imageIT v 1.01 released, a shareware utility and an alternative to Symantec GHOST, PowerQuest Drive

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Sales @ Synergix

Synergix, Inc. - Partners in successimageIT

imageIT is disk / partition backup utility that is an alternative to Symantec GHOST, PowerQuest Drive Image and to Altiris.

imageIT is command line driven and may be used for OS provisioning purposes. imageIT supports file injection into the image file (in registered version only), for image maintenance purposes and file injection in restored FAT32 based file system. You can simply XCOPY files / folders to restored FAT32 file system!

Desktop / Server deployment teams may use it for a quick (image based) deployment of Windows 2000 / Windows XP / Windows 2003 based OS. OEM System Builders may use it on recovery CDs / DVD to restore the system to factory state.

Related linkshttp://www.synergix.com/products/imageIT/download http://www.synergix.com/products http://www.synergix.com/support

Versions

1. Shareware version 0.99 is limited to 30 days of use. See related links for download information.

2. Registered version 1.01 [Improved performance and file injection feature included]



Requirements

To run imageIT, you need a bootable floppy containing one of the following operating systems:

1. MS DOS

2. PC DOS

3. FreeDOS

4. Windows 9x (command prompt only)

5. Other MS DOS compatible operating system

and

Second partition or hard drive or CDROM / DVD drivers or MS Network client, where the image is to be restored from



Disclaimer

Using this program comes without any warranty. The author and distributors will not accept responsibility for any damage incurred directly or indirectly through use of this program. In other words: use at your own risk!



Copyright

All copyrights are exclusively owned by Synergix Inc.

You are NOT allowed to sell, modify and reverse engineer either version of the program without Synergix Inc's written agreement! You are NOT allowed to distribute the registered version of the program without Synergix Inc's written agreement!

You can distribute the shareware version freely as long as no money is asked for it and all files in the package are intact. Permission is granted to distribute the shareware package on shareware collection CD-ROMs or DVDs.

The shareware version can be used on one computer for a 30 days evaluation period.

Registering this product is necessary after the evaluation period is over.



How to install

Extract all the files contained in the downloaded .zip file into the same folder. At the minimum, you must have 1) imageIT.exe; 2) imageIT.key and 3) fixed.fon to run the application.

imageIT.key is the key file that enables / disables features between the shareware and the full version.



Getting started

Partition level backup and restore

For partition level backup and restore, you simply need to know the following two commands:

1a) imageIT /backup /part:0:1 /image:filename.img /clevel:6 /split:600

- for partition level backup; source partition MUST be FAT32



2a) imageIT /restore /part:0:1 /image:filename.img /clevel:6 /split:600

- for partition level restore

The second parameter above i.e. /part has two numbers, the first # signifies the hard drive number (starts w/ a ‘0’) and the second # signifies the partition number (starts w/ a ‘1’). 1,2,3,4 are for primary partitions.

Note: First logical drive starts at 5. So, to backup the first logical drive (let’s say, drive D), the /part option will become /part:0:5

Clevel option is for compression level and compression levels from 0 (store only) to 9 (max) are supported (default is 6)

Split option is to split the image file into small image file. Set split to no more than 600 if you desire to store the images on a CDROM.

Options such as clevel, split can be specified in imageIT.INI file



Disk level backup and restore

Optionally, you can run hard disk level backup and restore. The commands are:

1b) imageIT /backup /hd:0 /image:abc.img

- for hard disk backup; FAT32 source partition is recommended; NTFS, Linux is also supported

2b) imageIT /restore /hd:0 /image:abc.img

- for hard disk restore

The second parameter above i.e. /hd has one number and signifies the hard drive number (starts w/ a ‘0’)

Note: Should you desire to create a disk or partition level backup of an NTFS system, it is recommended that you carve the partition down to the bare minimum size first to accommodate the installation of OS, application set and necessary add-ons. You should include the ExtendOEMPartition=1 in SYSPREP.INF in order to expand the target partition to full size of the hard drive.



Typical OS Provisioning scenario

We strongly recommend the following steps for an optimal OS provisioning process; 1, 2, 3, 4 being the most critical steps:

1) Install OS on FAT32 partition

OS installation tip:

It is strongly recommended that you create two partitions, primary partition for OS (drive C) and extended containing one logical partition for DATA (let’s say, drive D).

Redirecting the \Documents and Settings folder and other data containing folders to the DATA drive will help in user data recovery when the OS crashes and the system drive (drive C) is restored from an imageIT image file, for a quick system recovery.

For setting up the source system with redirected \Documents and Setting, please refer to the profilesdir entry in the unattend.txt file. For more information, see http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows2000pro/deploy/unattend/sp1ch01.mspx



2) Source partition for imageIT purposes MUST remain FAT32. Do NOT convert to NTFS, yet! See step # 4 below.

3) QA the machine for OS and application integrity

To optimize the image, disable System Restore on Windows XP / Windows 2003 and then, re-enable (if desired). This will clean up the system restore folder and reduce the size of the image file.

4) If NTFS is desired on target system(s), run CONVERT C: /FS:NTFS on Windows 2000 / Windows XP. DO NOT REBOOT !

5) Run SYSPREP to seal the computer and shutdown the system

6) Reboot using MS DOS / Win 98 + MS Client for network connectivity (we recommend our other complementary product, UNIT to ease this task. For a copy of it, look under the \Evalware folder). Optionally, you can use second partition or second HD in the same system to create the image

Note: Backup and restore over the LAN is significantly faster than local backup and restore.

7) Create an image of the partition(s) using imageIT (command (1a) above)

Note: Pagefile.sys and hiberfil.sys files are hard coded in imageIT binary to be excluded from the image file created from a FAT32 source partition. This does NOT apply to NTFS source partition.

8) Deploy the image on target systems (command (2a) above) on an existing partition. Partition size should be equal to or larger than the source system.

9) Reboot

10) Target system will convert to NTFS (if queued in task 4 above), re-create pagefile.sys file and hiberfil.sys (if enabled in source partition) and then, run SYSPREP (queued in task 5 above) to complete the OS install.

11) QA the machine and release for production use


Other imageIT features

1) File injection into the image file (in registered version only), for image maintenance purposes

2) File injection in restored FAT32 based file system. You can simply XCOPY files / folders to restored FAT32 file system!

3) Partition creation upon restore

Related links http://www.synergix.com/products/im...x.com/productshttp://www.synergix.com/support Licensing

Licensing is based upon site licensing model and is nominally priced at USD 5,000 per physical site. Site license allows you to use the product unlimited number of times on unlimited number of machines. Based upon your requirements, we will price out a corporate license that will enable you to use it through out your enterprise, on a global level, without any limitations on # of times you can use it or # of devices or # of physical sites within your corporation. OEM System Builder license (supporting image restore feature only) is also available.

Software maintenance and support (web support and email only) is priced at USD 1,000 annually, per physical site.

Support

Web based at: http://www.synergix.com/support

Email: (e-mail address removed)

Trademarks

Symantec, Symantec GHOST and the Symantec logo are registered trademarks of Symantec Corporation. Altiris is a registered trademark of Altiris, Inc. All other brands and products are trademarks of their respective holder/s.
 

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