Interface Overview

This chapter introduces the graphical interface of the program. The design of the interface precludes any mistake being made on the part of the user. Most operations are performed through the system of wizards. Buttons and menus are accompanied by easy understandable icons. Nevertheless, any problems that might occur while managing the program can be tackled by reading this very chapter.

General Layout

When you start the program, the first component that is displayed is called the Launcher. It enables to run wizards and dialogs, to specify program settings, to visualize the operating environment and the hard disk configuration.

The Launcher’s window can be conditionally subdivided into several sections that differ in their purpose and functionality:

1. Main Menu

2. Tool Bar

3. Virtual Operations Bar

4. Common Tasks Bar

5. Explorer Bar

6. Partition List

7. Properties Bar

8. Disk Map

9. Legend Bar

10. Status Bar

A number of panels offer similar functionality with a synchronized layout. The program enables to conceal some of them to simplify the interface management.

All panels are separated by vertical and horizontal expandable sliders, allowing the user to customize the screen layout.

Main Menu

The Main Menu provides access to the entire functionality of the program. The available functions are as listed below:

MENU ITEM

FUNCTIONALITY

Tools

View Logs…

View logs on the carried out operations

Send Log Files

Compress and send the log to the Paragon Support Team

File Transfer Wizard…

Transfer data from any media

Settings...

Edit the general settings of the program

Exit

Exit the program

Changes

Generate Script…

Generate a script for the task

Save to Scheduler…

Schedule pending operations

Undo `the last virtual operation`

Cancel the last virtual operation on the List of Pending Operations

Redo `the last virtual operation`

Cancel the last undo virtual operation on the List of Pending Operations

View Changes…

Display the List of Pending Operations

Apply Changes

Launch the real execution of virtual operations

Discard All Changes

Cancel all virtual operations on the List of Pending Operations

Reload Disk Info

Refresh the current information about disks

Wizards

Create Partition…

Create a partition of any file system

Format Partition…

Format a partition of any file system

Delete Partition…

Delete a partition of any file system

Undelete Partitions…

Recover an accidentally deleted partition

Merge Partitions…

Merge adjacent partitions of NTFS, FAT or FAT32 file systems

Redistribute Free Space…

Redistribute available disk space of existed partitions

P2P Adjust OS…

Make your system bootable on different hardware; recover the startup ability after unsuccessful migration with a 3rd party tool

Create Virtual Disk…

Create an empty virtual disk or with specific data of one of the supported virtualization vendors

P2V Copy…

Migrate a live Win2K+ physical system to a virtual environment

P2V Restore…

Restore a Win2K+ physical system from a Paragon’s backup directly to a virtual environment

P2V Adjust OS…

Make Windows Vista/7 backups bootable on virtual hardware; recover the startup ability after unsuccessful virtualization with a 3rd party tool

Copy Hard Disk…

Create a hard disk copy

Schedule Hard Disk Copy…

Set a timetable for a hard disk copy

Copy Partition…

Create a partition copy

Schedule Partition Copy…

Set a timetable for a partition copy

Hard Disk

Update MBR

Update MBR (Master Boot Record) of the selected hard disk

Change Primary Slots…

Modify the primary partitions enumeration for the selected hard disk

Edit/View Sectors…

View/edit sectors of the selected hard disk

Connect a Virtual Disk

Connect a virtual disk to work with it as if it’s a physical disk

Disconnect a Virtual Disk

Disconnect a virtual disk

Properties…

Get in-depth information on the properties of selected hard disk

Partition

Create Partition…

Create a partition

Format Partition…

Format a partition

Delete Partition…

Delete a partition

Move/Resize…

Move/Resize the selected partition

Convert File System…

Convert file system of the selected partition

Assign Drive Letter…

Assign drive letter to the selected partition

Remove Drive Letter…

Remove drive letter for the selected partition

Hide Partition…

Make the selected partition unavailable for the operating system

Unhide Partition…

Make the selected partition available for the operating system

Mark Partition as Active

Make the selected partition bootable by default

Mark Partition as Inactive

Make the selected partition non-bootable by default

Change Cluster Size…

Change cluster size of the selected partition

Change Volume Label…

Change volume label of the selected partition

Change Serial Number…

Change serial number of the selected partition

Change Partition ID…

Change identifier of the selected partition

Downgrade NTFS version…

Decrease version of the selected NTFS partition

Change SID…

Change SID (Security Identifier) value of any found Windows installation

Make Partition Primary…

Make the selected partition Primary

Make Partition Logical…

Make the selected partition Logical

Defragment Partition…

Defragment data on the selected FAT or NTFS partition

Defragment MFT…

Defragment MFT (Master File Table) of the selected NTFS partition

Compact MFT…

Shrink MFT (Master File Table) of the selected NTFS partition

Test Surface…

Test surface of the selected partition/block of free space

Check File System Integrity…

Check the selected partition for possible file system errors

Edit/View Sectors…

View/edit sectors of the selected partition

Properties…

Get in-depth information on the properties of selected partition

View

Layouts

Manage the Launcher layout with several predefined profiles

Toolbar

Manage the Tool Bar representation: show / hide standard and navigation buttons, text labels and large icons

Status Bar

Display the Status Bar

Common Tasks Bar

Display the Common Tasks Bar

Disk Map Legend

Display the Disk Map legend

Properties and Commands

Display the Explorer Bar

Disk Map Location

Select whether the Disk Map will be located on the top of the main window or at the bottom

Help

Help

Open the Help system (you can also do it by pressing F1)

About

Open the dialog with information about the program

 

The Main Menu contents available at the moment may vary depending on the selected object.

Tool Bar

The Toolbar provides fast access to the most frequently used operations:

BUTTON

FUNCTIONALITY

Connect a virtual disk

Open the Help system

Virtual Operations Bar

The program supports previewing the resulting layout of hard disks before actually executing operations (so-called virtual mode of execution). In fact, when the virtual mode is enabled, the program does not accomplish operations immediately, but places them on the List of Pending Operations for later execution.

The Virtual Operations Bar enables to manage pending operations.

BUTTON

FUNCTIONALITY

Cancel the last virtual operation on the List of Pending Operations

Cancel the last undo virtual operation on the List of Pending Operations

Display the List of Pending Operations

Launch the real execution of virtual operations

Cancel all virtual operations on the List of Pending Operations

 

Virtual mode is an effective way of protection from any troubles, since no operations will be executed until clicking the Apply button for confirmation, thus giving a second chance to weigh all pros and cons of this or that particular operation. The program politely reminds the user that there are unsaved changes by showing the following window:

Common Tasks Bar

The Common Tasks Bar is located on the left side of the main window. It is intended for easy access to the program's wizards.

The bar contains several tabs named Virtualization Tasks, Copy Tasks, Tools and News and Documentation. Each of these contains a separate button bar which can be folded by clicking it.

Virtualization Tasks

Starting the P2V Copy Wizard to migrate a live Win2K+ physical system to a virtual environment.

Starting the P2V Restore Wizard to restore a Win2K+ physical system from a Paragon’s backup to a virtual environment.

Starting the P2V Adjust OS Wizard to recover the startup ability after unsuccessful virtualization with a 3rd party tool; to make Windows Vista/7 backups bootable on virtual hardware.

Copy Tasks

Starting the Copy Hard Disk Wizard to copy a hard disk.

Starting the Copy Partition Wizard to copy a partition.

Tools

Starting the Connect a Virtual Disk dialog to connect a virtual disk to work with it as if it’s a physical disk.

Starting the File Transfer Wizard to transfer data from any media. Besides it provides access to Paragon backups as regular folders to browse through their contents or copy required files.

News and Documentation

Launching the help system (you can also do it by pressing F1).

Opening the page which contains information about the program. This page will be displayed in the Explorer Bar.

Opening a brief review on the Paragon Scripting Language.

Disk Map

The Disk Map is displayed in the Explorer Bar when the Disk View tab is selected. It is located either at the top or at the bottom of the window, depending on the state of the Disk Map Location option (Main Menu: View > Disk Map Location).

As the name infers, the Disk Map displays the layout of physical and logical disks. Physical disks are represented with rectangle bars that contain small-sized bars. These small-sized bars represent logical disks. Their color depends on the file system of the appropriate partition.

Large-sized bars display the following information about physical disks:

·         Manufacturer,

·         Model.

Small-sized bars display the following information about logical disks:

·         Serial number,

·         Drive letter,

·         Total size,

·         File system.

Furthermore, it is possible to estimate the used disk space by looking at the size of the bar’s shaded area. The program offers to choose from several types of the disk layout scaling. It’s done especially to increase the program usability. For instance, if you’ve got a high capacity hard drive containing both very large (more than 100 GB) and rather small (less than 10 GB) partitions, you can select the logarithmic type to make all partitions readable, otherwise (selecting the linear type) you won’t be able to see small partitions at all, but thing strips. On the other hand, if the proportional disk layout is critical for you, the linear type is exactly what you need.

Nevertheless there’s a compromise solution – linear scaling with the minimal limit to small partitions. So if a partition is too small it will remain readable.

Just click on the arrow icon on the top right side of the Disk Map to select the desired scaling type.

Disk Map is synchronized with the Explorer Bar. Thus by selecting a disk on the Disk Map, the Explorer Bar will automatically display detailed information on it.

The drag-and-drop functionality is not available when the logarithmic type of the disk layout is selected.

Explorer Bar

The Explorer Bar is located in the center of the main window which emphasizes its importance. The bar displays reference information including:

·         The help system;

·         General information on the product including its name, version and a list of helpful links;

·         Detailed information about disks selected on the Disk Map;

·         List of scheduled operations;

·         List of scripts;

·         Volume Explorer utility;

·         Disk Editor utility.

According to these categories the Explorer Bar has several tabs:

·         Disk View, which offers the user the following options:

- Partition List to get a clear-cut picture of the current state of the system hard disks/partitions;

- Disk Editor to view/edit sectors of the selected partition/hard disk;

- Volume Explorer to browse and export contents of the selected partition/hard disk;

- Properties to view detailed information on the selected partition/hard disk in the bright graphical form.

You can switch between these components by clicking tabs on the left side of the Explorer Bar.

·         Scheduled Tasks, which gives the user the possibility of browsing and editing scheduled operations and the program scripts.

·         Help, which contains the program help and general information on the product.

You can access the desired information by clicking on the appropriate tab.

The Explorer Bar is a fully-functional embedded HTML browser, which offers the possibility to address, for example, the company's website to look through important technical notes or download the latest updates without having to close the program.

The program help is also HTML-oriented. You can read it and follow external links from to get additional information.

To easily navigate through browsed pages, the program provides the following functionality:

BUTTON

FUNCTIONALITY

Return to the previously browsed page

Open the next browsed page

Stop loading the current page

Refresh the contents of the current page

 

Partition List

The Partition List is another helpful tool that enables you to get a clear-cut picture of the current state of the system hard disks/partitions. Partitions are sorted according to their starting position. For every item of the list there is the possibility to call the context-sensitive popup menu with available operations. Besides, the program provides detailed information on all hard disks/partitions found in the system including the following properties:

   - Name,

   - Volume label (if exists),

   - Partition type (Primary/Extended /Logical),

   - File system type,

   - Size,

   - Amount of used and unused (free) space,

   - Start/End cylinder,

   - Start/End head,

   - Start/End sector

   - Free size in sectors/bytes

   - Active/Inactive attribute

   - Hidden/Unhidden attribute

You may customize outlook of the Partition List by clicking on the arrow icon on the top right side of the panel.

By marking a checkbox opposite the required item you can choose whether to display it or not. Besides, you can change its order by pressing the Move up or Move down buttons.

If you don’t need the Disk Map, please click the shown below icon to disable it:

Properties Bar

The Properties Bar provides information on the selected at the moment partition/hard disk:

For a hard disk

·         Model,

·         Serial number,

·         Type of hard disk (basic or dynamic),

·         Total size (in GB),

·         Information on geometry of the disk (amount of sectors per track, heads and cylinders).

For a partition

·         Drive letter assigned to the disk,

·         Volume label (if available),

·         Type of the logical disk,

·         File system (represented by the color of the graph and the selected bar),

·         Total size, used space and free space (in GB or MB).

Besides you can modify practically any partition property by clicking on the required value.

Legend Bar

The Legend Bar explains the color scheme used for disk and partition presentation. You can hide (or show) the bar with the appropriate Main Menu item: View > Disk Map Legend. When it is activated it can be found at the bottom of the Explorer Bar.

The program distinguishes between the following types of known file systems:

   - FAT16/32,

   - NTFS,

   - Linux Ext2/3/4,

   - Linux ReiserFS,

   - Apple HFS.

Status Bar

This is the bottom part of the main window. The Status Bar displays menu hints, for each item the cursor points to.

The user can hide (or show) the bar with the appropriate Main Menu item: View > Status Bar.