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Paragon Rescue Kit for Mac OS X Lite Public Beta Testing

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Dear Forum Visitors,

Thank you very much for your useful feedback.

You can download “Known issues” for Beta1 here.

Manual here.

Dear brendalana,
Unfortunately, Rescue Kit for Mac OS X does not support Power PC processors (G4 and G5).

Dear skapplin and shoarthing,

Please check the Beta1. I hope the boot process became faster and interface more Mac-friendly.

Dear Tholian,

Now we packed the ISO image in a DMG archive (to not confuse people).

Dear llee,

Rescue Kit for Mac OS X has the following main restriction:
You can restore a backup image to the same partition the image was backed up.

Thus,
attempted to restore to another external disk
Click to expand...
will not work.

Dear mikeguru,
Do you plan to add support for PPC Processor Macs?
Click to expand...
Unfortunately not, we don’t plan in the near future. It depends on how the current version of Rescue Kit for Mac OS X will be in demand.

Looking forward to hearing from you soon.
Thank you all in advance.
Anatoly.
 
simple text editor

Hello

a small feature request would be to add a simple text editor. It would allow one to fix certain small text files, like boot.ini or other boot loader configuration files.
 
Anatoly said:
You can restore a backup image to the same partition the image was backed up.
Click to expand...
That is a rather severe limitation, I think. It certainly places a severe limitation on my ability to test, because apparently the only way to test a backup created by the beta version of Rescue Kit of a drive currently in use would be either to overwrite the backup up device as part of the test, or to perform the test by backing up a device whose characteristics I could match exactly with a replacement restore target.

Or is this restriction completely absolute? Would I be able to restore from my backup if I replaced the original device with another having identical characteristics? Could I use a Rescue Kit backup to restore to a device that had replaced the original because of hardware failure? What if the original had been replaced for the purpose of upgrading storage capacity? What specific details define the sameness between backup source and restore destination required by Rescue Kit? Device ID and size? Device ID only?

At the very least, I think the restore function should prohibit restoring to inappropriate targets, and the more thorough the explanation of what makes a restore target appropriate, the better. Thanks.
 
Feature request and suggestion.

I have downloaded the beta, and used it to successfully boot my Mac Mini. It worked very well. At first I tried booting my G5, and then remembered that it was for intel Macs only.

It would be nice to have a simple finder-like file browser. You can "trick" the system into allowing you to browse through the directories by choosing file restore, but I think it would be a nice addition to the main screen to have a simple file browsing application. Perhaps in this proposed finder-like file browser, you could have the feature of being able to select files and then right-click to mark them for recovery. Also if you selected a folder for recovery, it would recover all files & subfolders within.

I do not remember if you MUST configure the network before performing a network file recovery. Is this true? If it is true, then it would be really nice to have the feature of having the program use a default network setting of DHCP, which would be the case for most users. You can keep the network control panel for those users who don't have the standard DHCP settings for their network.

John Feinberg
Montclair NJ
 
Aye, it is. According to the manual you can only restore to the same partition that the backup was "made of". That's not very clear but it does seem that it's a temporary limitation since it's still in beta.

I would imagine that you will be able to restore to any drive eventually and the program will give you the option to restore partition sizes or even change them on the fly...like Acronis True Image or Windows.

llee said:
That is a rather severe limitation, I think. It certainly places a severe limitation on my ability to test, because apparently the only way to test a backup created by the beta version of Rescue Kit of a drive currently in use would be either to overwrite the backup up device as part of the test, or to perform the test by backing up a device whose characteristics I could match exactly with a replacement restore target.

Or is this restriction completely absolute? Would I be able to restore from my backup if I replaced the original device with another having identical characteristics? Could I use a Rescue Kit backup to restore to a device that had replaced the original because of hardware failure? What if the original had been replaced for the purpose of upgrading storage capacity? What specific details define the sameness between backup source and restore destination required by Rescue Kit? Device ID and size? Device ID only?

At the very least, I think the restore function should prohibit restoring to inappropriate targets, and the more thorough the explanation of what makes a restore target appropriate, the better. Thanks.
Click to expand...
 
. . . have now tried beta1; which appears to fix an annoying UI issue - trackpad becoming very unresponsive after any operations on a Penryn Macbook Pro - which I noted [twice] in beta0.

Writespeed to HFS+ volumes of the Paragon UFSD seems improved as well by roughly 15% or so - tho' is is still very much slower than writing to NTFS.

Exceptionally useful to be able to backup FAT32 Boot Camp partitions [with auto pagefile removal] . . I have been using NTFS solely because the excellent Winclone (Freeware) has demanded NTFS prior to its very latest version.
 
The beta1 backup wizard only allows me to select an internal drive partition as a source for the backup. That makes testing more difficult, because I would need to overwrite the internal drive partition as a part of a restore test, and I don't consider it very prudent to do that with a partition containing data that I rely on. I've already been informed that restoring to a different destination partition isn't robust. Maybe I can perform a test if I can manage to find a second similar computer with a corresponding drive partition containing dispensable data.
 
Beta 1 Better

Well, the packaging of beta 1 is better - the addition of a manual and distributed as a disk image.

The GUI looks a little less Windows-like.

I would still prefer to boot from a USB memory stick (rather than a CD).

Also, it appears only wired networking can be configured but I would like to configure wireless networking. Can that be done?
 
Hello Anatoly,
I have a question concerning the feature:
"Unique: Backup your entire system with ability to boot from the created image!" which is stated at Paragon's beta-site.
For a pity I couldn't find it. Is it present in beta? And if yes, how can I access it?
 
First thoughts...

I'll start by saying, my sole interest in any backup software is to backup and restore remote macintoshes... a continuing and frustrating hobby...
1. Note that I got caught by the 'x86' CPU bit - I then knew why my G5 hadn't booted :) Not everyone will know what that 'x86' will mean - it's a simple and important documentation change.
2. iso burned fine, booted my Intel iMac in about 4 minutes (much better that 10 odd for DiskWarrior).
3. Simple to follow, for someone who can fill in the more worrying bits - and I CAN read! (the manual that is...)
4. A little trouble mounting a network drive, but suggest that the problems were more to do with me than the software. impressed with the little network driver.
5. I'd agree with a previous comment about it being slow to a HFS+ formatted destination. It's highly likely that in most instances, the source mac will be going to an "Apple" format disk - local or otherwise.
6. Had two types of errors whilst copying a test profile over:
a) ERROR! cannot open file <path to file>
b) Can not create file <path to file>
The log window isn't long enough (and probably never could be in some instances) to see the full path to the actual file was giving the 'problem' (something needs to be done here).
Eventually, having told it to 'skip' which ever files it was complaining about, it completed, interestingly the top half of the GUI said there was 1.3Mb with 10 secs left - but the interactive log window said it had completed - so a little discrepancy there.
I then couldn't see in any of the (saved) logs where it would tell me which files had 'failed' - perhaps someone could point me to where that info is. If the paths aren't in the logs - why not? Impossible to track which files you need trace after the event.

Ultimately, this would appear to be a useful app to have in the arsenal of things to try and fix a 'broken' mac. It's certainly nice that seemingly you can bypass any "OS X - ness" in booting up, and access the drive directly to get what you can off before you commit the drive to the bin; a "last stop, it's all gone wrong" utility then...
Agree with previous post that adding other features with disk maintenance (a la DiskWarrior or TechTool) would be nice, but I don't know if Paragon want to get into all of that? It's a simple, fast-ish app that tries to help when all else has failed.

So, good thinking Paragon! It fills a gap in the market, please let me know what other features you will be adding when you're ready.

All the best
Clive
 
Disk will not boot

Anatoly,

I, too have run into the disk boot issue, using a G5 dual 2.7 tower. I realize now that the beta test is for Intel-only machines, but hope that you will release a version for the PPC crowd, still a sizable market. I'm not sure what effort on your part is required to do this, but I will be here if you decide to do it.

Thanks
 
Dear joncas,

Thanks for your suggestion.

Dear llee and Grundle,

The full (not Lite) version will support this functionality.

Would I be able to restore from my backup if I replaced the original device with another having identical characteristics?
Click to expand...
The partition should have the same first track and size (two parameters). Once again, the full version will not have this limitation.

llee,

It’s strange you can’t use an external hard drive. Please try to check it again with another drive. Thanks.

Dear feinberj,

Our network wizard should automatically use a default network setting of DHCP.

Dear gheys,

Unfortunately wireless network is not supported. Thanks for your suggestion. We will consider this.

Dear ankou,

Sorry for this inadequate information. I hope this functionality will present in our full version only.

Dear forum visitors,

If you have any suggestions on how to improve the user interface, please let us know. I think after we update our GUI we will be ready to release the Lite (free) version.

Thank you all.
Best regards,
Anatoly.
 
Anatoly said:
llee,

It’s strange you can’t use an external hard drive. Please try to check it again with another drive. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Oh, I don't think it sees Apple Partition Map volumes. Did I miss that in the docs, or is it yet undocumented?
 
Extra Tools

I downloaded the beta today and burned it without any problems.

I then booted off the cd and started looking around.

I think the major problem is that there are no tools there to help fix any possible disk problems.

As this is supposed to be a tool to help get data from a failing disk, there needs to be some tools to check and repair the disk (similar to chkdsk in windows and disk warrior in mac os x) that we are trying to get data from.

We should be able to at least:

verify and repair permissions
verify and repair disks
verify and repair files and folders

With all new operating systems where it is impossible to properly check a drive unless you boot of another disk, these tools should be there as well.

Hopefully, once one can verify and repairs files, folders and disks, it should help us get more information off the disks as well, which provides for a better result to all concerned.

cjc
 
Pre-Release Versions are now available

Dear Forum Visitors,

We are proud to announce that Paragon Rescue Kit for Mac is now available as a Pre-Release Version.
We did a lot of fixing and improvements.
Get high performance and minimal system overhead.

You can get informations about this version here

Registration and Download here
(Still a beta-tester? - You will get an email with the needed informations)

You can download the Manual for Rescue Kit for Mac OS X here



We are also happy to announce the Pre-Release Version of Paragon CampTune.
With Paragon CampTune, it’s now really easy and secure to resize both, the MAC system partition or the second OS partition from BootCamp™.

You can get informations about this version here

Registration and Download here

You can get an overview of all Mac related Paragon products here

Both programms are ISO files which only need to be burnt to CD.

We want you to send us your feedback about bugs you have found, improvements or missed functions.

Thank you in advance and best regards,

Philipp

Mac-Team
Paragon-Software
 
CampTune rules!

Hi Philipp, Hi Anatoly,

whooo! CampTune is really cool!:)
I'm playing around a lot with my system and these tools rock!

Rescue Kit - I think it should look more mac like at the starting process.
Also I miss a version to do Backups inside Mac OS X...maybe this will be possible in future?

CampTune - whoo! really easy to use...would just love to start it inside Mac OS X...

THX you so much!! Keep on the good work.

cheers,
kaneda80
 
Success with Rescue Kit Release Candidate

With the release candidate, I was finally able to successfully execute both backup and restore. I haven't fully tested the results, but I'm fairly confident that the process was successful, it boots anyway. I made a backup using Rescue Kit, then erased my source partition, then performed the restore. I, too, would be more comfortable if the options for disk and partition selection were a little closer to those generally presented in the Mac OS for these kinds of operations, like the basic layout of Disk Utility, for example, because I'm still not as confident as I would like to be that I'm making the correct selections in the interface. But I did get it to work. I hope to try another restore operation, this time restoring from a network share. Thanks.
 
Network restore unsuccessful

I created a network share for the backup that I successfully restored from when it was connected as a local volume. When I connected to the share and tried to run the restore while booted into Rescue Kit's restore environment, however, I received a "Can't open/create file" error message when I selected the ".pbf" file in the "Select Archive" window when I clicked the button next to "Select Image" at the "What to restore" step. Why was I able to successfully restore when the partition containing the backup image was mounted as a local volume, but not when it was mounted as a network share?
 
Sorry to resurrect old thread

I found that the splash screen, icons on dialog boxes, and pictures on the left side of wizard windows are full with jpeg compression artifacts, please improve the quality of the pictures
 
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