Drive Imaging

  • Thread starter Thread starter JohnO
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JohnO

What drive imaging software do you guys and gals use for your system
partitions?

I'm familiar with DriveImage and Ghost, and I'm wondering if there's
something else basic and cheap, that doesn't require me to know anything
about Linux.

-John O
 
JohnO said:
What drive imaging software do you guys and gals use for your system
partitions?

I'm familiar with DriveImage and Ghost, and I'm wondering if there's
something else basic and cheap, that doesn't require me to know anything
about Linux.

-John O
Click to expand...

Why would you think that any imaging software requires knowledge of Linux?
 
JohnO said:
What drive imaging software do you guys and gals use for your system
partitions?

I'm familiar with DriveImage and Ghost, and I'm wondering if there's
something else basic and cheap, that doesn't require me to know anything
about Linux.

-John O
Click to expand...

Well, cheap is relative ;) but I use Partition Magic v8.0 by Symantec.
They want $70 to buy it off their site. You can get the retail pkg
including key for around $25 including shipping from Ebay. Watch out
that you get the most recent version, tho.

Rhonda Livingston
 
Thanks guys, I'll check out all the suggestions.

As for Linux, nevermind. I was just thinking that there's probably some
great tool that runs from a command line like the old pkzip and it's insane
switches. ;-) That wouldn't work for my application.

-John O
 
Well, cheap is relative ;) but I use Partition Magic v8.0 by Symantec.
They want $70 to buy it off their site. You can get the retail pkg
including key for around $25 including shipping from Ebay. Watch out that
you get the most recent version, tho.
Click to expand...

Thanks Rhonda.
 
John,

BootIT NG will run from a command line too.

The best thing about it is that it is a full featured partitioning tool,
a great boot manager, AND a drive imaging tool - all for about $30+.

Fred S
 
http://disk-imaging-software-review.toptenreviews.com/
--
Click to expand...

Hmm, BootIt NG conspicuously isn't reviewed. Anyone know why?

FWIW BootIt has a couple big flaws for my application...it insists on trying
to install a boot manager, and despite clicking on what I thought was NO it
installed one anyway. Then, it permanently blew up the large partition on
one of my 1G flash drives. Or maybe it was coincidence, but the partition
table is wasted and no partition tool I own will fix it. Oh well. :-)

Imaging to flash drives and booting/restoring from them is a bit creaky yet,
looks like a USB HDD with boot floppy is a better option. I'm eventually
deploying this to classrooms with detailed instrux.

-John O
 
JohnO said:
Hmm, BootIt NG conspicuously isn't reviewed. Anyone know why?

FWIW BootIt has a couple big flaws for my application...it insists on
trying to install a boot manager, and despite clicking on what I thought
was NO it installed one anyway. Then, it permanently blew up the large
partition on one of my 1G flash drives. Or maybe it was coincidence, but
the partition table is wasted and no partition tool I own will fix it. Oh
well. :-)

Imaging to flash drives and booting/restoring from them is a bit creaky
yet, looks like a USB HDD with boot floppy is a better option. I'm
eventually deploying this to classrooms with detailed instrux.

-John O
Click to expand...

Suspect the author of the imaging software review was reviewing off the
shelf stuff, not try/then buy software.

Highly overlooked and critical area of imaging is to be sure the boot media
can access the recovery media. Don't go down that path. Check all the PCs.
 
Suspect the author of the imaging software review was reviewing off the
shelf stuff, not try/then buy software.
Click to expand...

I missed this, but TeraByte's Image for Win is reviewed. The companion Image
for DOS app is exactly the kind of single-purpose tool I'm looking for.

Highly overlooked and critical area of imaging is to be sure the boot
media can access the recovery media. Don't go down that path. Check all
the PCs.
--
Click to expand...

Absolutely. I made an image direct to a USB hdd but it won't restore or
validate, even when I copy that image to a 2nd partition on the internal
hdd. An image created directly to the 2nd part will restore perfectly. Must
be a USB data transfer bug in my system or the drive itself. Drat. I'll have
to copy the good image to CD(s) and see how that goes.

Thanks for the advice. I'm writing an imaging procedure for a course to be
used by HS/college students, and best practices such as this test cannot be
over-emphasized to them. Any other tips are welcomed.

-John O
 
JohnO said:
What drive imaging software do you guys and gals use for your system
partitions?

I'm familiar with DriveImage and Ghost, and I'm wondering if there's
something else basic and cheap, that doesn't require me to know anything
about Linux.

-John O
Click to expand...


A really useful tool would be Image for Windows, by TeraByte Unlimited.
(http://www.bootitng.com/) The fully functional evaluation version is
free. If the computer has a CD Burner, Image for Windows will even
create a bootable CD from which to restore the image onto the new hard
drive.


--

Bruce Chambers

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They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. -Bertrand Russell
 
A really useful tool would be Image for Windows, by TeraByte Unlimited.
(http://www.bootitng.com/) The fully functional evaluation version is
free. If the computer has a CD Burner, Image for Windows will even create
a bootable CD from which to restore the image onto the new hard drive.
Click to expand...


Image for Windows works fine, but BootIt NG handles imaging as a side-job.
It keeps trying to install a boot manager, and that's no good for my
application.

What I want is a floppy-based tool, and Terabyte's Image for DOS was looking
very good. However, it has major trouble with USB HDDs. I can't make it work
at all with my USB hdd. As a test, Drive Image 5--from 2001--does the job
quickly and perfectly. BootIT NG has the same trouble...apparently the
programmers at Terabyte haven't got this newfangled USB thing figgered out
yet. :-)

So, Terabyte is off the list unless I can't find anything else. And while
running my control test I was reminded how much I really like the way DI
works...that is a great program with an intuitive GUI and lots of details
about what's going on. Damned Symantec had to mess it all up. <g> Ultimately
I'm buying lots of this stuff, so if someone has a vested interest in a good
product I'd love to hear from them.

-John O
 
JohnO,

I don't have any idea of what is going on with your system.

I repair computers and the first thing I do is use BING (BootItNG) to
create an image to one of my four external HDD. I can't even describe
how many times I've done this without incident of any kind.

You have to be doing something wrong. I changed from the old Power Quest
Drive Image (now Norton - blah) because Bing was the only software that
would image and restore from an external USB HDD at that time (few years
back). Drive Image soon offered that but required net.framework to be
installed which really is just a waste of HDD space. That's another story.

BING does NOT have to even be installed to image or restore. One simply
answers the prompt to install with a No and you enter Maintenance mode
where you can do just about everything with Bing and a HDD.

As far as the Boot Manager part goes, BING has been called one of the
best if not the best. I have no idea why you are having these problems
but I do know, Terrabyte Unlimited will respond to your questions via
email directly from the author. I suggest you carefully read the manual
and next contact them for help.

I use BING from a floppy 100% of the time. I do not have it installed as
I normally need to image a system to an external USB HDD for protection
and that allows me to be most aggressive during repair work.

I also use and have Image 4 Windows installed on my three PCs. I
regularly create an image BEFORE a Windows Update or any major program
installation. Saved lots of headaches. I use Bing, from the floppy to
restore images created by both programs AND from external HDD's.

Follow up with Terrabyte, you will be glad you did.

Fred S
 
Thanks, Fred. The responses from the Terabyte tech on their newsgroup have
been prompt, but not very useful. ("Use IfL") A couple other users have been
most helpful. As for user error I'm not above admitting that, but IFD works
perfectly until I go to that USB drive, where it fails on two different
mobos (Intel D101GGC and Asus...something about a year old) . Maybe my USB
hdd converter is goofy, it's possible, but if a five-year old copy of DI can
handle it... :-)

In the end, my mission shifted. Looks like I'll be using IfW with a DVD
burner. What a cool way to do a system backup...burning a bootable DVD image
on the fly in XP. Just thought of this...try IfW on that USB drive...

-John O
 
JohnO,

I'm not sure why they suggested IfL, but that is Image for Linux. IfL is
included with Image for DOS - I suggest you look at the web site FAQs
about this.

I started using Bing and Image for Windows years ago based on
recommendations of the late Alex Nichol, one of the finest MVP's here on
these newsgroups/user groups. He often pointed out that BING & IfW & IfD
were the only disk image programs that performed a true byte for byte
verification - others claimed to verify but only Bing actually does it
properly. I simply took his word on this one.

If you read the manual, it is recommended that you select the USB2 drive
again if it doesn't show the first time, sometimes it just needs to be
selected again. You might want to try it with another external USB2 HDD.

Also, you don't way where your image fails. If it won't verify then it
could be that your external HDD is not functioning properly and/or the
image failed accordingly. Other software might write an image but - how
good is the write and the validation?

I make images using all three products, Image for Windows (IfW), Image
for DOS (IfD), and Bing (BootITNG). All are interchangeable, I can
create or restore regardless of which one was used first. This is a
great strength of this software.

Hope you find what you need and enjoy!

If you do learn what is going on in your case, post back and let us know.

Fred
 
Also, you don't way where your image fails. If it won't verify then it
could be that your external HDD is not functioning properly and/or the
image failed accordingly. Other software might write an image but - how
good is the write and the validation?
Click to expand...

Sorry about that...usually I get a few percent into the save or restore,
maybe up to 10%, then it quits with a media stream error. I agree, a
different USB drive is the next test, but I don't have one at the moment.
The other test might be to force everything into USB 1.1 mode. If I get time
I'll try that.

IIRC DI has a validation routine, don't know how that compares to IfD...but
the XP restored from that DI image ran perfectly although admittedly I
didn't test it thoroughly.

-John O
 
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