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Paragon Drive Copy 14 Compact (English Version) Giveaway
$29.95
EXPIRED

Giveaway of the day — Paragon Drive Copy 14 Compact (English Version)

Paragon Drive Copy 14 Compact performs any migration, no matter the source or target.
$29.95 EXPIRED
User rating: 364 46 comments

Paragon Drive Copy 14 Compact (English Version) was available as a giveaway on January 10, 2014!

Today Giveaway of the Day
$36.00
free today
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Paragon Disk Copy 14 provides the most efficient way of computer migration for any soft and hardware combination, from any source to any target. Featuring wide migration options, support for major VM, etc.

Key Features:

  • Fast migration to new HDDs, SSDs, new hardware and virtual machines;
  • Wide migration options (P2P, P2V, V2P and V2V);
  • 2TB+, SSD and AFD drives support;
  • Complete uEFI Support;
  • Copy/Restore to dissimilar sector size;
  • Windows Storage Spaces Support;
  • New user-friendly interface.

Limitations: Paragon Boot Media Builder and Paragon Recovery Media Builder add-on (stand-alone wizards which help to prepare a WinPE-based bootable environment) are not available, but you can create and use Linux/DOS-based Recovery media with built-in Recovery Media Builder.

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.

If you are x64 OS user, please download the installation materials here (file size: 214 MB).

System Requirements:

Windows XP/ Vista/ 7/ 8/ 8.1 (x32/x64); CPU: Intel Pentium or compatible, 300MHz or higher processor; RAM: 128 MB of RAM (256+ recommended); Disk space: 250 MB (during the installation additional free space up to 1GB will be required); For the Recovery Environments: On-board BIOS supports booting from CD/USB first

Publisher:

Paragon Software

Homepage:

http://www.paragon-software.com/home/dc-compact/

File Size:

124 MB

Price:

$29.95

Comments on Paragon Drive Copy 14 Compact (English Version)

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#45

Please help!
Where i cant chek if the Paragon Hard Disk Manager 14 business made the back up?I can recive the email with evrey back up what paragon do it?
Txs

Reply   |   Comment by larisa  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#44

I also had trouble installing this software. But 5 minutes later I posted a fix to help others. Neither one of my comments ended up in the public area. Why should I bother with comments if they just get ignored/deleted?

Al

Reply   |   Comment by Al Heynneman  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+3)
#43

#27: "#19 @mike
Thanks for your post. I have a question. When you say:
“Then I’ll back up that .vhd to an image I’ll later restore to the target disk/partition. ”
How do you do that?"

.
When you create & mount a Microsoft format .vhd in win7, it's really just like any other drive/partition, as long as it's mounted. One advantage of these virtual hard drives is you don't have to mess with your existing partitions to make room for the partition or anything -- you just create it anywhere you have the disk space. And they're fully portable, since they'll work on any system that can read the virtual hard drive format you used -- while it can be added to XP, Microsoft started including built-in support for their .vhd format with win7. A virtual hard drive file with most all of your GOTD games for example could be copied to every PC/laptop in the house, & for most practical purposes it would be the same as adding a hard drive with those games to each of those systems.

Back to your question of how I back up the temporary .vhd... I restore the original partition image backup to a newly created & mounted .vhd file or drive, then use Paragon [or EaseUS or AEOMI] partition software to shrink the partition on that .vhd, then back it up using Paragon backup software. I use Paragon backup apps but you could use whatever brand you like that you'll installed. Once I've got that backup I just unmount & delete that .vhd file.

That new backup can be restored pretty much anywhere you like, e.g. to a virtual hard drive to be used in a VM, or to a regular hard drive, or to a virtual drive that you'll use just like a real hard drive... You can set win7+ to boot from it -- EasyBCD has the option in its menus so it's not that hard.

Since my goal is usually to move a copy of Windows + software to a VM, while I've got that .vhd mounted I'll also rename any folders for things like security or anti-virus software that starts with Windows, and I'll do the same thing with any software like AMD's Catalyst Control Center that depends on certain hardware to work. I don't usually go that far at this point but you could do the same with any driver files. And you can remove them rather than just re-name if you wanted. The 1st time you start a copy of Windows that you just migrated to a VM, it'll look for & add all the new drivers it needs -- a rather intense process. During that time having your security or any other software starting with Windows is unhelpful to say the least.

Reply   |   Comment by mike  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#42

Thanks to Ashraf and Giovanni. You guys are fantastic! Thanks also to many others some with mini-seminars. I wish Paragon (and all) would simplify their naming to say for example "free" "lite" Pro" Following is about 1/3 (!!!) of the Paragons I have. Please tell me which do I want to for cloning?

Paragon Backup & Recovery 10 Compact - Covermount (English)
Paragon Backup & Recovery 2011 (Advanced) Free (English)
Paragon System Backup 10 Special Edition - GOTD (English)
Paragon System Backup 2010 - Free Edition (English)
Paragon Drive Backup 9.5 Professional Edition

It is so over whelming. PS - I replaced my Windows 7 mother board to different brand. Could not load windows. Screwed again. Took typical 400 hours to put together .. almost all GOAD gone. If I can truly migrate my drive that is the ONLY way I want to image. Lightning or whatever the cause and boom you are out of business!! Devastating! Microsoft I believe is protecting their software else people clone drives with... Agree?

Reply   |   Comment by Harold James Carlson  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#41

#27 Jina

“Then I’ll back up that .vhd to an image I’ll later restore to the target disk/partition.”

Since I do not know if you work with virtual machines or not, my questions is. Do you like to backup/restore partitions on your harddrive, or do you like to backup a virtual drive and restore it to a real partition.

The first one I can assist you with, but the later one, I guess involves making a backup in virtual enviroment, and from there transfer it over to a real location. Part from that they should be basic the same, should that is.

Micke

Reply   |   Comment by Micke  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#40

#20, #33 Those of you that are getting "error 1316" is sounds like you downloaded the x32 software instead of the x64. The x64 download is 214 MB and is not downloaded by clicking on the usual GAOTD link. I made this mistake myself ;-(

Reply   |   Comment by Cutter  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-1)
#39

I have the code - my mistake - the mail was picked up by a rule in Outlook - only time that has ever worked !

Reply   |   Comment by Ian  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#38

Despite trying 4 times - never received the registration code from Paragon - Could not install.

Also tried their other free software offers on the website - again, no registration code supplied.

Reply   |   Comment by Ian  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#37

Have both (a) Paragon Backup and Recovery 12 Compact and (b) Paragon Partition Manager 12 Home Special Edition, from GAOTD, but never used them.
1) HOW IS THIS ONE DIFFERENT?
2) Must I uninstall one of the old in order to install this one?
Thanks.

Reply   |   Comment by glnz  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#36

Will this work on a server? I have a very old server and have been given one only a few years old. I have to continue using Server 2003, and this would save having to find all the old program install files and building from scratch.

Reply   |   Comment by Mike  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#35

This would not install unless Paragon Drive Copy 12 was uninstalled first (it kept looking for the installation file from the September giveaway and stopped when it couldn't find it). I went ahead and got rid of the old (not "Compact") version anyway because I couldn't get the old one to work (apparently because the destination 3 TB HDD was not exactly the same size as the 3 TB HDD I was trying to copy). Hopefully I'll have better luck with this.

Reply   |   Comment by Jerry  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#34

#4 Macrium Reflect Free will do what you need. I just used it for that purpose.

You do have to change your BIOS boot options to boot from the clone, of course.

Semper Fi.

Reply   |   Comment by DD  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#33

Finaly got it, took about 45 min to get, installing now

Reply   |   Comment by Ray Smith  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-4)
#32

Can not install on win8.1 x64. Getting error 1316. I noted others have had the same problem on x64 system.

Reply   |   Comment by Chuck Harry  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+5)
#31

Did registration twice, half-hour latter still no key and #........now off to work.

Reply   |   Comment by Ray Smith  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+3)
#30

#7 - Harris: Instead of criticizing "Despite its claims here that the software will work on 32 or 64 bit systems, as soon as the software installer detected that I had a 64 bit system — the norm these days, I think you’d all agree — it informed me that it could not install as it only works on 32 bit systems.
(My OS is Windows 8.1, for the record).

This is obviously unacceptable unless corrected ASAP.", why don't you read what's on the web page. There are two different download links - one for 32-bit and one for 64-bit.

Now about the software, I will not install it, just because I am afraid it would mess up my computer.

Reply   |   Comment by Just me  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#29

I had used Paragon Drive Copy (download from this site) to move to SSD my SO that was in another machine. It worked flawless. Used to virtualize an O.S. to test this functionality. Worked fine. It was simple.
I would not recommend you to do that thought when if you don't know what you are doing. Changes in hardware reflect on the system.

I have a question: one of Key features is "Wide migration options (P2P, P2V, V2P and V2V);", but #1 say that Compact version is missing (...) the ability to virtualize OS. Is that true?

Reply   |   Comment by EMB  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#28

cannot "migrate data to a computer with different hardware"??

So it only functions between two identical computers? I would think a major use for such a program is to transfer data from an older system to a newer one - two systems which will definitely NOT be identical - so of what use is this software?

Reply   |   Comment by JGF  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+12)
#27

#4: “I have been looking for a long time for a program which will clone or duplicate my entire hard drive (and be bootable when/if I swap it to my C drive cable) to a secondary internal hard drive by simply double-clicking an icon. Will this program do that? Does anyone know of a program that can make a bootable backup to a 2nd hard drive internally installed? I’ll give this a shot, but I’ve tried a number of these types and I can’t seem to find one which doesn’t require you to perform some additional steps “after” cloning or copying to make it boot. Thanks GOTD”

I use Macrium Reflect free edition to clone the drive to another one installed internally. This can easily be done when installing an SSD drive. I also unplug the original drive and leave it installed as a bootable backup. There were no other steps for me, just to change bios to boot from the new drive.

Reply   |   Comment by JohnnyJ  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+6)
#26

#19 @mike

Thanks for your post. I have a question. When you say:

"Then I’ll back up that .vhd to an image I’ll later restore to the target disk/partition. "

How do you do that?

Reply   |   Comment by Jina  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+4)
#25

#18: "If you have an older Pro version installed, does it make you uninstall it? There have been giveaways in the past that do this and are, in effect, downgrades, because some of the previous features are taken away."

What I generally do with Paragon & EaseUS -- & this is totally unsupported, may or may not work etc. -- is store a copy of the program's folder as a 7-zip file. If the new copy uninstalls the old, so-be-it, I'll expand the files from that 7-zip file, putting the old copy next to the new one. *Usually* I've had good luck with the older versions working with newer system files &/or drivers, so I can fire up & use either one. And if it doesn't work I've lost 3 minutes of my life. ;)

Reply   |   Comment by mike  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+19)
#24

A quick word of caution -- more & more software uses hardware keys for licensing &/or registration. Hard drives have 2 serial numbers, one can be changed, & that ID is often used as all or part of that hardware key.

To see a drive's/partition's ID go to the command prompt & just use the dir command. To change it you can use a free tool from Sysinternals called VolumeId. Changing a new drive's/partition's ID to match the old one can **sometimes** help avoid having to re-register your software, but it's safest if you check your software to see what's needed before the move. Some apps want you to deactivate your license so it can be used elsewhere, & with some companies like Adobe, if you fail to do that it can be a nightmare trying to get software you paid for re-activated.

Some software also uses your hardware's MAC address, but the only time knowing that **might** be useful, at least the only one I can think of at the moment, is if you're moving Windows to a VM -- VirtualBox [I'm not sure about VMware] lets you set the MAC address.

Reply   |   Comment by mike  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+20)
#23

Hi,
Can I use the winPE rescue disk for version 12 for this compact ver14 ?
Thanks

Reply   |   Comment by Tony  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+5)
#22

#16: "I guess in the description where it said “Fast migration to new HDDs, SSDs, new hardware and virtual machines;” it should have added “the hardware can be new, but must otherwise be IDENTICAL” This doesn’t sound like truth in advertising to me. Perhaps it should be mentioned under “Limitations” that this does not support migration among anything dissimilar."

Dissimilar hardware normally means taking your installed copy of Windows & using it pretty much as-is on another system using pretty different hardware. If the hardware's close, e.g. similar AMD or Intel chipsets & CPUs, you might only need to change & update your drivers after booting into Windows -- if it's a lot different, e.g. AMD -> Intel, the only way it will boot is if you remove most of the installed AMD drivers, which is what Paragon apps that handle migrating the OS do.

You do need to have enough disk space on your target drive however to fit the files & folders you've got now, which can be an issue if/when your C: drive/partition stores 1/2 TB of data & you want to move Windows to a 256 GB [or smaller] SSD. Data can be moved to another drive/partition, but installed software might need to be reinstalled, or change all registry entries &/or configuration files pointing to the locations of a program's files. Lots of folks just make it an opportunity to start fresh with a clean install so there's less Windows bloat, & leave off the software they thought they'd use but haven't.

Reply   |   Comment by mike  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+15)
#21

#4: "I have been looking for a long time for a program which will clone or duplicate my entire hard drive (and be bootable when/if I swap it to my C drive cable) to a secondary internal hard drive by simply double-clicking an icon. Will this program do that? Does anyone know of a program that can make a bootable backup to a 2nd hard drive internally installed? I’ll give this a shot, but I’ve tried a number of these types and I can’t seem to find one which doesn’t require you to perform some additional steps “after” cloning or copying to make it boot. Thanks GOTD"

The way it works is your PC/laptop has a setting in the bios which tells it where to look first for the necessary boot info -- once it finds that info it loads it, then proceeds to load either a boot menu, if more than one OS installed, or the OS, e.g. Windows. No need to swap cables or anything -- either use a loader with a boot menu or change the bios setting so it looks at another drive for the boot data -- it's really no different than in years past when you used to set the bios to boot from a CD/DVD first, or USB stick etc., except there's *usually* a hotkey you can press nowadays to select the boot device when the system's starting.

That said, there are 2 reasons to clone a drive/partition... 1) it includes the hidden data you can't just copy to make it bootable, & 2) transferring raw data rather than files & folders is faster. Cloning data *may* be a little faster outside of Windows because of less overhead, but mileage will vary -- while I have Acronis & am not a big fan, I've generally found the bootable version of their software supplied with some brands of hard drives to be fastest.

If that initial boot data is missing or damaged or you want to add a boot menu or get rid of the win8/8.1 graphical boot menu EasyBCD can do that for you quick, easy, & [for home use] free. It also works portably, & while it uses the Vista/7/8/8.1 boot loader, it can add that loader to XP just fine -- for XP it will load XP's loader though. EasyBCD will also let you boot to a VHD [Virtual Hard Drive].

* * *

Regarding virtual hard drives & virtual machines [PCs]...

The main hurtle with VHDs is a virtual drive has to be mounted before you can access it as a regular drive. If you're in win7 + it's not a big deal if it's in Microsoft's .VHD format -- just go through Admin Tools -> Computer Mgmt -> Disk Mgmt. -- but otherwise you might have to add drivers or work through the Virtual Machine Host software that pertains to that virtual drive format. If you want to clone a drive/partition to a VirtualBox .vdi disk for example, you can add a blank disk to an existing VM, then run whatever software to perform the clone in that VM. That's where some Paragon apps may make life easier, creating & mounting the new, blank .vdi & copying/cloning a drive/partition to it.

IOW Paragon software can be [sometimes very] helpful, but isn't essential in that regard.

Regarding p2v, v2p, p2p etc., where P = Physical & V = Virtual...

Essentially the real challenge is what I've just mentioned, mounting the vhd. Where things get sticky is the Migrate OS to Dissimilar Hardware. In order for Windows to boot it has to load drivers to talk to essential hardware like the CPU, GPU, driver interface & so on. When those essential components are different Windows will try to load the installed drivers, & if they don't work, stall or crash. Some of Paragon's software will read the registry without loading & starting the copy of Windows you want to transfer, & try to remove any driver info for critical hardware -- that way Windows does it's new hardware driver search routine, same as if you were just installing Windows.

It works, but the problem is in my experience, old stuff that ideally would have been purged sticks around. In a nutshell that means reduced performance, sometimes very much reduced. You can improve it, again in my experience, by manually removing everything you can having to do with the old drivers, making sure new drivers for the new hardware are installed & used, but it can still be a bit iffy -- I migrated win7 from AMD to Intel a few years back, & I just found the other day that booting to Safe Mode there was a slight hang as the system reverted to AMD PCI drivers... I had gotten them out of Win7 proper, or so I thought.

Overall you'll get better results installing Windows fresh -- migrating this way is primarily a convenience so you don't have to reinstall all your software.

Regarding different sized disks/partitions...

Paragon's backup apps let you restore a backup image to disks/partitions that are a different size, as long as the data fits. So do some other apps, whether they're for backup/restore, cloning/copying etc. If the software you're using doesn't, or if you're going p2v, you often want to reduce the partition size for the original Windows system drive/partition first. After a defrag to pack all data towards the front of the partition, you can reduce the size of your original Windows system drive/partition from inside Windows itself, but you can get it smaller if the copy of Windows on that drive/partition isn't running. You can do it after booting to a CD/DVD/USB stick, or you can clone that drive/partition to a temporary, intermediate vhd, which is what I usually do -- that way I haven't tampered with the original possibly effecting how it runs, or if it runs.

I start with that defrag, then do a drive/partition image backup, restore that backup to a newly created & mounted .vhd in win7, then reduce the size of that .vhd's partition as much as possible [I'll only leave a maybe 1 GB of free space max]. Then I'll back up that .vhd to an image I'll later restore to the target disk/partition. Once the clone's been done, re-sizing that partition larger, if I want/need to is trivial. This is particularly useful for VMs where you'll often use a dynamically expanding .vhd -- one that grows only as needed to keep the disk space used to a minimum. Beside the advantage of saving disk space, the best way I've found to backup a virtual disk is to copy it somewhere else -- I've seen no advantages to doing it any different -- & the smaller it is the easier/faster it is to copy. DO note that Paragon software often takes steps to make everything easier for you, & that includes adding disks/partitions to your boot menu when you clone or copy a disk/partition -- I keep EasyBCD handy so I can put things the way I want them.

Reply   |   Comment by mike  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+48)
#20

If you have an older Pro version installed, does it make you uninstall it? There have been giveaways in the past that do this and are, in effect, downgrades, because some of the previous features are taken away.

Reply   |   Comment by RichU  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+9)
#19

Can't install it on Win7 64 bit:

Error 1316 A network error occurred while attempting to read from the file...

Not quite sure what the problem is?

:-(
PS. Clipped the error messages for submission if that helps?

Reply   |   Comment by Michael Czajka  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+2)
#18

I used to have an older version of this, and it WAS (key word: WAS) great, but a while back I spent literally days deleting a newer version of it, as it bloated my registry beyond belief, RADICALLY slowed down my system (Win7 64 bit, 4gb ram, 64bit), and overloaded my RAM with it's constant monitoring, which is about impossible to stop! Then uninstalling was a nightmare. I used Advanced Uninstaller Pro (GREAT free uninstaller which is usually very good at reg residue cleanup) to delete it, and had to use Registry First Aid to do a deep clean of the literally dozens of dozens reg left overs! It's just NOT worth the hassle. If you're advanced enough, try Clonezilla.
Synopsis: This is like Windows. Started out ok, but every "improvement" just makes it more bloated and just not worth it. CAVEAT EMPTOR!

Reply   |   Comment by batsdude  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+10)
#17

@Giovanni and Micke,

Regarding Redo, I am a little concerned that the latest version (1.0.4) has not been updated for over a year. And expert help in their forum appears to be minimal.

I rely more on Clonezilla, which doesn't have as friendly of an interface as Redo, but has a very solid reputation, is updated regularly, and has an active forum. One can easily find Clonezilla tutorials via a google search and it doesn't take long to get the hang of using it.

Concerning both, Clonezilla and Redo, what I like most about both is that nothing gets installed on your system.

Reply   |   Comment by Midwest guy  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+9)
#16

I guess in the description where it said "Fast migration to new HDDs, SSDs, new hardware and virtual machines;" it should have added "the hardware can be new, but must otherwise be IDENTICAL" This doesn't sound like truth in advertising to me. Perhaps it should be mentioned under "Limitations" that this does not support migration among anything dissimilar.

Reply   |   Comment by Daniel Kay  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+30)
#15

@Giovanni and other readers

Morning

Since we talk about “Restore to Dissimilar Hardware”, I whould like to make a reservation towards redobackup, it is a great software, but can not restore to diffrent sized harddrives. I recently noticed this myself.

Reply   |   Comment by Micke  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+33)
#14

1. Don't forget to burn on CD/USB the bootcd.iso located in /iso, otherwise you won't be able to restore.

2. The most interesting key features in the product description above apply only to the Pro version, not the Compact.

3. Nothing said about not backing up empty space (why backup 400 GB when only 70 GB used), or compression.

Reply   |   Comment by papin  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+27)
#13

The PRO edition of this product is FABULOUS...this GAOTD version is just GOOD!

Why? Because a tool like this is usually required when you buy a new PC and want to migrate data + OS to it from an older PC with different hardware or when you want to deploy the same operating system on many computers with dissimilar hardware.

Unfortunately a key feature missing in this GAOTD.

So THUMBS UP with some reservations though...

Why? Because Aomei Backupper is FREE and does more or less the same things as this version of Paragon Drive Copy 14 (but it's rumored that the next new version of it will support "Restore to Dissimilar Hardware" Function as well...so let's stay tuned!!), so can't see any reason to download this GAOTD....how about you dudes?

http://www.aomeitech.com

To transfer almost any installed programs of yours from one Windows-based computer to another one with dissimilar hardware, keeping the original settings of them as well, just use this magic FREE portable app:

http://www.pickmeapp.com/pickmeapp

Or better yet use a virtualization product like "VirtualBox" + "GoPC Backup" as backup solution:

https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Virtualization
https://github.com/GeorgeSchiro/GoPcBackup

But why not use a FREE BARE METAL solution instead?

http://redobackup.org

Enjoy!!

My 2 cents for today's giveaway!!

Reply   |   Comment by Giovanni  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+153)
#12

64bit users at 215mb, not very compact!

Reply   |   Comment by frank  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+3)
#11

This download of Home version is 124 MB including Themida wrapper.
The nonfunctional demo of Pro Version on http://www.paragon-software.com/home/dc-professional/ is as big as 58.3 MB. I wonder what for. Is it producing bitcoins secretly?

Otherwise I'm using Paragon software since many years without any trouble and therefore I will download this soft and try it for "migrating" good old XP to a virtual machine. (My good old refillable printer got only partial and very restricted assistance on later systems and in april MS will "kill" XP.)

Despite of professional downvoters many thanks to Ashraf for his neutral tests. But I want to add that I suppose this restricted software is useful for me and others. And Paragon have to pay their personel, telephone fees (yes, phone numbers given on homepage!!!) etc.

Reply   |   Comment by FrancisBorne  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+12)
#10

I must give a complete thumbs up to paragon, I downloaded their Drive copy 11 professional special edition (English) from GAOTD. I was able to make a complete second copy of my "C" drive which now resides on my "H" drive. I can now boot up from either drive at will, not only that the software continues to copy any new programme to the other drive automatically.

Reply   |   Comment by Leslie Gee  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+8)
#9

#2
Paul, I have some good advice for you. Stop using the computer. Locate the application of the talents in some other area. Playing harmonica, cross stitching, painting watercolors ... But you never know everything around? The whole world in front of you, and it is huge.

Reply   |   Comment by fireworker  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-181)
#8

I'm already covered for the functions, but I would love to try the Migrations to Different Hardware... which unfortunately is not included in Compact

If there are Paragon people on this thread, I'd like some comments about the Pro copy that does migrations to different hardware.... some real user testimonials for Pro would be nice... I can find reviewers but nothing from real users who purchased the Pro

I've use the Laplink disk image migration product 3 times to move to new hardware and it works but is time-consuming. If Pro saves me time, I'd sure consider the purchase

Reply   |   Comment by Jan Gregory  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+13)
#7

Despite its claims here that the software will work on 32 or 64 bit systems, as soon as the software installer detected that I had a 64 bit system -- the norm these days, I think you'd all agree -- it informed me that it could not install as it only works on 32 bit systems.
(My OS is Windows 8.1, for the record).

This is obviously unacceptable unless corrected ASAP.

Reply   |   Comment by Harris  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-32)

Dear Harris,

please use the link in the bottom of description to get the installer suitable for 64-bit OS.

Reply   |   Comment by Giveaway of the Day project team  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+19)
#6

In my experience Paragon software is not very good. Just about anything is better. I know a lot of self-proclaimed "IT experts" swear by Paragon but I've had terrible luck with all their products. In fact it seems very suspicious how so many "professional" reviewers give it high marks while the real-world results seem much more of a mixed bag.

Reply   |   Comment by truthmonger  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+22)
#5

Register this softweare here to save you going right through the installation process:
http://registration.paragon-software.com/dc14compact.html

Reply   |   Comment by Poseidon  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+30)
#4

I have been looking for a long time for a program which will clone or duplicate my entire hard drive (and be bootable when/if I swap it to my C drive cable) to a secondary internal hard drive by simply double-clicking an icon. Will this program do that? Does anyone know of a program that can make a bootable backup to a 2nd hard drive internally installed? I'll give this a shot, but I've tried a number of these types and I can't seem to find one which doesn't require you to perform some additional steps "after" cloning or copying to make it boot. Thanks GOTD

Reply   |   Comment by USMC4LIFE  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+4)
#3

These are the features that are MISSING when compared to the professional version.

Migrate OS to dissimilar hardware
P2V Copy / P2V Adjust OS
V2V / V2P
Read-only mode for virtual disks
Resume operations on virtual volumes
Support for major virtual machines
WinPE recovery environment
P2P Adjust OS

Reply   |   Comment by XP-Man  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+96)
#2

I used to use Paragon's partition manager, that was given away here, often. I would use it to format a partition I created for backup before I would do a new backup. The last time I did this the program wiped my entire drive. It happened in a single instant. In 1 second my whole HD was erased. Everything was fine on my screen at first, but then when I tried to get out of paragon's program It didnt work. and then I realised there was no info on my hd anymore.
It cost me €35 to purchase a restore to factory settings kit from Toshiba for my laptop. I mentioned this on a previous giveaway and with the number of similar comments I saw that I am not the only one this has happend to.
I will never use their software ever again!

Reply   |   Comment by Paul  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+103)
#1

Pros
*Allows you to migrate the operating system and data of your current system over to a different computer or hard drive (aka make an existing Windows installation bootable on a different computer or hard drive). NOTE: Compact version will not allow you to migrate to a computer with different hardware
*Can choose to copy a full hard disk or just a portion of it
*Allows you to copy from a regular hard disk to a SSD (Solid State Drive)
*Able to fix most system boot problems that are a result of human error or a boot virus
*Comes with basic partition management features

Cons
*Only allows you to move Windows XP and above (sorry all of you who are still holding onto Windows 95)
*Compact version is missing two key features — the ability to migrate data to a computer with different hardware and the ability to virtualize OS

Free Alternatives
Review of best free system backup software for Windows

Final Verdict
Click here for final verdict and full review

Reply   |   Comment by Ashraf  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+70)
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