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Other Software => Found Deals and Discounts => Topic started by: FreebyFan on March 05, 2009, 07:37 AM

Title: Paragon Drive Backup 9 Special Edition For Free!
Post by: FreebyFan on March 05, 2009, 07:37 AM: Can't believe I've got this for free!
My all time fav backup software. I strongly recommend it to anyone.

http://for-free-on-internet.com/2009/03/paragon-drive-backup-9-special-edition-free-promo/ (http://for-free-on-internet.com/2009/03/paragon-drive-backup-9-special-edition-free-promo/)

The guys from For-Free-On-Internet.com are talking about an impending blocking for the promo.
Grabb it while still there guys!
Title: Re: Paragon Drive Backup 9 Special Edition For Free!
Post by: Shades on March 05, 2009, 05:10 PM: Right now the deal is still available, just received some generated credentials for registering from Paragon, and I'm currently (still :() downloading.
Title: Re: Paragon Drive Backup 9 Special Edition For Free!
Post by: Carol Haynes on March 05, 2009, 07:37 PM: Yep - it was supposed to end on 1st March so if you want a copy grab it quick while you can.

I downloaded it but haven't installed it yet. Anyone know what the difference is between this version and the commercial version?
Title: Re: Paragon Drive Backup 9 Special Edition For Free!
Post by: 40hz on March 06, 2009, 05:55 AM: Still works as of 6-Mar-2009!

App download is slooooow...but I got the e-mail with the license key in under 5 minutes.

:Thmbsup:
Title: Re: Paragon Drive Backup 9 Special Edition For Free!
Post by: MerleOne on March 06, 2009, 09:13 AM: Does this version support incremental or differential backup ? And the recovery Cd is still linux based or WinPE ?

Thx
Title: Paragon Partition Manager 9 Special Edition - FREE!
Post by: kanecitizen on March 07, 2009, 05:48 PM: I have downloaded and installed it . The promotion works.

http://for-free-on-internet.com/2009/03/paragon-partition-manager-9-special-edition/ (http://for-free-on-internet.com/2009/03/paragon-partition-manager-9-special-edition/)

Kane ... A Citizen
Title: Re: Paragon Partition Manager 9 Special Edition - FREE!
Post by: Curt on March 08, 2009, 11:51 AM: free promo for a special Paragon product EXPIRED ON Dec 3, 2008.

- only valid if I was accepted back in December? :tellme:

From WHERE did you get the installer? Computeractive gives me nothing!
Title: Re: Paragon Partition Manager 9 Special Edition - FREE!
Post by: Shades on March 08, 2009, 03:22 PM: For registration:
http://www.paragon-software.com/registration/pm90se.html (http://www.paragon-software.com/registration/pm90se.html)

For the software:
http://www.vnudownloads.co.uk/partitionManager9special-20080328-1337-en.exe (http://www.vnudownloads.co.uk/partitionManager9special-20080328-1337-en.exe)

A few days ago I was still able to get it, now a continuous time-out message appears. If you want I can send the installation file (FTP) or chopped into pieces with winrar and mail them. It's near 100 Mbyte I believe.
Title: Re: Paragon Partition Manager 9 Special Edition - FREE!
Post by: MilesAhead on March 08, 2009, 05:18 PM: You can get the Express version from the main web site. I don't know how many features are cut out but I think the main one is it won't delete a partition. But you can always use Cute or another partition program to delete to get free space, then use the Paragon to do whatever.
Title: Re: Paragon Partition Manager 9 Special Edition - FREE!
Post by: Carol Haynes on March 08, 2009, 08:01 PM: You can delete partitions (except the system partition) in Windows XP and Vista using the Disk Management tool in the Management console (or Start > Run > diskmgmt.msc )
Title: Re: Paragon Partition Manager 9 Special Edition - FREE!
Post by: Curt on March 09, 2009, 03:39 AM: I finally got it from the vnudownloads link.

Thank you, Shades, and Thank You, Kane! :up:

33.58 MB, average download speed 34.64 KB/sec
Title: Re: Paragon Partition Manager 9 Special Edition - FREE!
Post by: mahesh2k on March 09, 2009, 01:42 PM: Thanks for the Links Shades, and Kane :)
Title: Re: Paragon Partition Manager 9 Special Edition - FREE!
Post by: Shades on March 09, 2009, 08:36 PM: A word to the wise...and a big warning for everybody else!!!!!!!

After I installed the software, everything looked fine and dandy. Before I wanted to use the software I thought to do a defrag on the partition. Now imagine my surprise that the partition was not there at all. Even worse, two partitions were lost.

The Windows XP drive management software saw free space in the area were those two partitions were allocated. Now some cruel irony enters my mind: "Installing software to safeguard your data...results in losing your data". So, the netto result from installing the software is that only four of my six partitions were available to me anymore.

Before panic starts kicking in, the uninstall functionality was used and after a restart from my computer both my partitions were available to me again.
My setup is not extreme (I think), on that harddisk is only one primary partition (windows only) and 5 logical partitions (program files, work data, temp, private data and virtual machine). Private data and my virtual machine partition were not available.

I don't know what mojo Paragon uses but I have used other tools (freeware) that didn't have this problem, so the blame is theirs. Of course, for the casual user this 4 partition limit will not pose any problem, but I am glad (ecstatic to be more precise) to get rid of it.

Thank, but no thanks.
Title: Re: Paragon Partition Manager 9 Special Edition - FREE!
Post by: MilesAhead on March 09, 2009, 09:11 PM: Generally I find with the Paragon stuff the Express editions are the freebie to go with. With the proviso that you look over the features comparison on their site. At least on the imaging backup it's equivalent to the Personal edition without a few features like folder exclusion.

Too many of these other freebie releases I think are for sticking in computer magazines. Best to get the "permanent" freebie that's on their web site, if it has what you need to do the job.

I notice the Express edition on this one only supports XP and Vista 32 bit whereas you can get a 64 bit version of the Drive Backup Express.

Reading the fine print can be a pita. :)
Title: Re: Paragon Partition Manager 9 Special Edition - FREE!
Post by: Carol Haynes on March 10, 2009, 04:27 AM: I don't know what mojo Paragon uses but I have used other tools (freeware) that didn't have this problem, so the blame is theirs. Of course, for the casual user this 4 partition limit will not pose any problem, but I am glad (ecstatic to be more precise) to get rid of it.
-Shades (March 09, 2009, 08:36 PM)

That's strange - if they are limiting to 4 partitions (including logical partitions) how do they justify that given that drives are now enormous and many people take advantage of multiple partition drives?

Alternatively the 4 partition limit is actually a function of the partition table structure - which is why Extended partitions and logical partitions were introduced (effectively stuffing a bunch of 'virtual' partitions inside a single 'real' partition.

Were the missing partitions logical partitions or primary?

Have you contacted Paragon to ask if this is intentional - if it is a bug they need to get it fixed and fast.

Having said that I find Acronis DiskDirector is also a bit hit and miss when you use it from the Linux boot disc - I have had a number of occasions where it says the drive structure is correct but windows has failed to recognise a partition or Partition Table Doctor reports that the number of blocks on a partition is inconsistent. I haven't noticed the version that runs from within Windows having this problems and am beginjning to wonder if it is a problem with the version of Linux they use with their rescue disk. Again it is ironic that a Disk management tool can screw things up!
Title: Re: Paragon Drive Backup 9 Special Edition For Free!
Post by: MilesAhead on March 11, 2009, 03:51 PM: Yep - it was supposed to end on 1st March so if you want a copy grab it quick while you can.

I downloaded it but haven't installed it yet. Anyone know what the difference is between this version and the commercial version?
-Carol Haynes (March 05, 2009, 07:37 PM)

Basically Paragon Drive Backup Express should be available for download from the Paragon site anytime. They accept a hotmail address for sending the reg info. There is even a 64 bit edition if you have Vista64. It's Paragon Drive Backup Personal 9.0 without some of the features. No folder exclusion, no file only backup etc.. For an image backup of your entire system it's fine. If you have an external drive you can get smaller backups by copying off big files(like if you have dvd .iso images or big .avi files etc.) to your external, delete them.. then do the backup.

The boot CD afaik is the same as Personal that is Linux based and has USB support. If your system is hosed, boot the CD and restore from the external USB drive.

I've been using Paragon Drive Backup Personal since v. 8.5 and I've restored with it a few times. The restore does work. I put Windows 7 beta on and when I got bored with it I just laid the Paragon image back on and my system was the same as when I did the backup.

If they had these Express editions out when I bought 8.5 I probably would have just downloaded the Express. But if you do a lot of video it's convenient to just exclude folders with huge files to make the backup set smaller without the copy off work-around.

For $40 I ain't complainin' :)
Title: Re: Paragon Drive Backup 9 Special Edition For Free!
Post by: Shades on March 11, 2009, 07:48 PM: Hey, going through this thread I notice that a lot of posts are missing, including one of my own about a seriously bad side effect after installing this software. Which would be the loss of two from my six partitions.

Did Cody eat some of the posts as a midnight snack or something?
Title: Re: Paragon Drive Backup 9 Special Edition For Free!
Post by: PhilB66 on March 11, 2009, 10:27 PM: Hey, going through this thread I notice that a lot of posts are missing, including one of my own about a seriously bad side effect after installing this software. Which would be the loss of two from my six partitions.

Did Cody eat some of the posts as a midnight snack or something?
-Shades (March 11, 2009, 07:48 PM)

Oh Shades...

https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=17339.0

Maybe ask a mod to merge the two?
Title: Re: Paragon Drive Backup 9 Special Edition For Free!
Post by: Shades on March 11, 2009, 10:45 PM: Yep, a merge would be nice...less confusing for me :-[
Title: Re: Paragon Drive Backup 9 Special Edition For Free!
Post by: MilesAhead on March 12, 2009, 11:35 AM: I think there's some confusion here because it looks like Shades partition was deleted by Paragon Partition Manager but the thread turns into a discussion of Paragon Drive Backup, which is an image backup program. I have experience with Drive Backup but none with the Paragon Partition Manager.
Title: Re: Paragon Drive Backup 9 Special Edition For Free!
Post by: Carol Haynes on March 12, 2009, 12:40 PM: Sorry should have commented - merge done earlier today. :-*
Title: Re: Paragon Drive Backup 9 Special Edition For Free!
Post by: MilesAhead on March 29, 2009, 04:27 PM: Sorry should have commented - merge done earlier today. :-*
-Carol Haynes (March 12, 2009, 12:40 PM)

Looks like the free backup finally died. I believe you can still get the Paragon Drive Backup Express edition. I tried several paragon offers that were past date and it looks like the form that you fill in your email to get the reg codes is automated and still sends the codes. But when you log in, the download has no link. Guess somebody decided to put the whammy on past-due freebies. :down:
Title: Re: Paragon Drive Backup 9 Special Edition For Free!
Post by: BinderDundat on April 04, 2009, 03:22 PM: There is a new offer to beta test Paragon System Backup 9 with the following benefits offered:

What are the benefits for me?

• The best report holders will receive FREE registration of Paragon Drive Backup 9 Professional, which includes most Paragon backup and recovery features, also beta testers receive the upgrade assurance to our 10th version soon to be released.
• Every beta tester will receive 50% discount on Paragon Software products (e-shop)
• A great opportunity to be involved in discussions with Paragon Product Managers
• Our great thankfulness!

The one thing that prevents me from doing this is that they want you to have one partition (FAT or NTFS) on your hard drive. I wonder how many people who are knowledgeable enough to beta test a drive backup program would have only one partition? Forgot to post the link: Paragon (http://www.paragon-software.com/home/systembackup/index.html)
Title: Re: Paragon Drive Backup 9 Special Edition For Free!
Post by: MilesAhead on April 04, 2009, 03:27 PM: Yeah, from what I can gather they are shooting for an automated backup strategy. I guess they expect people to kill off their restore partition since they will have backup images. I wonder how many joe 6pack "I just want to use my PC not administer it" types will be willing to do that.. or maybe the wizard will do it for them. Start the backup for the first time and a dialog pops up and says "Now your restore partition will be automatically hosed : ok with you? and Yes No Maybe buttons... and no matter which button you press, the partition is deleted!! :)

edit: btw I have a feeling they want that simple setup because the Backup Capsule partition scheme they used will probably be automated. A Wizard will just do it rather than depending on the user to manually click all the buttons to create a backup capsule. Unless they leave all the manual controls it may be getting to the point where I won't want to upgrade.
Title: Re: Paragon Drive Backup 9 Special Edition For Free!
Post by: Curt on April 04, 2009, 04:45 PM: Just a tiny and maybe useless info:

Paragon may have their "Offerer Identification"-office in Irvine, California, but:

§ 7 Further Terms:

2. This agreement is governed by and interpreted in accordance with the laws of Germany.

3. Concerning contracts with merchants, commercial companies, public legal entities and legal separate estates under public law, as well as in those cases where the customer, who is not a consumer, does not have his/it's general jurisdiction within Germany, the court located in Müllheim, Germany shall have jurisdiction to hear the disputes arising under this agreement.
-Terms and Conditions of the Beta Test Agreement

---

On another matter:
Do 'we' know for how long this beta offer has been active? Before joining I would of course like to get an idea about how dangerous it may be to test it.
:tellme:
Title: Re: Paragon Drive Backup 9 Special Edition For Free!
Post by: MH-Andy on April 04, 2009, 05:21 PM: Very good program :D
Title: Re: Paragon Drive Backup 9 Special Edition For Free!
Post by: MilesAhead on April 04, 2009, 05:46 PM: On another matter:
Do 'we' know for how long this beta offer has been active? Before joining I would of course like to get an idea about how dangerous it may be to test it.
:tellme
-Curt (April 04, 2009, 04:45 PM)

This may be a bit ironic, but if you don't have a backup imaging program now, I would get the Paragon Drive Backup Express free version and make a backup image to an external USB drive. The Express edition is the same as Backup 9.0 Personal with a few features removed. I can attest that the restore actually works. I've restored with Paragon Backup at least 5 or 6 times over the last year and never had a problem. But where this one is a beta I'd have the backup using the tested and proven one in reserve. The Express edition, same as Personal 9.0 has an image of a bootable CD for the restore. If your drive gets hosed to where you can't get into Windows, hook up the external drive you used to back up, insert the CD and boot it. Restore from external drive.

I just did a restore last week aamof after playing around too much with custom Vista themes got my system hosed. The backup/restore of v. 9.0 does work.
Title: Re: Paragon Drive Backup 9 Special Edition For Free!
Post by: Curt on April 05, 2009, 01:38 AM: - thanks, MilesAhead. However, I have both R-Drive Image and Backup4all Pro 4, but don't really like any of them. I have tested many backup'ers but have not yet found the one to love. So I want to test Paragon 10, because MAYBE this is the one!
Title: Re: Paragon Drive Backup 9 Special Edition For Free!
Post by: MilesAhead on April 05, 2009, 03:25 PM: - thanks, MilesAhead. However, I have both R-Drive Image and Backup4all Pro 4, but don't really like any of them. I have tested many backup'ers but have not yet found the one to love. So I want to test Paragon 10, because MAYBE this is the one!

-Curt (April 05, 2009, 01:38 AM)

The thing about Paragon that drives me nuts is it seems as soon as I shell out some money they come out with a newer version that's cheaper and has more features. Would be nice if they extended upgrades.. since they don't tend to do many minor updates. For example, I bought Drive Backup 8.5 Personal for $50. Got maybe one minor update. Now they come out with 9.0 Personal with folder exclusion features for $40. No discount for me with version 8.5 so since it's a pita to move stuff to external before backing up to keep the backup small, I shell out the $40 to get folder exclusion. I mean, the software has saved my ass a few times so it does work. Just wish they'd give a discount on the same software instead of emailing discounts on other stuff I don't need.

The main thing I find now is I wish I had a faster interface to external drives. Laying the image back on from an external USB @25 MB/sec is a bit like watching paint dry.
Title: Re: Paragon Drive Backup 9 Special Edition For Free!
Post by: Curt on April 05, 2009, 04:11 PM: ... I wish I had a faster interface to external drives. Laying the image back on from an external USB @25 MB/sec is a bit like watching paint dry.

-MilesAhead (April 05, 2009, 03:25 PM)

- I know what you mean; I once watched 40 GB video files changing their address at 5 MBps!
Why is it that USB cable packages are stamped with "480 MB/s"???
Title: Re: Paragon Drive Backup 9 Special Edition For Free!
Post by: MilesAhead on April 05, 2009, 04:31 PM: I just added a Gigabit wired card to my old PC(I have a 2 PC network with belkin kvma switch) so now I've come up with a scheme to tie up the PC the least amount of time doing image backups. I back up over the network to the other PC's HD. Later on, I just copy in the background to the external USB. Takes longer to get there but at least I can use both machines during the file background copy.

You would think these days stuff would be so cheap they'd give you an esata connection on the tower. Don't understand why they don't.
Title: Re: Paragon Drive Backup 9 Special Edition For Free!
Post by: Shades on April 05, 2009, 04:32 PM: That would be the difference between bit and byte (by definition: 1 byte consists of 8 bits).

Most people interpret xxxMB/sec as xxxMbyte/sec. While in case of the USB cable packages the 480MB/sec means 480Mbit/sec.

So: 480Mbit/sec is a theoretical 60MByte/sec (not taking any kind of system overhead, cable quality or signal interference into account).
Title: Re: Paragon Drive Backup 9 Special Edition For Free!
Post by: MerleOne on April 08, 2009, 07:09 AM: GiveAwayOfTheDay is offering DB9 Personal today (2009-04-08). Even better than the special edition.
Title: Re: Paragon Drive Backup 9 Special Edition For Free!
Post by: tomos on April 08, 2009, 07:38 AM: I bought Drive Backup 8.5 Personal for $50. Got maybe one minor update. Now they come out with 9.0 Personal with folder exclusion features for $40. No discount for me with version 8.5
-MilesAhead (April 05, 2009, 03:25 PM)

wow, that sounds really bad - no upgrade pricing :tellme:
surely there are other friendlier companies out there making decent imaging software ... (although I know what it's like when you have something that just works)
Title: Re: Paragon Drive Backup 9 Special Edition For Free!
Post by: Curt on April 08, 2009, 08:15 AM: GiveAwayOfTheDay is offering DB9 Personal today
-MerleOne (April 08, 2009, 07:09 AM)

I installed this program [DB9] today and right away it gave me my second Blue Screen of Death ever!!

Comment by Curt — April 8th, 2009 at 9:07 am
-giveawayoftheday forum comment
Title: Re: Paragon Drive Backup 9 Special Edition For Free!
Post by: tomos on April 08, 2009, 08:22 AM: I installed this program [DB9] today and right away it gave me my second Blue Screen of Death ever!!

Comment by Curt — April 8th, 2009 at 9:07 am
-giveawayoftheday forum comment
-Curt (April 08, 2009, 08:15 AM)

Was that you Curt, or some other lucky Curt that's only ever had two BSOD's ;D
Title: Re: Paragon Drive Backup 9 Special Edition For Free!
Post by: MerleOne on April 08, 2009, 10:10 AM: Hmm, too bad since I have already recommended it to several friends and colleagues (not the same persons!). I guess I'll know pretty soon those who have installed it...

Regarding the BSOD (Blue Screen Of the Day - reminds me my Win98 time), I remember that with paragon software, it is sometimes advised to change or add a parameter regarding IRPStackSize. Don't ask me why...
see http://www.howtonetworking.com/winissues/irpstacksize.htm

Actually it depends on how many other imaging tools you may have already installed that rely on a "filter driver". Such as Macrium Reflect, Acronis TI, etc.
Title: Re: Paragon Drive Backup 9 Special Edition For Free!
Post by: MilesAhead on April 08, 2009, 12:35 PM: I installed this program [DB9] today and right away it gave me my second Blue Screen of Death ever!!

Comment by Curt — April 8th, 2009 at 9:07 am
-giveawayoftheday forum comment
-Curt (April 08, 2009, 08:15 AM)

Was that you Curt, or some other lucky Curt that's only ever had two BSOD's ;D
-tomos (April 08, 2009, 08:22 AM)

Since now they are likely to be much more frequent, at least he has a database to track them. ;)
Title: Re: Paragon Drive Backup 9 Special Edition For Free!
Post by: Carol Haynes on April 08, 2009, 05:11 PM: I have installed 3 times - no problems, no BSODS.
Title: Re: Paragon Drive Backup 9 Special Edition For Free!
Post by: Curt on April 08, 2009, 06:46 PM: Within the last ten years I have experienced several black screens at startup, but only twice have I seen the BSOD. Do 'rememeber' that this only is my fifth private personal computer. All the other computers were owned by companies, so I was never allowed to do anything but my job. This goes all back to when a computer in Danish was called an "edb" machine ~ translates into 'electronic data handling' ~ and Yes, back then I saw many blue screens, due to power fall-outs etcetera, but that was long before Windows NT,, which I didn't care to explain on GOTD.
Title: Re: Paragon Drive Backup 9 Special Edition For Free!
Post by: marlau on April 14, 2009, 04:29 PM: But if you do a lot of video it's convenient to just exclude folders with huge files to make the backup set smaller without the copy off work-around.
-MilesAhead (March 11, 2009, 03:51 PM)

Was able to download Paragon 9 as a freebie but have not used it yet. Many image programs do not allow for exclusions so I wondered if you could briefly describe how to exclude folders from an image of the C drive as I have many .avi files.

TIA
Title: Re: Paragon Drive Backup 9 Special Edition For Free!
Post by: MerleOne on April 14, 2009, 05:21 PM: You can find this description on page 39 of http://download.paragon-software.com/doc/manual_db9per_eng.pdf
Title: Re: Paragon Drive Backup 9 Special Edition For Free!
Post by: marlau on April 14, 2009, 06:06 PM: Thanks MerleOne for the prompt and very useful post.
Title: Re: Paragon Drive Backup 9 Special Edition For Free!
Post by: MilesAhead on April 14, 2009, 06:35 PM: @marlau in the last week I found out a few more things.

1) If you have a large tree of files to exclude, Paragon lists them individually. As example, I tried out W7 beta and did a "Custom" install. This gives me a Windows.old folder with a lot of the Vista junk in it. Well, I tried excluding it from the backup. The recitation of the exclusion list was going to take days I think!! Way longer than just backing up. I copied the stuff off with RichCopy utility. Turns out I had 206,000 files/folders in that tree!! What happened to the days of an OS on a disc you could lift?

2)If you have a RAID setup that needs a Windows driver, the Linux based Rescue CD isn't going to help much. I did a restore and it took overnight for it to lay the image back on. On my older system it would have taken 45 minutes to an hour. There may be a BIOS setting that might help but I wasn't it the mood to mess with it because I think everything on this machine is set up in a SCSI emulation and I have no idea why they set up RAID on a machine with One HD. Anyway, some of the backup programs are coming with WinPE that lets you load Windows drivers. If you have 32 bit OS you may be able to make your own BartPE based rescue, but 64 bit you are kind of stuck.

So my advice before even doing a backup is see what kind of HD configuration you have. Burn the Rescue CD and boot it. Go into the restore program. If when you select Normal Mode(the top menu choice) if the screen goes funky and it hangs, then you probably want to find a different program.

On my Dual Core PC running 32 bit Vista the Rescue CD works great. It's all a matter of hardware compatibility. It's better to find out before you're really stuck though. If it doesn't work out for you then you might try one of the others. I'm looking at Macrium Reflect that has a WinPE on the paid version but I'm trying to find out if there's a hardware list of tested disk controllers so I don't get stuck again.

If you have plain Vanilla Sata drive though, it should work for you.
Title: Re: Paragon Drive Backup 9 Special Edition For Free!
Post by: MilesAhead on April 15, 2009, 11:02 AM: Just FYI, I tried the Macrium Reflect paid version. It accessed my HD no problem. I did a full C: partition image and restore. The Rescue CD is a newer version than the Macrium free. Just thought I'd pass it on in case somebody is running an HP m9515y with Raid Ready.