While it is possible to use external CD, DVD or Blu-Ray drives for that, or use USB drives as an alternative in most cases, it sometimes may be faster and cost-effective to use an existing device on another computer in the network. In my case, this would be my desktop PC running Windows 7.

Paragon Software has just released version 2.0 of their free Net Burner application. As the name implies, it offers the capabilities needed to share optical drives over a computer network. Sharing in this regard means mounting a CD, DVD or Blu-Ray drive on another computer in the same network.

Registration as always is kind of a hassle. Users need to fill out a form on the official website before they receive the product’s download link via email. The email contains a serial and product key, which surprisingly cannot be entered into the program. There is simply no menu or form for that anywhere. The program itself does not appear to be restricted though.

Net Burner is a single setup file that can install the full program, a client or server. The main idea is to install the server on a system with optical drive, and the client on PCs without. The full installation is probably available for testing purposes and for less-tech savvy users to make sure they install the right components on their systems.

Once you have at least one client and server running, you can access the server’s optical drive on the client computer. The program lists all devices in a program listing. You can use the refresh button to refresh the device listing or enter a local IP and port manually.

Once you have selected a drive it will be mounted on the client PC. This may take a few seconds and may prompt a “new hardware” dialog. Once it has been mounted you can make use of it like any other drive on the computer. This includes using it to burn a CD, DVD or Blu-Ray disc or to install a program from a disc.

The network drive can be dismounted with a right-click on Net Burner’s system tray icon and the selection of Remove Optical Drive.

Especially the ability to install software that ships on disc on a system without CD, DVD or Blu-Ray drive is handy.

The Net Burner application is compatible with all recent 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Microsoft Windows operating system. Windows users need to fill out a form to receive the program download link via email. (via)

These high capacity hard drives will work fine for users running Windows Vista, Windows 7 or a Windows Server 2008 operating system. Windows XP users will however notice that they cannot use all of the space of the hard drive. Why? Because the operating system cannot address disk space beyond the 2 Terabyte limit. That’s roughly one third of space that cannot be used.

An alternative is an advanced partitioning scheme like GUID Partition Table (GPT) which can support 3TB volumes. The problem however is that GPT is not supported by Windows XP.

Paragon however came up with a solution. They basically create a specially signed driver to make Windows XP compatible with the GPT partitioning scheme. With this in place, Windows XP users can utilize the full storage of 3TB hard drives.

There are a few limitations though, but the solution nevertheless is the only available one to use all 3 Terabytes of hard drive space on Windows XP. The major limitation of this method is that the 3TB hard drive cannot be the system partition. The full 3 Terabytes are only available if the hard drive is installed as a secondary drive. Other limitations include incompatibility with RAID setups and external 3TB hard drives.

After installation and reboot of the system the GPT partitioning scheme needs to be created on the 3 Terabyte drive. This is done by clicking on Hard Disk in the menubar and selecting Convert to GPT hard disk from the context menu.

Full access to all 3 Terabytes is provided afterwards. It is then possible to use Windows tools to manage the hard drive, or the Paragon GPT Disk Manager. The disk manager offers options to partition the hard drive among other features.

Paragon GPT Loader Download and Compatibility

Paragon GTP Loader is currently available free of charge as part of Paragon’s Early Adopter program. The program has been developed for Windows XP, and users of other Microsoft operating systems have no benefit of running the software (as their systems support 3TB drives). The Paragon GTP Loader download link will be sent to the email address used in the registration for the early adopters program. The same email contains a link to the product guide in pdf format.

Now Intel has published a software to migrate data from a hard drive to Intel solid state drives as well. The Intel Data Migration Software was developed by Acronis for Intel, to offer Intel SSD owners an option to migrate from their old hard drive to the new Intel solid state drive.

The migration tool is limited to migrating to Intel solid state drives, and can only do so if the SSD has at least the same storage size as the source hard drive. The program offers three features:

• Copy drive contents from a hard drive to an Intel Solid-State Drive
• Create a Bootable Rescue Media
• Use the Acronis DriveCleanser to erase data on drives and partitions

The tool supports an automatic mode in which the migration software will handle everything, and a manual mode that gives the user better control over the process. Please note that existing contents on the target Intel SSD will be erased in the process.

Start the Software and Migrate your Data

1. Double-click the Intel Data Migration Software shortcut icon on your desktop.

2. Complete the registration form when prompted.

3. Click Register Now. After registering the software, the Intel Data Migration Software screen will appear. Optional)

4. Click Start Now. The Intel Data Migration Software automatically detects your drives and gives you the option to copy all of your data to your Intel SSD.

The Data Migration software works with Intel SSDs only. If you receive an error message, make sure that you have an Intel SSD connected to your system. If you have an Intel SSD connected to your system and still receive an error message, contact Intel support. The software identifies your SSD and verifies that the used space on your old storage device is the same or smaller than the available space on your SSD Click Clone Now. The data migration process starts. During this process, you will be prompted to reboot your computer.

6. Click Reboot. As your computer reboots, the software loads a pre-operating system where the migration process
continues. View the progress bar to see the status of the data migration. The length of the procedure corresponds to the amount of data on the drive being transferred.

7. Once the operation completes, you are prompted to shut down your computer.

8. Once your computer shuts down, switch the placement of your drives.

Switch your Drives

1. After the data migration onto your new Intel SSD is complete, switch the placement of your old hard disk drive with your new Intel SSD.

For desktop computers, you can either physically remove the old hard disk drive and replace it with your new Intel SSD or keep the hard disk drive in your computer and change the boot order of the drives in the system BIOS . Refer to your computer’s original instructions to determine how to safely switch the SATA positions of your original hard disk drive and new Intel SSD.

For laptop computers, remove the old hard disk drive and replace it with your new Intel SSD. Follow the instructions included with the Intel SSD.

2. After switching your drives, start your computer. A notification that the migration process completed successfully will appear when your operating system starts.

Intel SSD owners can download the Intel Data Migration Software and a pdf with instructions from the Intel Download Center [link]. Intel’s solution is not as sophisticated as Paragon’s. Considering that Paragon Migrate OS To SSD is currently freely available it is suggested to use this software to migrate to a solid state drive. Its core advantages are that it works with all solid state drives, and that it can migrate data to a smaller drive.

Still, some early adopters cannot resist the temptation and buy SSDs, despite their price tag and relatively low storage capacities. Sometimes, users buy a SSD for their old system, with the intention to replace the current hard drive the system is installed on.

Those users face a problem. How can they migrate the operating system from the old hard drive to the new and faster Solid State Drive.

Paragon Migrate OS to SSD offers a solution for those users. The software is currently in testing, and available for all early adopters at the Paragon website. All it takes is to enter some registration information and the product keys and download links will be delivered to the email account entered in the registration form.

After program installation, launch the tool using the program list in Windows start menu, or by clicking the corresponding shortcut on your desktop.

On the wizard welcome screen, read the warning about data on the second disk drive. According to the program logic, all data on this drive will be overwritten by copying data from the source drive. Before you click next, make sure you have saved any important data on the second drive to an outside source.

Clicking the Learn more link in the bottom left corner opens a program tip-window with useful information about the tool.

Click Next>, and the program analyzes the disk configuration of your computer and searches for any system volumes.

In the next screen, you will be presented with possible migration scenarios. You can either agree to perform the operation, or cancel it.

In the next window, specify which files and folders to exclude during migration. This option is very useful if you want to reduce the space you will use on the final partition, or copy the system to a smaller drive than the original one.

After migration, shutdown the computer and remove the source drive. Make the remaining drive bootable in BIOS and restart the computer. Your newly migrated system will boot after the system finishes processing.

Paragon Migrate OS to SSD will detect all operating systems installed on the hard drives automatically, and prompt the user to pick one of the systems that have been discovered.

The user is then asked to pick the target drive for the OS migration, which in this case is the SSD. If the SSD has a larger size than the data on the OS partition all data can be transferred. If the target drive has a lower size then the user is asked to select data that is then excluded from the migration.

Paragon Migrate OS to SSD’s biggest strength is that it is very easy and convenient to use. In addition, users do need a deeper knowledge of partitions and system disks, as this is mostly handled by the program.

Even inexperienced users can migrate an operating system to a SSD with the program comfortably.

Paragon Drive Backup 2010 is a backup solution for computers running a Microsoft Windows operating system. It is basically a lighter version of the more expensive Backup & Recovery Suite that is offered for $69.95 at the Paragon website. It is an easy to use backup software that provides everything necessary to perform data backups and restoration.

Download

We are offering the file in cooperation with Paragon via Bittorrent. Users who want to download the 32-bit or 64-bit edition of the program need a Bittorrent client to download the file. A good Bittorrent client for the task is uTorrent which can be downloaded at the developer’s website. All that needs to be done is to download one of the torrent files after installation of the Bittorrent client. A double-click on the torrent should add that torrent to the program interface and start the download immediately.

Please keep the torrent in the program for a while to seed it to other users as well. Thanks a lot!

Users with difficulty can post a comment in this article so that they can receive help downloading the files.

• Paragon Drive Backup 2010 Special Edition 32-bit
• Paragon Drive Backup 2010 Special Edition 64-bit

Installation

A double-click on the program file after the download will start the setup for the drive backup software. The setup will display the following screen that can be used to get a license for the program:

Everything else should be self explanatory.

Here is the direct link to get a serial for the software.

Paragon Drive Backup 2010 SE Review

Paragon Drive Backup makes use of the usual Paragon software interface that puts the tasks that can be done with the software in the left sidebar and the information of the active task in the main window.

The tasks are divided into Basic Backup / Restore Tasks, Advanced Backup Tasks, Tools and News and Documentation.

The basic backup and restore tasks can be used to perform a smart backup, schedule disk, partition or file backups and restore a previously created backup. Every selection will open a wizard guiding the user through the steps to perform the selected task.

• Smart Backup: Gives the user options to backup partitions, entire hard drives, files, email (Windows Mail and Outlook), documents in the MyDocuments folder or media files that are located in the same folder structure. Backups can be executed right away or scheduled.
• Schedule Backup of Disk or Partition: A faster way to schedule backups of disks and partitions of the computer system.
• Schedule File Backups: A faster way to schedule file backups.
• Restore: Ability to restore backups that have been created in the past.

File backups can be further customized by using so called include and exclude masks that make sure that certain file types or names are included or excluded from the backup. That’s very handy for operations where specific file types need to be backed up, for instance all document formats on drive C.

The advanced backup tasks offer differential partition backups and incremental file backups which can be used to reduce the size requirements of backups. Paragon Drive Backup will automatically use compression technologies to decrease the size of the backup.

The tools section finally can be used to create recovery media so that the data can be recovered even if the operating system fails to load. Most users might want to start with this option to be able to restore the backups if the OS should fail.

One interesting option provided by Paragon Drive Backup 2010 is the archive integrity checker which can verify the integrity of previously created backups.

Drive Backup can create a backup capsule on a connected hard drive that will then be used to store the backups that are performed by the software.

Other features of Paragon Drive Backup 2010 Special Edition:

• Paragon Hot Processing, Microsoft VSS Support – Ensures that all files and folders are copied even if Windows is running.
• Selective Restore – Restore only files needed
• Support for Ext3/4FS, Apple HFS+ file systems

Verdict

Paragon Drive Backup 2010 Special Edition is an easy to use backup solution for the Windows operating system. It is relatively easy to use and configure thanks to the wizards that are displayed whenever a task is created.

Christmas Giveaway

You can grab a license of the backup software by downloading the setup files via Bittorrent. The option to create a new license will be given once the setup of the backup application has started. Make sure you download the right version (32-bit or 64-bit offered).

Paragon is offering support during the giveaway at Twitter. Anyone who runs into installation or usage problems can contact them during that time to sort things out.

Raju is giving away Antamedia Print Manager licenses, check out his blog for a chance to win those.

The following software programs are available as special editions:

• Paragon Total Defrag 2009 Special Edition
• Paragon Rescue Kit 9.0 Express
• Paragon Partition Manager 9.0 Special Edition
• Paragon Drive Copy 9 Special Edition
• Paragon Drive Backup 9.0 Personal
• Paragon Hard Disk Manager 8.5 Special Edition

Just follow the links. They lead to registration websites that ask the visitor to enter a few basic information including the name, email and country. Paragon will send an email to the email account containing the product key and serial number needed to activate the software program on a local computer system. The very same email contains a link to the user profile page at the Paragon website from where the software program can be downloaded.

Update:

Download links for programs that are not listed under My Downloads in the Paragon profile.

Drive Backup 9.0
Partition Manager 9.0
Drive Copy 9
Hard Disk Manager 8.5

O&O DiskImage 3 Express Edition comes with three buttons that control the backup and restoration process. Button 1 creates an image of all system partitions on the computer. The user simply selects a drive where he wants the backup to be restored and that’s it. No selection of single partitions, no options whatsoever. Pure and simple but probably to simple for tech savvy users.

The second button restores a partition. One major drawback is that the system partition cannot be restored. So all personal data on that partition is lost unless you buy the pro or enterprise version which can restore the system partition.

The question that arises is why the program does backup the system partition if it cannot be recovered? The answer to that is probably a business decision. Would a user who needs data from his system partition buy a commercial version of DiskImage? I bet he would.

The last button lets a user browse an image that was created. Each additional backup only saves the differences and not the full partition saving disk space on the (external) hard drive where the images will be stored on.

Paragon’s Drive Backup is an alternative which offers more functionality and the option to restore the system partition as well.

The Special Edition looks much like the Hard Disk Manager 2008 Suite from Paragon which retails for $49.95. To get your free serial number for the application you need to visit the registration page and fill in your information. The serial number will be send to your email account. The download of the actual software has to be done from the Computeractive website.

The information have to be entered during installation of the software and a restart of the system is necessary before all functions become available.

I think that the Paragon Hard Disk Manager is one of the better products and will come in handy from time to time. You should definitely give it a try for as long as the offer lasts.

Paragon Hard Disk Manager 8 is a commercial software currently retailing for $49 according to the Paragon website. Computer Active, a British PC magazine ran a promotion last year which was announced to expire on April 11, 2007. Users were able to download a special edition of  Paragon Hard Disk Manager 8 and grab a free serial number for it as well.

Jawwad found out that the offer is still valid and that it is still possible to download the special edition and generate a serial number at the Paragon website.

All you need to do to grab a free copy of Paragon Hard Disk Manager 8 is the following:

• Download the software from the Computer Active Website
• Register it at the Paragon Website

The serial number will be send to the email that you use in the registration process.