Starting with about the 2014 version, they only send you a link to download one program. Be sure to create the Media! You'll need it should you ever need to restore a backup, but it is the program I recommend using to create your complete system backup. One to download the Windows product, and a second to a program that creates the Recovery Media. In the past they sent you two links when you bought Paragon. This is what they called the WinPE based Recovery Media. It happened to me more than once while testing various backup programs, you restore what claimed to be a successful backup to a new drive and it either will not boot, or will not run properly after booting.Īs I said, be sure to use the stand-alone version of Paragon. There are lots of system backup programs that run under windows, but if Windows is running other processes are scribbling on hard drive and there's a very real chance they can corrupt the backup, which you'll never know until you try to restore and it's too late!. The reason I like both of these is that they can run stand-alone.

I also tried Clonezilla, which is free but I think the user interface is too difficult for most users. Versions of Paragon after 2010 are easier to use and backup faster. One program I can recommend is Paragon Hard Disk Manager.

You notice I said WHEN, not IF, because sooner or later it's going to happen to you. In my discussion of Complete System Backup I recommended using a stand-alone program that creates a complete backup of your C drive which can be easily restored to a newly formatted hard drive when your C drive fails or becomes hopelessly corrupted by a virus.

Backup Programs: Paragon Hard Disk Manager 15 (or 14) Suite by Wren McMainsĪfter reviewing, click for a two page Summary of the Backup Steps you can print.

Paragon backup & recovery 15