Paragon has released a new version of its Hard Disk Manager Suite, which bundles together a host of disk management tools, from partitioning, cloning and backup to defragging, boot manager and rescue environment.

The 2011 edition boasts a number of new features and enhanced compatibility. You can now easily migrate Windows XP, Vista or 7 from a regular hard drive to a SSD (Solid State Drive). This can be done even if the SSD has a smaller capacity, thanks to Paragon’s ability to exclude certain types of data.

The program has also updated its P2P Adjust OS Wizard – this allows you to boot up a hard drive containing Windows 2000 or later on a different computer, and Paragon will automatically source and install all necessary drivers. The 2011 update makes this more robust with new features like the ability to source and install drivers from those provided by Windows itself, plus the ability to spot missing critical boot drivers (such as for RAID systems), prompting the user to rectify the problem.

Hard Disk Manager 2011 Suite also now automatically aligns partitions during copying and resizing processes to optimise performance, plus allows you to strike your own choice of balance between performance and risk of data loss. It supports conversion from basic MBR disks to the newer GPT standard, allowing partitions of theoretically unlimited size. There’s a new WinPE 3.0-based bootable environment that supports a wider range of hardware configurations along with the option to extend support to non-supported hardware if drivers are available.

Other compatibility enhancements include extended support for the exFAT and HFS+ file systems, and better 64-bit support that allows rebooting to one of three special modes that allow operations that aren’t supported in 64-bit Windows to be completed automatically. The latest Linux kernel has also been utilised to allow support for wider hardware configurations.

Hard Disk Manager 2011 Suite is also AFD (Advanced Format Drive) and USB 3.0 ready, and now supports drives larger than 2TB as well as non-standard 512B sector-size drives. It’s available for Windows XP, Vista and 7, and costs around £24. A feature-limited 30-day trial version is also available for download.