Paragon Hard Disk Manager Suite 2009 Review

The installation file is 134 Megabytes in size. It may seem a big download - in fact, it is - but if you decide to make the purchase, you will not need to download the full version again. You can just enter your registration key and start using the program without any limitations. The trial version has a 30-day evaluation.

There's really nothing special about the installation. Other than the license agreement, it is the typical Next – Next – Finish – Restart routine. If you are considering purchasing the product, make sure that the “Name” and “Organization” fields are correct during the installation.

No questions are asked during the installation, except for the installation directory, user name, and organization (as I mentioned above). There is no other notes worth mentioning.

The features in HDMS 2009 can be grouped as backing up/restoring, optimization and defragmentation, disk cloning, imaging and partitioning, and disk wiping. Paragon advertises “advanced recovery” but I don't think about this as a separate feature but rather falling under the “backing up/restoring” group.

Paragon emphasizes the backing up and restoring functions of the product. With a hard disk management program, I think it is logical to have these features. HDMS 2009 can back up all of your data including the operating system and can restore it. Plus, the back up process can run in the background so you do not need to worry about forgetting to backup. On the plus side, if you have HDMS 2009 installed, backed up your computer, and had a system crash which makes it impossible to reach your desktop, you can recover your data during boot time. That will come really handy if you are ever in serious trouble.

Plus, HDMS can back up your system at the file system level. This means that each file can be restored individually. You can also add files to your back up image without the need for creating an incremental back up – a real time-saver, I believe.

HDMS can back up to any drive: CD/DVD, USB sticks, USB disks, FireWire Disks, Blu-Ray disks. It is unlikely that your backup media will not be recognized by HDMS.

Read on for the other features, price to performance evaluation and our overall opinion.