Paragon Backup and Recovery 14 Home ($40)

Paragon Software Group announced the Paragon Backup & Recovery 14 Home, a backup and recovery tool for Windows PC users whether they are running Windows 8.1, Windows 2000, or something in between.

This edition comes with features to meet the needs of the latest systems, including uEFI support, backup and recovery of BitLocker encrypted partitions (thus protecting PC users’ data from loss and unauthorized access), and the new pVHD (Paragon Virtual HDD) format for faster backup.

“Backup & Recovery 14 simplifies the most important part of data management – regular backups and bare metal recovery. Mobile users taking advantage of BitLocker will enjoy the ability to image their laptops and have protection against both data loss and unauthorized data access. And the improved image file format provides a stress-free backup experience – incremental backups run 10x faster when storing to external media like USB 3.0,” said Konstantin Komarov, CEO, Paragon.

Features:

uEFI support

64-bit Windows OS system configured to the uEFI boot mode can be adjusted to start up on another HDD during the copy or restore process. Furthermore, this is accomplished under Windows.

The Linux-based recovery environment also supports systems configured to the uEFI boot mode.

pVHD (Paragon Virtual HDD) format. This technology is optimized for storing backups of virtual and physical machines. It is handling incremental chains, data de-dupe and synchronization. pVHD allows backups to be up to four times smaller than the original objects.

Other benefits of pVHD:

Incremental imaging faster in comparison with the old PBF;

Only pVHD images can be used to do immediate virtualization;

Use support for any virtual containers (VMDK, VHD, etc.).

Support of Windows BitLocker to backup, restore or copy volumes encrypted by this security feature.

Copy/restore to dissimilar sector size. For example, copy or restore contents of a 512-byte HDD to a 4k HDD with no additional action by the user.

New UIM (Universal Image Mounter) can mount (assign a drive letter to) PBF or pVHD backup images (full and incremental) to browse their contents and retrieve data both within the program and directly under Windows OS.

GPT/uEFI compatible backup capsule. Paragon’s bootable backup capsule is compatible with 64-bit Windows systems residing on GPT volumes. Selecting one additional option in the Manage Backup Capsule Wizard allows the creation of a WinPE-based bootable backup capsule to start up such a PC in case of emergency.

Recovery Media Builder. An alternative to Boot Media Builder, helps prepare a Linux or WinPE-based bootable environment on a USB thumb drive or in an ISO file (previous versions only supported the creation of WinPE images on USB drives). Unlike Boot Media Builder, it doesn’t require the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit or Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK), although it can only be used under Windows 7 or higher. Both are available for download from the company website.

Support of Windows Storage Spaces. Windows 8’s Storage Spaces feature manage large storage pools. It provides an expandable virtual container of defined data size, allowing users to add physical drives as they want until the defined virtual disk’s limit is reached. This means storage devices can be added to a system without having to set up and manage them individually. The software supports this feature for backup of Storage Spaces.

Linux Recovery Environment
The Linux-based recovery environment is based on SuSe 12.3 (which supports more hardware devices) and includes: