Quick Start:- Directly download and unzip ImageForDOS 1.x (~820k free functional trial). Have a blank floppy diskette or a blank CD at the ready and run the contained MAKEDISK.EXE to create a bootable floppy or CD (or a CD ISO file for burning at a later stage). When ready, reboot to the floppy or CD you have made and follow the straightforward prompts to make and save an image file of the chosen HDD (Hard Disk Drive) partition. To restore, simply boot to the same boot disk and follow the prompts once again.
If the link for ImageForDOS 1.x above fails then either dowload it (image.zip) from the FTP Folder or get ImageForDOS 2.x from TBU. The version 2 suite of IfD, IfL and IfW utilities create different image files with .tbi file extensions that are not backward compatible with the earlier .img files made with the version 1 suite and BootIt-NG. The new applications are more elaborate and therefore do have additional features but are not, in our opinion, as simple to use as their predecessors.
Just as with our archiving section, we see little point in
duplicating
the comprehensive lists of utilities outlined in the Disk
Cloning section of Wikipedia. Nor do we intend to elaborate
on the
merits, or otherwise, of most of the proprietary software that does
this sort of work.
If you want to use 'Symantec Ghost' or 'Acronis True
Image' or
'Paragon Drive Backup' and the like - that's fine but up to you. We
believe these big name "glossies" charge excessively for
their products and we in particular decry those that do not provide
functional
trial versions, as
in the case of the aforementioned big three. Dummy-run trials are not
the same as making and
restoring the
files. There are,
of course, advocates for such software but we firmly believe there are
cheaper or free utilities that do this sort of work just as well or
better. We have found the ones we will discuss to be the most
reliable when restoring after disaster has struck. Please take note
that it is much easier to create than to restore image files - so be
quite sure you know just how you will restore your system if your hard
drive totally fails.
If you really, really value your data and regardless of the promotion of any such "hot imaging", we particularly caution against making images of any partition that you are actively accessing at the time from within Windows. The few products that we will discuss all create true sector-by-sector clones and don't directly access the file systems involved. Utilities that do access the file systems are, in our opinion, not real "imagers" at all but are, in reality, file archivers that just happen to archive a whole partition at a time in an xcopy-like manner. Making image files of partitions is a valid data backup method though we recommend using specific data backup software for such tasks and would promote imaging more as a way of maintaining snapshots of your system as a whole - either for future restoration or to use as templates for cloning the partitions elsewhere.
Certain versions of Vista incorporate imaging and backup as part and parcel of the operating system. We haven't, as of yet, experimented much with these but think it worth reiterating two points: (1) that, however handy, we deprecate "hot-imaging" of system drives and (2) that it is not a good policy to ever rely on material backed-up onto the same hard drive. Always back-up to external and removable media stored in a safe place and try to do this from outside of Windows.
A few years ago we used to use (almost to exclusion
and despite
their cost) the Power Quest suite of utilities that included Drive
Image, Partition Magic, Boot Magic and the superb DataKeeper. Since
being taken-over by Symantec/Norton these programs have been variously
dropped or else incorporated, in ways we don't like, into Symantec's
other products. Fred
Langa was the first to alert us to BiNG
made by TeraByteUnlimited (TBU). We started with the
free trial and haven't
looked back since. BiNG itself is a little bit geekish to use but well
worth the effort to get to know if you want a superb utility that will
do all the partitioning, imaging and boot managment tasks that you are
likely to ever need - and all at a fraction of the cost of obtaining
the equivalent "glossy" utilities. Our suggested programs are never system
"bloats" and
the downloads are quick, even on dial-up. Don't be put off by the
absence of a glossy Windows interface - these non-showy applications
are powerful, effective and have proved to be remarkably reliable.
TBU also makes other specific imaging utilities,
notably IFD (ImageForDos) and IFW (ImageForWindows). Version 2 (which is mentioned in the Quick
Start section) of these utilities was released in early 2008 is more elaborate, not backwards compatible with Version 1 and has some new feautures and interfaces. We hardly ever use
IFW since we assiduously try to avoid imaging from within Windows but
if you purchase it then IFD does come as part of the bundle. In line
with TBU's general philosophy these applications can be tried out as
proper functional trials. Creating image sets and one or two other more
esoteric uses are all that do not function in the trial versions. You
might also like to look through their free utilities and accessories
which, in the context of this article, would include PhyLock (for use
with IFW) and TBIView (which will enable you to explore any image
files made by any of the TBU utilities as if you were using
Windows Explorer and to
restore individual files/folders from the image file should that be
desired).
IFD (both versions 1 and 2) have been mentioned in our quick start. IFD 1.x is the default
application
that we recommend because of its simplicity and reliability used on a
wide range of hardware (including USB and Firewire and large hard drives) over recent years. One small note on creating
the bootable media using MAKEDISK.EXE is that if you will be using
older USB1.1 hardware you may want to add UHCI=1 to the first
line of the
IFD.INI options - otherwise leave these lines blank. If the boot disk should fail to boot then enter and check your BIOS setup such that the boot order priorities are correctly set and maybe have a read of our own 'Booting-up Bootable CDs' page.
We have already mentioned our preference for only
imaging your
system partitions from outside windows. With IFD this goes without
saying. We also like this methodology because the same processes are
involved in creation and restoration. Thus if you have created an image
file successfully then both you and your hardware should have no
problem in running the restoration.
Download the full imagemanual.pdf file if you want to read the complete instruction manual for yourself. Once you have booted to the IFD bootable medium the default options are generally the ones to use. You are simply presented with the various options on its 'ncurses' interface. Such interfaces are navigated using the keyboard. If this is unfamiliar then you might like to know that ESC usually cancels the last request, ENTER executes the current selection and you navigate the screens using combinations of ALT, TAB and the Arrow Keys. In some applications you may sometimes need to make selections by using the Space Bar.
Image creation notes:
Image restoration notes:
If you have a simple one partition and a one hard
drive system then
such backup and restoration should be particularly straightforward and,
when required,
you would normally just replace your current and only partition with
the one in the image file. If you have more elaborate partitioning in
place or, for example, you wanted to restore the image file to a brand
new hard drive it might be necessary (or wise) to partition the drive
the way you want it before restoring to the blank drive. BiNG
and GParted
are two utilities
that can do this sort of work for you as well as to resize any restored partitions
should that also be desired later-on.
Linux.
We have already
outlined why we like the ImageForDos functional trialware (and which is also very
cheap to purchase if you want it). For those that want (completely
freely) to create and restore images of whole hard drives or individual
partitions or indeed of any other part of a hard drive such as the MBR
or Track0 then the dd utility within any Linux distro should be more
than capable of doing this. The various commands to do this (as well as
descriptions of the two utilities PartImage and
GParted) are
outlined in our own 'Backup
with Knoppix' webpage.
dd-for-Windows.
The somewhat geekish dd-for-Windows
version of dd can be run from a command line in Windows. The ongoing
problem, once having made an image from within Windows, still means (unless
you will also be able to restore from within Windows) that restoring
the perfectly good image you have made will not be straightforward.
Runtime.org.
This company,
which makes the superb GetDataBack DIY-data-recovery applications,
provides a couple of free imaging applications.
We have so far concentrated on creating image files. These files can be used as intermediaries with which to create clones of partitions and hard drives. The utilities recommended all create true clones in the sense that the data is copied sector-by-sector rather than file-by-file (and whether or not the image files were compressed). It is also possible to clone by directly copying the whole partition to another area of the same or another hard drive and indeed complete hard drives can also be cloned in a similar manner.
Amongst the
utilities already mentioned, direct partition to partition
cloning/copying can be done using BiNG, GParted, DriveImage-XML and dd.
Direct
disk-to-disk cloning/copying can be done with dd and with another TBU
freeware application called CopyWipe.
Most hard drive manufacturers also provide free utilities that will do
this for their own hard drives and sometimes if there is just one of
their
hard drives on your system somewhere. The utilities and the websites
are changed
so often and there have been so many mergers that we are reluctant to
provide specific links. If you google for the name of your drive
manufacturer plus "downloads" or "hard drives" you should find
the
relevant page if any of the following links has gone dead. Most makers
also have a Wikipedia page with external links that can be helpful.
There are links to companies still in business included in the defunct
hard drive wiki..