John Barnett Computer Journalist
XP Help and Support

Price: £65 ($129.95)

Supplier: Paragon Software Group

Sales: sales@paragon-software.com

Web: http://www.paragon-software.com

System requirements: Pentium Processor 300MHz or higher, 128MB RAM, 40MB free Hard Disk space, Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP/Server 2003

As the windows operating system becomes ever more complex, its disk space requirements get ever larger. Gone are the days when a 10GB hard drive was considered large. Now drives of over 160GB are becoming the norm and, as drives get ever bigger, the available software code expands in an ever increasing rush to fill them.

From this perspective it is obvious that, at some point in the not too distant future, you are going to be looking at increasing your hard drive size. While the hard drive upgrade is not necessarily a problem, the main major hurdle is how to get the operating system and all the associated software applications off your old hard drive and onto the new drive without having to physically re-install the whole lot. The answer to this question lies with Paragon Drive Copy 8.0

Fig 1: Drive Copy’s Main Interface

Drive Copy Professional consists of a Windows installation file, and an image of a bootable Linux based Copy CD, providing an XP like interface and functionality should  your system fail to boot.  Drive Copy provides a simple and effective way of, not only cloning a hard drive but, for those that need it, also copying specific partitions from one hard drive to another.

Off To See The Wizard

The main copying applications within Drive Copy are wizard driven, making the software exceptionally easy to use. The one button copy wizard, for instance, quickly guides you through the process of cloning a hard drive. There are even easy to use wizards for copying partitions and scheduling hard drive and partition copying.

Fig 2: Selecting a disk to copy is easy using the Clone Hard Disk Wizard

The easy to use wizard interface allows you to select the drive/partition you want to copy. It is then simply a matter of clicking on the drive title bar on the destination disk map, clicking the NEXT button and away you go. When copying, say, a partition, you can also perform, using the wizard’s slider scales, minor tweaks of the copy parameters; for example, re-sizing the copy partition or adjusting the free space at the beginning and end of the available disk space. While these options are a God send, it is somewhat disappointing that they are not available to the user as a default option. Instead the user needs to enable the ‘Copy the partition with re-size’ option otherwise Drive Copy will simply copy the partition at its full size.

The length of time taken to copy a drive or partition does not only depend upon disk size, but also upon whether all sector copying - enabling an exact copy of the drive/partition to be created -  or the skip auxiliary files option is selected. By skipping Auxiliary files, for instance, copying time can be somewhat reduced by ensuring that files such as pagefile.sys and hiberfil.sys are not copied over to the new destination.

The More the Merrier

While Drive Copy is simple to use, it actually has more strings to its bow than simply being able to copy the contents of a partition or hard drive. Right clicking on a block of unallocated or free space on the disk map, for instance, will bring forth a drop down menu. From this menu a host of other options become available. One such option being Create a new partition. Disk Copy’s Create Partition adheres to the standard DOS partitioning scheme so, unfortunately, it isn’t capable of creating partitions on dynamic disks.

Fig 3: A variety of other options are available simply by right clicking the mouse on the disk map

The Right Format

Formatting a drive or partition is also straight-forward with Drive Copy. Once again the right mouse click comes into play. Simply select the relevant partition, right click on it, and then, from the drop down menu, select Format partition.

File systems available in Drive Copy include: FAT12; FAT16; FAT32; NTFS; EXT2; EXT3; ReiserFS; Linux swap v.2 and HPFS.

On Schedule

An imaged copy of a hard drive or partition is not much use unless it is kept bang up to date. Drive Copy’s scheduling option enables you to arrange for a copy of the hard drive or partition to be created subject, of course, to the necessary free space being available, on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, simply by setting a date and time within the scheduling wizard.

Fig 4: Scheduling Drive Copy is really easy

Some Like it Hot

Hot copy mode enables real time cloning of server disks without the need of re-starting the PC. This is a user defined option accessed from the Edit settings option window. Hot copying does, however, require the use of a temporary drive.

Fig 5: Hot Copy needs a temporary drive to work well

 By default this is the C: drive; although, if sufficient free space is not available on the C: drive, the user can easily designate an alternative temporary drive.

Variety is The Spice Of Life

Partitioning and formatting aren’t the only tricks Drive Copy has up its sleeve. Other options include: Deleting partitions; Undeleting partitions; Mounting partitions; Changing partition attributes, i.e. hiding/unhiding a partition; Changing the partition ID (SID); Updating the Master Boot Record and Setting the label of a partition.

Verdict

Drive Copy Professional is really easy to use, gets the job done quickly and is packed with a wide range of disk managing option. The downside is that you are restricted to copying partitions to unallocated or free space, as opposed to being able to over write a particular partition with data from an earlier back up copy of your drive/partition. A further disappointment is that shrinking a partition prior to copying is not a default option, the user having to enable the “copy the partition with re-size” option prior to starting the copy process. Sadly, this option can easily be missed.

These slight drawbacks, however, don’t detract from the usefulness and simplicity of Drive Copy, making it a must have addition for every system administrator.

• Ease of use: 9.0

• Features: 10.0

• Value for Money: 9.0

• Overall: 9.0