45% of Home PC Users Not Utilizing Automatic Partition Alignment

Paragon Software Group (PSG),  in data backup, disaster recovery, and data migration solutions, has conducted an online survey of more than 10,000 owners of the company’s Hard Disk Manager products where respondents were asked to answer 22 questions about their usual PC hard disk management and maintenance procedures.

While the outcome of several questions was positive, such as the general trend toward frequent (more than once per month) data backups, the survey highlighted some gaps in technology adoption and personal data safety procedures.

About 45% of respondents stated that they do not utilize automatic partition alignment, which can improve performance of a hard disk during partitioning and copy operations and restoring a backup image to new hard drives. Further, despite the efficiency and maintenance benefits of virtualization and cloud storage, 58% respondents currently do not use data virtualization.

In terms of external storage options, nearly 40% of those polled do not use or plan to use SSDs, while 23% plan to move to an SSD in the near future, making a suite product like Paragon Hard Disk Manager crucial to those adopters. Manual data installs, as in the case of 66% of those polled who use no special programs or tools for data and system migration when upgrading or replacing their PCs, represent an opportunity for PC users conserve effort and ensure fidelity by automating their migration procedures.

A full 15% of all those who do backup their data reported storing their backup files on the same drive that hosts the stored info.

"While data backups are crucial components to disaster recovery, it’s just as important to have a safe place to host the backups," said Pavel Astafurov, supervisor of the survey. "By conducting this survey, we hope to bring some safer techniques and procedures to light."

More disturbing, around half of all PC users polled either do not utilize any data wiping tools or only use the standard ‘format disk’ wiping functions to erase personal information on old hard drives, leaving potentially sensitive information available to anyone who may gain access to the hardware. With Paragon Disk Wiper or wiping disk feature offered with the Hard Disk Manager, Paragon’s products guarantee 100% data erasure and personal information security.

"According to the survey, the top three most important factors when selecting software like Paragon Hard Disk Manager and other Paragon Software products include reliability, performance and hardware/software compatibility," said Astafurov. "We are very pleased that our users appreciate our products and are willing to entrust us with the protection and maintenance of their most valuable data, and that we fully meet the expectations of our customers."

The company found that the most popular hard-drive operations were those related to backing up and defragmenting, with 80% of respondents stating that they do both regularly. To continue supporting PC users in their most essential disk utility operations, Paragon Software, having developed reliable and fast PC system utility tools for nearly 20 years, currently offers a range of products to manage and maintain hard drives.