The good news is Intel-based Macs running Mac OS X can now operate Windows and Linux systems under one roof. Of course, new technology breakthroughs often come with new challenges. The top seven of these challenges users may face when leveraging dual-boot systems on your Mac are listed here, along with some convenient solutions.
1. First Boot Camp Limitation – Free Space Rearrangement
Apple released its famous utility for dual-system configurations on a Mac – Boot Camp, which shrinks HFS+ volumes in Mac OS X and prepares a partition for Windows right alongside. One problem with Boot Camp is that you cannot resize these partitions later. If free space on one of the partitions is reduced to critical levels and other volumes still have a large amount of unused space, you get into trouble.
The solution for this situation is to relocate space between volumes with Paragon’s CampTune utility. CampTune rearranges free space between HFS+ and Windows partitions and shrinks existing volumes to free unallocated space on a hard disk, and create new partitions without the need to use Boot Camp at all.
2. Second Boot Camp Limitation – FAT32 Only
Apple Boot Camp does not support the creation of NTFS volumes because Mac OS X does not have the appropriate NTFS driver. Since Windows Vista and Windows 7 can be installed only to NTFS volumes, you will have to reformat this partition during the installation.
An easy alternative is to use Paragon CampTune from the beginning: resize the primary HFS+ volume, create second partition, format it as an NTFS volume and install Windows directly.
3. Accessing NTFS Volumes in Mac OS X
Apple’s Mac OS X operating system has limited support for NTFS volumes; the NTFS driver in Mac OS X can read data only. You cannot change files, copy them to NTFS volumes, create new files, or NTFS volumes – all significant limitations.
However, you can easily bypass these problems with Paragon’s NTFS for Mac OS X driver. It has none of these limitations and provides the same level of NTFS volume compatibility for Mac OS X as it does for regular HFS+ volumes. You can easily manage data on any NTFS volume; create files and folders, and copy data between HFS+ and NTFS partitions. The driver adds formatting support to Mac OS X for NTFS file systems and is accompanied by set of utilities for NTFS volume management, checkup and repair - effectively removing boundaries between two incompatible yet universally used file systems.
4. Accessing HFS+ Volumes in Windows
The reverse situation: you need to access HFS+ volumes in Windows. Though Apple Boot Camp ships with an HFS+ for Windows driver, it performs read-only operations; there is no write ability with Mac OS X volumes under Windows.
This drawback is easily resolved with Paragon’s HFS+ for Windows, which gives users access to HFS+ volumes on read and write levels with no limitations. You can even access content on an HFS+ formatted iPod.
5. Securing Dual-System Configuration
Imaging is still the most affordable and robust way to secure computer data. Unfortunately Mac OS X backs up only HFS+ volumes, leaving Windows with dual-system configurations unsecured. You can permanently lose all of your data unless you have a Windows-compatible backup solution.
Paragon’s CampTune and Paragon’s Drive Copy for Mac can secure the entire dual-system configuration. CampTune creates traditional images of volumes or entire hard disks, Drive Copy can copy them to other disks. In case of an emergency, you can restore the previously created image or copy all your data back to its original state.
6. Virtual Systems – Windows in Mac OS X
You do not have to change the factory configurations on your Mac for a Windows Installation, or change it back after a Windows de-installation. Just migrate your Windows-based environment to a virtual machine and run it anywhere, including on your Mac.
You will need to use one of Paragon’s products that support P2V technology, for example Paragon Go Virtual for Windows which is easily run in VMware Fusion on your Mac.
7. Virtual Systems – Mac OS X in Mac OS X
Mac OS X users may also find the need to use the OS in special circumstances, for example: software developers testing their applications or home users making offsite copies of software environments for security or mobility purposes. The solution for these situations is Virtualization, which makes clone of Mac OS X with all software and data.
Paragon Go Virtual for Mac OS X is the best solution for Mac OS X migration to a virtual machine, which can now be run on almost any Mac. You can easily transfer any software on your Mac to a virtual image, then use it on other Apple computers, perform tests with software or run unknown applications. We invite you to take part in our beta testing program. Please, fill the form below, read carefully Paragon Software Agreement for beta testers and submit your request at http://www.paragon-software.com/support/betatesting/betatesting.html and we will send you our latest available beta versions of the software.
Virtualization is a current key trend across all IT segments. The benefits of virtualization are well known and widely leveraged since data can now be stored and managed over diverse virtual environments in large data centers – or simple standalone servers. Even the most populous segment – home users, can now virtualize their existing software or make cross-platform configurations.
This article highlights how Paragon ConnectVD Technology addresses many data management challenges on diverse virtual and physical machines. ConnectVD allows a myriad of tasks to be performed with ease in a virtual environment – such as partitioning, data transferring, imaging, copying and many other complex tasks.
Virtualization Challenges
One of the key benefits of virtualization is that you can run several virtualized environments on one physical computer using currently available hardware. The number of serviceable systems may widely differ when using a single physical computer/single system approach or when leveraging dozens of virtualized systems. However the capabilities of IT personnel and administrators are not unlimited and expanding number of virtualized systems may cause a significant work backlogs.
Another thing to consider is that there are many different types of virtualization software. The main vendors are VMware, Microsoft, and Oracle, who offer incompatible solutions with many versions: enterprise or home user; bundled to the OS or independent; copyrighted by license or open-sourced. Managing and transferring data between these environments can be highly complex and nerve-wracking if things go awry.
These vendors naturally provide instruments for data management, migration, and conversion on virtual machines, but there are few vendor independent software tools that support all types of virtual machines. Administrators are typically faced with using many different tools simultaneously to perform tasks such as copying files between VM’s or virtual disk conversions.
Additionally, a typical VM is a complex environment that completely copies the physical computer’s partitions, file systems, one or several operating systems, software and data. On each level a special type of management is needed, which may or may not be provided by the VM software. If you recently installed all the necessary utilities, tools and management software to one or several physical machines, now you have to repeat this process with many virtualized clones. Having software that provides tools for the external management of data on dozens of VM’s from an original single copy is quite handy.
In brief, the major virtualized system management issues are the following: efficient management of a large number of virtual machines using a limited number of physical servers; the need to support data transfer and management between different types of VM’s; and the need for universal data management tools that can service as many VM’s from the outside physical world as possible.
Paragon ConnectVD technology addresses today’s compatibility issues and ensures easy data management and transfer operations between different types of virtual machines
Paragon ConnectVD technology resolves virtualized system management issues by utilizing software tools that connect with virtual disk files or snapshots and treats them as if they were physical hard disk drives – for easy data management, backup, virus removal, server optimization and many other tasks.
ConnectVD mounts a virtual disk file or snapshot in a read and read/write state, and depending on the desired outcome and the state of the original virtual machine – allows the user to either read data while it’s running or write data after it stops.
Mounted virtual disks or snapshot are not visible to the OS because special drivers are used to give virtual data a higher level of security that is inaccessible to third-party or malicious applications.
Software developers can enhance their own solutions using Paragon’s ConnectVD technology to give users easy workflows for virtualized systems of many different types. Using VIM SDK – a special version of ConnectVD for embedded software, you can manage data on VMware ESX/Workstation/Fusion, Microsoft Hyper-V/Virtual PC, Oracle VirtualBox machines.
Paragon Software uses ConnectVD technology in many of its products. By merging this technology with partitioning, backup, copying and optimization solutions, these tools have evolved into robust and advanced solutions for virtual data management. Our virtual migration technology combined with ConnectVD-enabled applications are the answer for anyone interested in virtualization, but put-off by the attendant complications for single users and companies alike.
Paragon’s ConnectVD technology can take your virtualized environments to the next level with these easy to implement scenarios:
- Utilize one universal virtual disk file application from diverse types of VMs. You can easily perform sector and file backup operations over partitions, whole disk and files to resolve data security issues. You can also easily restore data from archives or convert archives directly into virtual machines. In connection with mounting snapshots, you will be able to maintain data version policies of any complexity.
- You can easily perform different partitioning operations: create, move, resize, merge and split. Reconfigure your partitioning scheme to obtain the perfect volume configuration alongside the file system. Convert file systems of different types and change their properties.
- Perform rapid volume and data copying: create empty virtual disks and copy volumes to them, clone volumes, transfer volumes between virtual drives of different virtual machines and physical computers. This feature allows you to rapidly move specific partitions from physical disks to virtual and vice versa.
- Easily copy files and folders between physical and virtual volumes with NTFS, FAT, Ext3, HFS+ file systems. Maintain the required versions of files and preserve any important data. Secure data on file level with sector imaging.
Conclusion
Each solution with Paragon ConnectVD technology is a fully independent solution. There is no need to install it on VMs directly, thus you not need a great number of similar solutions spread across each virtual machine in one company. Support all of your virtual environments with one simple universal solution.
Posted in Drive Backup Server Virtualization Virtualization Manager by .
Jul 10
12
Virtualize Your PC with Go Virtual
Are you looking for an easier way to virtualize your PC? Paragon’s newest product Go Virtual is the answer to many customers looking for an easy way to virtualize their PC.
Here are just a few ways Go Virtual can be of use to you. You can see all of the scenario’s here
Scenario 1: Safely evaluate new software
New software can be unintentionally harmful to your computer. Avoid negative system conflicts by creating a virtual clone of your current physical system using Paragon’s Go Virtual. Try new software in a safe environment and decide whether it works and is exactly what you need before making it a permanent addition to your collection. If the changes made on the virtual machine were successful, you can migrate your updated system from the virtual environment to your PC.
Scenario 2: Put your PC in your pocket, use it anywhere and anytime
It is very convenient and handy to use your favorite software with all data at any computer. Now it became possible with wide implementation of virtual environments. All that you want to do is migrate your system into a virtual machine, place it on any removable media and run this machine at any computer, which has virtualization software installed. Just obtain an external USB hard drive and use it as storage for your virtual environment – your computer is in your pocket.
Scenario 3: Combining Windows and Mac
All Apple solutions are very interesting and popular. But what if the Windows solution you have to work with does not have an analogue in the Mac world? Today you may not bother regarding the search of the compatible software; you may just run your favorite Windows-native programs on Mac’s inside of the virtual environment. Use Paragon Go Virtual to create a virtual machine with all software and data, then copy it to your Mac and run inside VMware Fusion.
Get a FREE copy of Go Virtual today
Full Windows OS Support - Guaranteed support for any Windows operating system since Win2K (excluding server editions).
P2V Migration - Migrate a physical system to a virtual machine or convert a backup image to a virtual disk.
Migration without rebooting Windows - Hot processing of locked (in-use) hard disks lets you migrate a computer without rebooting and interrupting Windows.
P2V Adjust OS to recover the startup ability after unsuccessful virtualization with a 3rd party tool and to make Windows Vista/7 backups bootable on virtual hardware.
Smart Driver Injector - Makes the process of adding new drivers smooth and easy.
Performance – Paragon Go Virtual performs approximately 20% faster (your results may vary).
P2V adjust OS – Freeware tools will not adjust the OS to virtual hardware, leaving the user unable to boot their virtual machine. Go Virtual adjusts the OS so the virtual machine will boot successfully.
Selection of virtual hardware – Go Virtual offers the user a selection of virtual hardware types. Freeware tools typically do not.
Migration of offline systems - Freeware tools support the migration of operating systems currently running, but they have problems migrating offline operating systems, especially when there are more than one OS on the disk. Go Virtual performs these operations with ease.
We are very excited about this new release. Making physical to virtual migrations as easy as possible for people is a focus for Paragon. We would like you to download this product for free and leave us a comment here letting us know what you think about it. We value all of our customer feedback.
Posted in Paragon Software News Virtualization Manager by .
Jul 10
12
Go Virtual – New Product Release
Enjoy Working in a Virtual Computing Environment – Even if You’re Not Technically Savvy – with Paragon Software Group’s Go Virtual
Home users can now enjoy hazard-free benefits of virtualization; migration from PC to virtual machine is easy, reliable and free!
IRVINE, CA, July 12, 2010 – It’s time to upgrade to a new operating system, but the thought of all the unknown issues may hold you back. What if your favorite applications haven’t been updated to work with the new OS? There may be unintentional software glitches or bugs that will damage your host computer. One solution would be to create a virtual clone of your current computing environment to test any changes or upgrades before going live on your own PC, but migration to a virtual machine might be too complex and expensive for an average home user. How do you even begin to go virtual?
Paragon Software Group (PSG), the technology leader in innovative data security and data management solutions, invites you to Paragon Go Virtual with the new easy-to-use, free migration tool created for PC users who want to work in a virtual environment without technical risk. How does it work? Paragon Go Virtual allows you to make a virtual clone of your PC in three easy steps: http://www.paragon-software.com/home/go-virtual/how_it_works.html
Working in a Physical to Virtual (P2V) environment has benefits. Avoid negative system conflicts by creating a virtual clone of your current physical system before migrating to a new computer – try new software in a safe environment and decide whether it works and is exactly what you need before making it a permanent addition to your collection. Or save your virtual environment to a USB hard drive and use it from anywhere at any time, just as if you’re working from your own PC. With P2V, you can also take advantage of an up-to-date powerful computer while still having access to favorite applications from an old computer. And, if your old computer is corrupted or you lose data in a transfer, but you have a backup image of your old system made with Paragon software, you can virtualize it using Paragon Go Virtual installed on your new PC.
Previously available only to businesses and advanced users, migration to a virtual machine — because of its complexity and high cost – could be time consuming and complicated for an individual PC user. Individual users were often required to search for several third-party software tools, and then ensure that these tools were compatible with their new machine before completing the process. Paragon Go Virtual quickly and efficiently solves these problems by providing a complete solution compatible with all major formats of known virtual machines, including Microsoft (Virtual PC), VMware (Fusion, Workstation, Player) and Oracle (VirtualBox). Further, Go Virtual requires no additional tools for and after the migration process.
“Since most existing migration tools are aimed at businesses and professional users, Paragon came up with a quality solution for everyone to suit a wider range of users with simplicity, efficiency and the most reliable performance results.” said Konstantin Komarov, CEO.
Key Features & Benefits:
- Full Windows OS Support – Guaranteed support for any Windows operating system since Win2K (excluding server editions).
- P2V Migration – Migrate a physical system to a virtual machine.
- Migration without rebooting Windows – Hot processing of locked (in-use) hard disks lets you migrate a computer without rebooting and interrupting Windows.
- P2V Adjust OS to recover the startup ability after unsuccessful virtualization with a 3rd party tool and to make Windows Vista/7 backups bootable on virtual hardware.
- Smart Driver Injector – Makes the process of adding new drivers smooth and easy.
- Performance – Paragon Go Virtual performs approximately 20% faster (your results may vary).
- Selection of virtual hardware – Go Virtual offers the user a selection of virtual hardware types. Freeware tools typically do not.
- Migration of offline systems – Freeware tools support the migration of operating systems currently running, but they have problems migrating offline operating systems, especially when there are more than one OS on the disk. Go Virtual performs these operations with ease.
Availability:
Paragon Go Virtual is available for immediate download, free of charge: http://www.paragon-software.com/home/go-virtual/index.html
Posted in Paragon Software News by .
Storage system performance is dependent on many factors, one of which is a properly aligned partitioning scheme. Misaligned partitions cause a significant reduction in the I/O performance of a disk drive through redundant read/write operations and a subsequent reduction in an SSD lifespan by as much as one-third. The introduction of 4K sectors in the latest disk drives creates even more alignment problems for a large proportion of IT administrators. Implementation of enterprise virtual environments and the use of different RAID technologies are also susceptible to misalignment. In most cases, a mismatch between actual physical and logical representations of data causes a significant decay in overall system performance and hardware longevity.
What is Partition Alignment?
A hard drive can be dissected into different sections or partitions for many reasons – such as to segment data or because an operating system typically sits on one partition while applications and files sit on others. These partitions are positioned on the hard drive to optimize the way data is read and written to them. With new hard drives that rely on a different sector base than legacy drives, computers may not be able to recognize this change, effectively reducing the performance of hard drives and in some cases decreasing the lifespan of the drives dramatically.
Read the entire article in Computer Technology Review
Posted in Paragon Software News by .
Paragon Software has a new article available on the popular Disaster Recovery Journal that was written by Sergey Solomatin.
Today, IT specialists have a wide range of options available to make the data security policy more composite and comprehensive. There are many tools and instruments presented for any level of demand on the IT market. Some of them are intended to be simple and convenient, others have to fit well into the larger enterprise infrastructures.
In this article, two important aspects of all-encompassing data security and management plan are described in more detail. First, I would like to discuss a hardware independent system recovery (HIR) and migration to virtual environments options. Even if you decide HIR is not your solution and do not attach much importance to it, HIR enables you to significantly increase a number of possible recovery, data migration and copying scenarios. In the light of the progress of modern virtualization technologies, HIR gets another great value – smooth system transfer between physical and virtual platforms.
Data Imaging and Virtualization
Creation of images is still the best way to get the maximum level of security for any computer data. It is the oldest and the most popular method of data backup. Despite the fact the technology principles are rather classical; the sector imaging continues its progress.
Nowadays, sector images are commonly used to protect important data and system as a whole. They make possible to store full software environments and system copies in one or several files. With the introduction of high-capacity storages in SOHO segment, imaging technologies break the limit of large enterprises sector and are now affordable to any PC user.
Sector imaging evolution yielded such methods and instruments as incremental and differential images, CDP, granular recovery, hot processing and much more. Another important technology is hardware independent restore that is one of this article’s topics.
Data imaging and virtualization intersect in many IT segments. Both of them come from the enterprise market and are now available everywhere, on any platform. Both of them operate by large containers with data. Recent developments have introduced a merging of the two technologies there more and more data management solutions support data imaging and data management in both physical and virtual realms.
Read the entire article on www.drj.com
Posted in Computer Backup Drive Backup by .
Jun 10
23
Tekzilla Talks about NTFS for OS X
When working with media files or documents in Mac, you need access to the high performance of your system regardless if the files are located on the Mac’s HFS+ formatted volume, or in Window’s NT File System. Paragon NTFS for Mac® OS X 8.0 is the only NTFS driver on the market that provides full read/write access to NTFS with the same high speed as native HFS+ files. The built-in “HFS+ for Windows” completes an effective two-way communication channel between Mac® OS X and Windows.
As always, thank you Tekzilla, Patrick Norton and Veronica Belmont for showing our products to your viewers!
Posted in NTFS for Mac Paragon Software News by .
Thanks to the group over at Windows 7 Forums for putting together a great video tutorial on Drive Backup. Windows 7 Forums uses Paragon Backup & Recovery 10 to demonstrate why it is always better to perform a bare-metal backup, as opposed to a live backup using Windows Backup or other products. This demo explains how to perform a bare-metal backup and restore in a two part series.
PART 1
PART 2
It’s very exciting for us to see fans creating videos of our products. If you have created a video let us know in the comments section and we may highlight it in a new post or in our Facebook page.
Posted in Computer Backup Drive Backup by .
Physical to Virtual (P2V) conversion tools are quickly becoming a necessity in the corporate server environment and data center. When used properly, a P2V tool has the potential to save hours of work when converting a physical server or PC over to a virtual server or PC. P2V conversions are accomplished using native or third party tools from a number of vendors. For the most part, when used properly, P2V tools work as expected.
However the P2V conversion process is a very complex endeavor and there are plenty of opportunities for things to go wrong. The likelihood of problems seems to increase exponentially when performing conversions during an emergency as part of a disaster recovery plan. What’s more, most tools require several manual steps and can introduce hardware compatibility problems. Hardware compatibility issues can stop a migration dead in its tracks.
To overcome hardware issues, it is critical that a P2V conversion tool is able to access and modify the HAL (hardware abstraction layer) of the physical operating system. If the HAL is incompatible with the new hardware and/or virtual environment on the target system, the virtualized version of the OS will fail to work, potentially wasting hours of work and introducing unwanted delays into the conversion process. Paragon Software’s Adaptive Restore is the solution to this and works 100% of the time ensuring that your virtual machines boot the first time without issue.
Posted in Computer Backup Drive Backup Server Virtualization Virtualization Manager by .
Jun 10
7
Drive Copy 10 Giveaway
For today only, MakeUseOf.com is giving away 100 licenses of Drive Copy 10 Personal. Drive Copy is a great utility for upgrading hard drives, creating a single image of your computer for recovery if the PC crashes, and many others. If you would like to grab a free copy, head over to MakeUseOf.com and read the post.
Added Bonus:
They are giving away our personal version that will not work on servers. If you would like a chance to win a copy of Drive Copy 10 Server, leave a comment here.
Posted in Computer Backup by .
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