Paragon Drive Backup 7 Server Edition

The argument over whether hard disk imaging is a better choice than standard tape-based backup for server protection continues unabated. But the remarkably small selection of disk-imaging products currently available does indicate that this technology is still a niche market. Acronis' True Image Server 8 and Symantec's LiveState Recovery Advanced Server 3 are the heavyweights in the arena. In contrast, Paragon's Drive Backup 7 is a more budget-priced alternative.

As with Symantec's software, Drive Backup 7 Server Edition (SE) focuses purely on securing servers and providing disaster-recovery capabilities by capturing hard disk images in real-time and writing them either to hard disk, or to a CD or DVD. On paper, SE offers a good range of features for the price, as it supports basic and dynamic disks, has the ability to perform full and incremental image tasks, and has a script interpreter that allows many tasks to be automated.

SE can write images to local and network drives, and also has a backup capsule option. This is a separate partition that can be created on the system disk or another local drive and is totally independent of the active file system. It remains hidden from the resident OS and can be used to restore the system drive in the event of a failure. It's a great idea, although we wouldn't recommend using this as your only backup destination. If the hard disk or server goes belly-up, the entire capsule goes with it. Furthermore, it isn't unique, as Acronis' Secure Zone feature is virtually identical. The latter allows you to designate a partition that can't be accessed by the OS or any other application for storing image files.

The backup process is simple enough. A wizard pops up to assist in selecting an entire hard disk or a partition and choosing a destination that can be the capsule, a local or network drive, or a rewritable CD or DVD drive. The job can also be run at regular intervals using the built-in scheduler. You can select from three levels of compression to save on space and password-protect the image file. Incremental backups are supported, but these can only be run on primary or logical partitions and can't use mapped drives as a destination. They also have to be scripted. Although Paragon provides a sample, it's ridiculously complex and can also only be run manually from the Command Prompt or automated using the Windows Scheduler.

Fortunately, restore options are good. You can select an image and decide where to restore it. SE also includes an Image Explorer tool, which allows the contents of images to be viewed and specific files and folders exported to selected locations. But performance is somewhat sluggish. Imaging a 4.5GB system partition to another local hard disk with no compression selected took nearly seven minutes for SE, while Symantec's LiveState Recovery completed the same task in only 93 seconds. Prepare for a longer wait if you're using the capsule, as imaging the same partition to this destination took nearly 20 minutes.

Compared with the competition, Drive Backup 7 Server Edition offers good overall value. But you can't manage multiple servers from one console, performance could be better and incremental backup features are weak.

Author: Dave Mitchell