Migration to Windows® 7 with Paragon Partition Manager™ 10

Best Practices

Document Highlights This document describes how Paragon Partition Manager 10 helps to prepare a computer for Windows 7 installation, organize multiple operating system environments, leave Windows 7 as a main standalone OS, and how to return a computer to its original state.

Business Challenge - How to Safely Evaluate Windows 7 Microsoft Windows operating systems are used throughout the world, and each new version receives agreat deal of attention. Every operating system has its own system requirements and features, whichchange from one version to another. The advantages of a new operating system version are betterhardware support, new user interfaces, new components and fixed bugs; the disadvantages are newbugs, a lack of old hardware and software support and the necessity to get accustomed to newgraphical interfaces. However, it is not a best practice to immediately upgrade to a new operating system. The preferred option is to use the old operating system and try the new one simultaneously, on the samecomputer. In this case the user has the choice to either uninstall the new operating system or leave itas a main working environment after thorough testing during a trial period (possibly deleting t he oldoperating system when they are satisfied with the performance of the new one).. Having over 10 years of experience delivering hard drive partitioning and disaster recovery solutions, Paragon Software is well aware of all the latest market trends and is ready to address them efficiently.Paragon Partition Manager 10 is the best solution to prepare and configure the existing softwareenvironment for a new operating system installation. It provides several technologies which address theoperating system migration:

• Full Windows 7 support. A unique feature in the system utilities market, Paragon Software is one of the first software manufacturers to have announced Windows 7 support in its products.

• Partition scheme modification. An operating system usually needs its own partition to be installed on. Paragon Partition Manager is able to resize existing partitions to free disk space,as well as create and format new partitions. It’s also able to modify partition attributes such asactive or hidden/visible flags. You can also use an existing partition to install a new version ofWindows. If the partition doesn’t have enough free space and you don’t want to create anotherone, you can use Partition Manager to rearrange files between the partitions.

• You can install the Paragon Boot Manager to conveniently boot between Windows versions.

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• Backup and restore of existing partitions. Before any modifications are done, it’s necessary to save all your important data. If data was lost, or the system won’t boot, restoring a backuparchive is the easiest way to resolve the problem. Paragon Partition Manager 10 includes

several Recovery Environments, which offer exceptional hardware support.

Creating a Dual-Boot System with Windows 7 With the help of Paragon Partition Manager 10 you can add Windows 7 to your existing computer,without destroying the current operating system. Assume that your computer has only onepartition, which occupies the entire hard drive space — an NTFS volume with Windows XP installed.You’ve got a Windows 7 installation disk and want to try it. There are two possible ways to prepare yoursystem for a Windows 7 installation, but before performing any actions don’t forget to back up yourWindows XP partition.

• The first method of system preparation is fast and easy. Paragon Partition Manager has a special tool, the Install New OS Wizard, which automatically scans the hard drive, prepares a new partition for the Windows 7 installation then reboots the computer. After rebooting, you’ll be offered toinstall a new operating system and then prompted to set up the Paragon Boot Manager.

• The second method demands more attention, but allows you to tune all operations settings. The steps to follow are: resize the Windows XP partition to free some space, create a new NTFS volume, hide and deactivate the original partition, restart the computer and install Windows 7. Finally, complete the installation of Paragon's Boot Manager.

In both cases you’ll create a dual-system environment and be able to boot to either Windows XP orWindows 7. These same actions can also be performed using one of Paragon's recovery environments without any unnecessary reboots.

Making the Final Decision Judgement day has arrived and you’ve decided to make the final choice for one of the operating systems.There are two possible options, depending on which operating system you want to keep and which one you want to delete. In both cases Paragon Partition Manager will be very useful.

• To fully migrate to Windows 7, perform the following actions in Partition Manager: uninstall Paragon's Boot Manager, delete the Windows XP partition and make the Windows 7 partitionactive. You can then enlarge the Windows 7 partition to occupy all free space on the hard drive,or move the partition and create a new partition for other uses.

• You can choose to restore the original environment, if you decided to leave Windows XP installed.It’s a fast and simple operation, but it will leave you with outdated files and delete all information which was created after your Windows 7 installation. This option is only appropriate if you don’t need to save modified data, or there isn’t any new data at all. Paragon Partition Manager 10 is able to quickly restore an archive from either Windows or a Recovery Environment. Anotheroption, to keep Windows XP only, is to manually roll back all partitioning scheme changes, whichwere performed before and after the Windows 7 installation.

Conclusion With Paragon Partition Manager 10 you have the option to safely investigate new opportunities whenevaluating Windows 7. The unique, robust technologies from Paragon Software make Windows 7 migration smooth and easy.

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For more information, call 1-888-347-5462 or email sales@paragon-software.com.