I think MANY GAOTDers will want to know the difference between

Paragon Drive Copy 10 PERSONAL SPECIAL EDITION
and Paragon Drive Copy 9.5 PERSONAL EDITION

since we have the latter and are presently being offered the former....Usually the site gives comparisons between different apps and different version numbers, but not between regular and Special editions....

The issue of not wanting to uninstall our present version of a Paragon app in case the new one doesn't install is a constantly reoccurring question....I have always had trouble with installing over an already-installed Paragon app but have also lost a good P program as a result of having gotten rid ao the ols one and then being unable to install the new one....:-(....

Janet Berg  –  14 years ago  –  ¿Te ha parecido útil este comentario? si | no (+58)

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This is another peace of Paragon's great virtualization technology. Long story short, their VM [Virtual Machine] creation apps make a copy of the drive partition with a working/running version of Windows & puts it onto a virtual hard drive -- then it works its magic removing most of the critical hardware drivers from that copy of Windows, inserting those drivers used by whatever brand of VM Host you've chosen [the now virtualized copy of Windows is called the Client]. AND it works the other way too -- the reason you can't, or at least shouldn't just copy Windows from one PC/laptop to another is those critical drivers will usually be different so Windows won't work... now those can be changed, the same way Paragon's software replaced those drivers for the VM, plus you can supply drivers that don't come with Windows. AFAIK the only competition is a free tool by SysInternals [a part of Microsoft] that doesn't work nearly so well, having some rather serious limitations. Looking at the Paragon site, Drive Copy 10 PSE brings some significant improvements -- the biggest/best IMHO is: "... and resize a partition while copying ...". Here's why I think that's so significant...

Windows 7 has the new Windows Virtual PC -- not all versions get the XP Mode VM from Microsoft, but all versions of 7 do get Windows VPC... you just need to download/install. The main advantage is an extremely high level of integration with 7, though to achieve that you need to install an update or two -- 1 allows it to work if you don't have a CPU with VM tech built-in, 1 allows the VM to Auto Publish, 1 comes with Windows VPC to enable Integration etc... Auto Publish means [from the help file]: "If you are running certain versions of Windows as a guest operating system, you can run an application installed in a virtual machine directly from the Start menu of the host operating system." BUT, Windows VPC has a serious limitation -- your Virtual Hard Drive can only be so big or it won't work, and most all Windows installations are on partitions that are way too big. In the past this meant getting the Windows install on a smaller disc/partition 1st by either restoring a backup to a virtual drive & sizing the partition, or creating another type of VM [e.g. Virtual Box] & resizing the partition, then whichever route you took using Paragon software to create a new Windows VPC VM. Resizing the partition during Copy means Drive Copy 10 PSE can save roughly an hour -- the extra time I've usually spent making the partition small. [Getting a VM up & running this way saves a tremendous amount of time -- the alternative is installing Windows plus every app you've got -- but it's still not a quick operation... I won't be able to comment on how well the resize during copy works today.]

Hoping those running Macs will forgive me for skipping over their VM hosts, the big 3 virtual hosts are Microsoft's Windows VPC [and just VPC before that], Oracle's Virtual Box, & VMWare's line of products. While it has it fans, VPC was in 3rd place until the Windows 7 version, Virtual Box is the open source darling that works extremely well [And has an unofficial Portable Version], while the VMWare line is used by biz worldwide. Drive Copy 10 PSE works with all 3. VMWare has a few free hosting apps or environs -- the most popular is their Player which handles VMs created in their *Other* apps... I've been unsuccessful in trying to create a VMWare VM with Paragon software that will just boot up in the Player. VBox & Windows VPC have had no problems, with a few, Windows-based caveats...

One problem will hopefully be solved by Drive Copy 10 PSE: "Fix most system boot problems...". If you dual boot into Vista/7 you probably use their BCD loader, which in turn triggers XP's boot loader for example. If/when you have that sort of setup & create a VM from an earlier version like XP, the BCD part is not included so XP won't boot until you boot the VM into Recovery Console & run Windows' Fix Boot from the command line. The hard part [assuming you know where your XP install disc is ;-) ] is booting to the CD -- it's not *really* hard, & there are plenty of directions on-line, but it throws you at first. :-)

One problem Paragon can't solve means that if you want to create a Vista Home Premium VM you likely want to skip Windows VPC... it relies on Remote Desktop etc to give you all that integration, & Remote Desktop is severely restricted by design in Vista HP [you were supposed to buy a different version of Vista if you wanted that :-( ]. The hacks don't seem to work [I tried all 3]. Another problem is hardware-based software, like ATI's Catalyst Control Center, or the Creative apps for their Soundblaster line -- these will still be set to run when you 1st fire up your new VM, & without the required hardware, they can behave unpredictably. Antivirus software can also be a problem -- turn off realtime scanning *before* you create your VM... I uninstall McAfee from VMs & found MCPR.exe from their site works very well to remove all traces. Remember that until you get things running smoothly, get the add-ons or integration installed etc [all 3 VMs have such things that you install after the VM's running], you might not be able to get any files in or out of your VM unless they're in an ISO image or on a CD/DVD... thinking ahead and having whatever in a folder on the partition you're going to virtualize can prove to be invaluable.

Finally, running AMD-based PCs I've had enormous problems if/when any AMD/ATI drivers survive the conversion to VM, *especially* their PCI Express system driver [update that driver to plain PCI in Device Mgr] -- they can make the installation of drivers & integration you need in any of the VMs impossible.

mike  –  14 years ago  –  ¿Te ha parecido útil este comentario? si | no (+58)

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HINT for users with other mother tongue:
the registered DLLs (which differ from those of the trial-versions) are just these two files:

a) hdm.dll
b) backuplib.dll

e.g., using GERMAN language:
- Download the german trial version from Paragon
- install it
- download the GODT-version
- extract as usual
- from the now created(extracted) file .msi extract the both mentioned dll´s (u can use the tool "UniExtract"!)
- copy the two dll´s into the program´s folder (overwrite the versions of the trial package)

thats all!

ws  –  14 years ago  –  ¿Te ha parecido útil este comentario? si | no (+53)

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I spoke too soon..
Downloaded and tried to install, but Program required reboot before pop up Registration Window appeared.. Entered the product Code etc and it then commenced to install. Shortly thereafter my System Crashed..Big Time.. Windows 7 "Startup Repair" failed and then also the "System Restore" .. Tried an earlier Restore point and it only just recovered..
Rather disappointing..

Paul Grenfell  –  14 years ago  –  ¿Te ha parecido útil este comentario? si | no (+49)

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It's recommended to uninstall previous version of the program prior to installing new download. Other products (like Partition Manager) may stay in the system.

This new 10 Specila Edition version has new P2V tools which were not present in version 9.5.

To Al:
Here is further proof….Installation file name: DC10_Pers_x32.msi — 32 bit install

If you read through product description carefully, you will see a separate link to 64-bit version of Drive Copy: http://files.giveawayoftheday.com/ParagonDC10_x64.zip

kiwi  –  14 years ago  –  ¿Te ha parecido útil este comentario? si | no (+47)

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