Imaging Software

[John Christen Peterson]

I'd like to make an image of my hard drive and wanted to find out what
people recommend. I read about a couple programs but saw some people
had corruption with there images, I think it was true imaging and
symantec had one.

Thanks,
Chris

 

[Uncle Grumpy]

True Image is the best I've ever used... and I've been "computing" for
almost 16 years.

The list of those I won't use again includes Ghost, Drive Image, Image
for DOS, Image for Windows, and BootIt NG.

 

[Ron Sommer]

Does that mean that you have tried the other programs?

 

[Louis Rost]

True Image is the best I've ever used... and I've been "computing" for
almost 16 years.

The list of those I won't use again includes Ghost, Drive Image, Image
for DOS, Image for Windows, and BootIt NG.

Uncle Grumpy's considered opinion notwithstanding, Symantec's Norton
Ghost version 10 is a good product. A resonably good manual is
provided with the product.

If length of time one has been "computing" is any measure of
competence, Uncle Grumpy is a neophyte. I've been "computing" since
1966.

Length of time, however, is a non-factor. I will readily consider
advice from anyone regardless of "age" in "computing."

Lou

 

[John Barnett MVP]

John, this is where you will get a whole host of different answers. Unlike
Uncle Grumpy i use nothing else but Drive Image. However, i haven't tried it
since Symantec took powerquest over and incorporated it with Ghost. But, yes
i still use Drive Image 7.0 without any problem.
Alternatives that i have used are Casper and Paragon drive Image 8.0. While
these do the job my reason for not using them on a regular basis is that
they have no compression facility. If this isn't a problem for you then
fine. At least with Powerquest Drive Image (Obviously now Norton Ghost) you
do ahve the option of compressing the image and also saving to DVD. This is
something that is not available in all imaging software.
To take an example: I have four operating systems on my machine (each on a
seperate partition). My main operating system is XP Pro, and this resides on
a 30GB partition (but only 8GB is taken up by the operating system and other
applications). Now if i image this with Powerquest drive image on standard
compression, it only images the 8GB (reducing this down to around 5.5GB via
standard compression. At the highest compression it reduces to around
4.2GB).
Most other imaging software takes the view of 'oh you have a 30GB partition,
therefore i must image 30GB.' In this case, Casper, True Image etc all
create an image of 30GB and no option to save to DVD (well casper and
paragon drive image don't anyway, i haven't used true image.)
For security i image my drive to a second hard drive 'and' DVD. I understand
that Ghost will also span DVD's which is useful.
The final decision is, of course, yours, but you do have to take into
consideration how much room an image will take up and where you are going to
store it for safe keeping.

--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org

The information in this post is supplied "as is". No warranty of any kind,
either expressed or implied, is made in relation to the accuracy,
reliability or content of this post. The Author shall not be liable for any
direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use
of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this post..

 

[Uncle Grumpy]

Does that mean that you have tried the other programs?

I used Drive Image for a couple years, then switched to Ghost, which I
used for maybe 5 years. I used Image for Windows/DOS for close to a
year before switching to Acronis True Image

 

[MAP]

John, this is where you will get a whole host of different answers.
Unlike Uncle Grumpy i use nothing else but Drive Image. However, i
haven't tried it since Symantec took powerquest over and incorporated
it with Ghost. But, yes i still use Drive Image 7.0 without any
problem.
Alternatives that i have used are Casper and Paragon drive Image 8.0.
While these do the job my reason for not using them on a regular
basis is that they have no compression facility. If this isn't a
problem for you then fine. At least with Powerquest Drive Image
(Obviously now Norton Ghost) you do ahve the option of compressing
the image and also saving to DVD. This is something that is not
available in all imaging software.
To take an example: I have four operating systems on my machine (each
on a seperate partition). My main operating system is XP Pro, and
this resides on a 30GB partition (but only 8GB is taken up by the
operating system and other applications). Now if i image this with
Powerquest drive image on standard compression, it only images the
8GB (reducing this down to around 5.5GB via standard compression. At
the highest compression it reduces to around
4.2GB).
Most other imaging software takes the view of 'oh you have a 30GB
partition, therefore i must image 30GB.' In this case, Casper, True
Image etc all create an image of 30GB and no option to save to DVD
(well casper and paragon drive image don't anyway, i haven't used
true image.)
For security i image my drive to a second hard drive 'and' DVD. I
understand that Ghost will also span DVD's which is useful.
The final decision is, of course, yours, but you do have to take into
consideration how much room an image will take up and where you are
going to store it for safe keeping.




True Image etc all create an image of 30GB and no option to save to DVD.

I'm using True Image, 37.5g used in hard drive image size 26.5g, this is
using the normal compression setting I have yet to try the maximun
setting.It also burns to DVD's/CD's but need something like Incd to do so.

 

[Rock]

I'd like to make an image of my hard drive and wanted to find out what
people recommend. I read about a couple programs but saw some people
had corruption with there images, I think it was true imaging and
symantec had one.

Thanks,
Chris

You will get different opinions on this. There is no one best program.
It's what you like and what works for you. You will find proponents
for each of these, which would suggest each one can work well.

Symantec's Norton Ghost
Acronis True Image
Terabyte Unlimited's Image for Windows
Casper XP.

I use Drive Image 7 from Powerquest which was taken over by Symantec and
the technology incorporated into Norton Ghost.

 

[Jonny]

Like others, am using DriveImage 7.0, last version made by the original
manufacturer, Powerquest. There was an update to 7.01 which included an ISO
image of the entire installation which I still have. Symantec put out an
update to 7.03, after acquiring Powerquest. Never saw 7.02.

Its still sold, but you have to search for it. The original version had DI
2002 as well, which is good for Win98/ME systems. Some still use it for
imaging XP, booting off the DI 2002 boot diskette.

My normal image target locations are another physical hard drive, and a
firewire hard drive. Clean installation of XP is imaged to DVD for
safekeeping.

Can't speak for the current Ghost or TrueImage as have no interest as my
current software is adequate.
.............
Jonny

 

[John Barnett MVP]

Hi Mike,

I'll have to get Acronis to send me a copy of True Image as it is software i
haven't really bothered with. Well let's say the last version i had some
years ago didn't do DVD.

I think what turned me off was the length of time True Image took to image a
drive. In the tests i did Drive image turned out to be the fastest.

--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org

The information in this post is supplied "as is". No warranty of any kind,
either expressed or implied, is made in relation to the accuracy,
reliability or content of this post. The Author shall not be liable for any
direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use
of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this post..

 

[R. McCarty]

I still use Drive Image 6.0 from a bootable CD-R. I know the current
method is "Hot Imaging", but I still like doing it outside of Windows.
On my XP partition I can image & verify in 4.5 Minutes. Recovery of
the XP partition is usually under 3.0 minutes.

Hi Mike,

I'll have to get Acronis to send me a copy of True Image as it is software
i haven't really bothered with. Well let's say the last version i had some
years ago didn't do DVD.

I think what turned me off was the length of time True Image took to image
a drive. In the tests i did Drive image turned out to be the fastest.

--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org

The information in this post is supplied "as is". No warranty of any kind,
either expressed or implied, is made in relation to the accuracy,
reliability or content of this post. The Author shall not be liable for
any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising out of
the use of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this
post..

 

[Jonny]

Must be a very low total file sum partition. DI 2002/6.0 runs in real mode
dos, or an IBM counterpart. No 32 bit access to the source or the target.
Else your booting off a windows 9X/ME type bootable CD and have that 32 bit
access, still a small total of data on that partition. If it works with
Bart PE, news to me.
.............
Jonny

I still use Drive Image 6.0 from a bootable CD-R. I know the current
method is "Hot Imaging", but I still like doing it outside of Windows.
On my XP partition I can image & verify in 4.5 Minutes. Recovery of
the XP partition is usually under 3.0 minutes.