles. I just back-up an image and selected folders/files each week to an external eSATA HDD, which I only turn on when I need to run a backup. Therefore, I find Windows 7 backup to be a lot more streamlined, simpler and quicker during the backup procress. Because of all the additional features with some backup programs, I find that the entire backup process can take longer - for example, with Paragon, I need to backup an image, then chose to back-up files/folders, then chose to backup email. With Windows 7 backup, I just click one button, "Back up Now" and it will backup an image including all the files/folders as per my settings. Just some feedback to Paragon, if you could include a "one button" backup feature that does everything for you as per your settings, then I think you could capture an additional market (Users with simple backup needs).

Question to Paragon - Why does this edition actually install drivers ? I noticed that "Universal Image Mounting" drivers were installed and Windows asked me about 3 times whether I am sure that I trust the developer before the drivers are installed. These drivers were never installed with previous BR10 Home Edition SE version. I'm not sure why the drivers were necessary. Please advise.

Thanks to GOTD and Paragon.

Cheers

Reply   |   Comment by Niko-las  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#84

I am stuck!!!

I got the registration information for Paragon and launched the install in 64bit and entered the info and I keep getting an error: 1500 = install is going on under some other process so it won't let me install the program. I am bummed.... anyone have any suggestions????

Reply   |   Comment by Jim Vashro  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#83

I have downloaded this giveaway and get an "Invalid Serial Number" popup when I tried to register with the product key and serial number that were emailed to me. I have tried copying and pasting, I have made sure not to have leading or trailing spaces in the numbers I copied and pasted, and I have entered the numbers manually and continue to get the same result. What do I do now?

Windows Vista 32-bit.

Reply   |   Comment by garyl  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-1)
#82

Tried to download the program 3 times. offered the full size on the outside, but only 60MB at the inside.
finally got it down. took me nearly three hours on full trotle.

Trying to install, get allways the message that there is no connection possible with the gotd server to check for availability.

Getting tired of it and stay away from it
Not something I would advise to dial up customers.
availability is gone before you even online

Reply   |   Comment by musketeer  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-1)
#81

@60 Mike,

You can run easeus Todo in your pe builds - It works perfectly for me in pe3 32 and 64 bit builds. It also works perfectly in pe 4 (I have only built 32 bit pe4 so far ).

I posted instructions on Easeus forum.

Pargon make great software.

Unfortunately, Paragon apps. do a minor version check and refuse to run on Windows 8.

That means you will need to get the new version of Paragon when you get Windows 8.

Reply   |   Comment by SIW2  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+5)
#80

Hello! Can this thing backup MS Outlook 2010 E-Mail accounts too? I tried E-Mail under Smart Backup where it states that accounts are also backed up. But after looking to backed-up archive it seems, that none of my accounts is there. It doesn't back up Windows Live Mail messages too. Otherwise it's a great program. THANKS!

Reply   |   Comment by Hood  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#79

1) No free technical support; 2) No free upgrades to future versions; 3) Strictly personal usage.

installation setup to fail...has anyone been able to figure out whats up? got the product key and serial # but no program...fail? wonder if their software is like the registration process?

Reply   |   Comment by whan moti  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-6)
#78

got the product key and serial #...no where to put it...app not installed...whats up with this?

Reply   |   Comment by whan moti  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-1)
#77

Finally managed to register.

For those who are having difficulty with where to put the key, you must actually start to install the program. The first part from the Setup, only unpacks the program. Choose whether you want an 86 or 64bit install and the registration box will pop up.

Reply   |   Comment by TomD  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+4)
#76

I have Acronis installed. Will installing this application cause anything to break. Like causing redirection of something that one or the other needs?

i.e., will they play nice together?

Reply   |   Comment by alternety  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-1)
#75

#18: "The last Paragon program I installed disabled my ability to get into XP safe mode, and has left behind DLLs in Windows\System32\Drivers which I cannot remove, even though I’ve uninstalled the software."

The Hotcore drivers are now optional, though having them as leftovers shouldn't hurt anything. RE: XP's Safe Mode, if it's still a problem you might want to add it as a choice to XP's own boot menu. To Boot.ini add the line that includes "Safe Mode":
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP.....
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Safe Mode" /SAFEBOOT:MINIMAL /SOS /BOOTLOG

* * *

#22: "...I had read somewhere that I needed to fix the MBR to restore XP – but that doing so would in turn mess up the Ubuntu boot, and that also would need subsequent recovering. So, I fixed the MBR – and now neither XP nor Ubuntu loads… "

Perhaps try the Paragon Boot Mgr. or similar? [I know it's not part of today's GOTD, but mention it because I've had it work where some others would not]

* * *

#23: "Anyone know the difference between this and the free version of Backup & Recovery Advanced? http://www.paragon-software.com/home/br-free/ "

Comparison table: http://goo.gl/QUSSY

* * *

#28: "Had recovery problems from an external usb hard drive with previous version of this software… is this latest version any different? To elaborate, recovery is initiated using a recovery boot cd. I had a backup image stored on an external usb hard drive. When I tried to recover after a serious computer failure using the boot cd, it failed to recognise my usb hard drive so I could not restore the backup image... I’d be reluctant to try Paragon again unless anyone can report they have not had the same problem..."

IMHO someone else would have to have the same hardware to tell you if the latest version worked or not -- sorry. :-(
You *might* be able to check it out mounting the rescue disc ISO in a VBox VM -- there's a portable version, or rather a launcher, & the VM itself doesn't have to have an OS or anything installed. You can also try running Paragon Backup and Recovery 11 Compact portably & booting to a WinPE type disc/device [Google/Bing for particulars], which in my experience is Much faster anyway. Generally Paragon updates their rescue discs with each version -- hold onto the old ones in case you ever come across old hardware you need to use it with.

Reply   |   Comment by mike  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+15)
#74

As others have noted, Paragon has never failed to provide me with high quality, accurately described and totally reliable products. I KNOW the value of backing up the entire contents of the computer, having had more then one laptop destroyed by the "Pepsi Syndrome" (Saturday Night Live reference) problem. Buying a new machine is enough of a pain in the wallet, but having to try and recreate all those little things that we all tend to leave laying about our machines is just damnably frustrating! A whole system backup utility that WON'T force me to run to the "how to" help file every time, a blessing. And a timely one also!
As always, Thanks to the GOTD Team and all the supporting software developers for the offerings.

Reply   |   Comment by Jim in Ereie CO  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+2)
#73

#38: "Can someone advise me on this software please. I am a total idiot on this but do know the wife and I both need to start backing up our comuters. I use an older Dell laptop with an external 500 gig HD and the wife an older HP Tower with a 1TB external hd. We are both using XP Home Edition with SP3. Would this GAOTD be good for us? Does it install on the external drives so if we have a os loss the computer will boot from the external drives? I honestly have no idea whatsoever about such things and any advice would certainly be appreciated very much"

Paragon Backup and Recovery 11 Compact is a good choice that'll install in XP Home in whatever folder on whatever disk/partition you select. Preferably backup archives are stored someplace safe, & better yet in a couple of safe places -- if a hard drive fails you'll need to restore that backup to the replacement drive. But data transfer speed is also often an issue -- having a good backup is cool, but less so if it takes you a *really* long time to restore it. Storing backup archives on an internal, or eSATA or USB 3 external drive you'll get much faster transfers than via USB 2 or reading DVDs or via the usual home network. If that makes you want to consider buying another hard drive, you might want to do it soon as prices are going up as inventories go down [because production is stopped in Thailand due to flooding]. The choice of eSata or USB 3 might depend on what's easiest/cheapest to add to both the laptop & HP Tower -- e.g. Google shopping shows a PCMCIA eSATA Cardbus for $11, & if the HP Tower has SATA, eSATA will probably work if you get an extension plate/cable for a few dollars.

Otherwise Backup and Recovery Compact can backup your drive(s)/partition(s) wherever you want them, on any disk/partition, including one connected over a network, or it can burn those archives to DVD, or create ISO files you'll burn outside of Paragon's app. That said, if you want to restore a backup of the C: partition, everything currently on the C: partition will be wiped out, lost, so obviously that backup has to be somewhere other than that C: partition in order to work. Likewise for any other partitions you back up. That doesn't mean you can't create a backup of the C: partition, stored on the C: partition -- only that you have to move that backup before you can restore it, so you can for example create a backup of C: to C: & go have a cup of coffee while that's happening... then later you can transfer those backup archives to your USB 2 external drive [which might take quite a while] in the background while you're doing whatever.

As far as disaster scenarios go, e.g. Windows not starting... Love it or hate it Windows by itself won't just die -- you or malware has to add or do something that breaks it, & since malware that kills a system isn't very useful to the malware creator, it's usually you that has to take the blame... chances are you added or did something you shouldn't of. And you usually know it, because you did whatever & then Windows wouldn't start. In those cases restoring a backup is probably your best bet. Paragon Backup and Recovery 11 Compact can create a rescue disc or it'll put the same included ISO on a USB stick, making it bootable. Paragon also has separate rescue disc downloads, &/or if you back up to DVD the 1st disc will also be bootable. If you have Paragon Backup and Recovery 11 Compact create a Backup Capsule you can also have it install its bootable restore option right to your hard drive.

That's not to say any of that is guaranteed to get Windows to fire up -- restoring a backup will put the system partition back, restoring a backup of the system disk's 1st track will put the critical files/tables back so the boot loader etc. should work, but if/when you can I recommend creating something like one of the LiveXP or WinPE discs [see reboot.pro/4111]. That way if/when Windows won't start, & you really have no idea why, you can *usually* tell pretty quickly if some portion of your hardware just died, or maybe I should re-phrase that -- you should be able to tell if your hard drive's still there & readable, & that your system itself works well enough to boot. Knowing both is useful before you go to the time & trouble of restoring a backup.

Reply   |   Comment by mike  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+16)
#72

I am planning a backup and restore right now but how do we get back the license key after formatting entire OS?

Reply   |   Comment by Raive  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#71

Thank you GAOTD! Registered easily and also created bootable CD. Thank you Paragon for your wonderfull software!

Reply   |   Comment by Johnv4  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#70

Hi - I have error 1327 the same as 51 above - It says my NAS drive is invalid but I am installing to C. Than, disconnected my NAS and same 1327 error.

Reply   |   Comment by Morganski  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#69

I cannot find any way to select a partition to back up to, it only gives me a choice of backing up to the same partition as I want to back up which is pointless. It shows Mycomputer but selecting this only shows the partition I am backing up.

Reply   |   Comment by k law  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-1)
#68

MIKE and PARAGON:

Mike wrote:
"...the Paragon site linked at the top of the page has full comparison charts if you want or need to upgrade..."

1. Can you refer us to any place anywhere on the web which says what is/is not included in any of Paragon's Special or Compact versions?? Any comparisons? It is difficult/impossible to know if one is upgrading or downgrading when installing these offers. I have also always found it very difficult to compare Paragon programs because even if you have two (or more) installed, you can only have one open at a time! Makes it very difficult to compare the builds, including those of all the component's versions (a lot of long strings of numbers....

2. Mike wrote:
"...Comparing Backup and Recovery 10 Home Special Edition with Backup and Recovery 11 CE, today’s GOTD is both new/improved & safer..."

For a start, the former has at least
- Copy Hard Disk Wizard
- Copy Partition Wizard
- Synthetic Backup

which, according to Kiwi, today's offer does not....Is today's offer really an upgrade for those with 10 Home Special??


3. If #55 (hroo) is correct, it would seem that today's Giveaway is version 10 ?!?!

Reply   |   Comment by janetb  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+8)
#67

it won't install because it says that another version is installed, which is not exactly true. I have a different Paragon product installed,
Drive Backup 9.5 Pro, but it has some similarly named dll's, with almost same versions. So will have to skip it! Thanks GAOTD.

Reply   |   Comment by Mario  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+7)
#66

Installed very nicely. looks like another great program from the GAOTD folks.

Your probably saving me lots here with this backup program.
Thank you.

Reply   |   Comment by David  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-2)
#65

Help!! Like several others, I have the registration code but can't find where to insert it in order to get the product registered...I don't see an answer given...have I missed it, perhaps?

Reply   |   Comment by Wendy  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+2)
#64

Installed fine in Win7Pro-64. Two items to note:
1. Selected to install 64-bit version, but default location was "Program Files (x86)" rather than "Program Files" which was expected and should have been default for 64-bit;
2. Had to tell Windows Security 3 times that it was OK to continue the installation.

I like Paragon products. Have never had a problem with any of them and have received good support when needed. Always pleased to be able to try a new version before buying. Thanks GOTD and Paragon.
FWIW, all of those same remarks also apply for EASEUS products and support.

I've used several versions of Acronis back to 2006. I think it peaked out with the 2010 version and has gotten bloated since then. Had many problems with 2011 that their very helpful Customer Support was not able to solve on Win-XP. 2012 version is a disaster for me. Several Backups have Validated at the time of creation only to be labelled as Corrupted when I needed them. Not a good show. Recently the one backup that was not corrupted took 18 hours to recover a 28GB partition from a Full (not diff or Incremental) multi-partition 110GB backup file where I would have expected 3-4 hours max from 2010. Also, 2010 & 2011 versions seem to be unable to read 2012 backup files so something has changed. I'll not be buying from Acronis for a few years until I start to hear consistent better reviews.

Reply   |   Comment by bobkat  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+9)
#63

#39: "While installing the option comes up to install ‘hotcore driver’. Then the last part of the description concerning this is cut off. “Recommended for Windows 2…..’ What is this driver for and under what situations should it be installed?"

Windows didn't always have its shadow copy service, which is now the vss default in Paragon backup apps... instead they used to use their Hotcore driver to allow their software to take a snapshot of any in-use files so they could be included in the back up. The alternative was to create a disk/partition image of any Windows system disk/partition *Only* when that Windows install wasn't running. I've found that when performing a backup in XP Pro, using Paragon's Hotcore driver rather than vss **might** have been a little faster, taken just a little less time. Likely mileage will vary.

* * *

#40: "...For me Win 7 x64 Ultimate’s Image System works fast on SSD..."

I've read lots of good stuff about win7's backup -- it's just not as flexible, doesn't offer as many options.

"... Back this up with Recovery CD made with EASUS TODO BACKUP (free) that will boot from DVD/CD... "

Problem with any backup on DVD is that reading DVDs is relatively slow. Also if/when you're restoring from a series of DVDs, if something happens & you have to start over you've wasted a Lot of time because you're stuck with disc 1, 2, etc. & that slow read time all over again... to help mitigate that I use Paragon set to split archives at 4 GB, which I copy to DVDs as last defense, & can copy back to hdd before restore. The other problem is that I've found moving a lot of data in a DOS-like minimal *nix environ is much slower than WinPE-type alternatives, where Paragon apps generally will run portably -- EASEUS OTOH has to be installed.

* * *

#43: "... Given what Kiwi says about all the functions which are in the Home Edition but not in today’s Compact edition, wouldn’t it be better to keep the slightly older Home 10 instead of replacing it with today’s 11 Compact? Or is “Home Special Edition” also missing all those extra functions as well?..."

If you look at the chart on the Paragon Backup & Recovery 11 Compact page [linked at the top of the GOTD page], you'll see v.11 includes Automatic partition alignment, a couple of new safety features, USB 3 etc. -- Help also lists better 64 bit Windows support. The v. 10 Home copy of Paragon backup you got from GOTD has (among other features) Synthetic Backup, Copy HDD/Partition/P2V. & it will mount backup archives... I don't know how valuable that stuff is to you, but IMHO those are the features more people will miss. As long as you remember & bear in mind that v. 10 won't open/use v. 11 backups, I don't see a problem having both installed side by side.

Reply   |   Comment by mike  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+16)
#62

To #38: Even if you are no expert,if you have enough free space, get this program! From your current standpoint you can only improve your situation.
Do make backups, sooner or later you will need them and you avoid a nightmare. Even if you may consider to hire an expert for the restore one day. Get into action. Paragon has decent programs. It saved me already twice. If I would have had to restore all the programs manually after a hard drive failure I would have needed a week's time. To make a full backup is really easy with Paragon's products.
(I must admit I once tried to backup my mother's computer with a paid Paragon version and goofed it up, I was shocked, as I thought I had completely messed up her PC, but this was not true, an expert could fix things within 5 minutes time. But this was only because I did not do it in one smooth operation, I wanted to interrupt the process. Do not do that, find out first if you have enough disk space, go buy an external hard drive first, before you make the backup)
(I personally will stay with my existing version, as I do not need these additional features.) Just do it!

Reply   |   Comment by Martina Roters  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+5)
#61

I finally! got to the registration page and have received the email with the codes.

But every time I try to install, I get the error message that another version of this product is already installed, and it must be removed via Add / Delete programs. I have removed Version 10 of the product, but the error persists. I have other Paragon products installed, am I supposed to uninstall them all?

Reply   |   Comment by Zenwan  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
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