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Drive Image v.5.0
by Harald Freise
One of the things that one always has to
think about when making a decision is “Do I really need to do this?” Drive
Image is one of those things that falls into this category. There are lots
of utilities that can
make an image of a hard drive. Some of
them are free. Why would you want to do that?
First let me ask… when was the last time
that you backed up your hard disk? Do you trust applications loading on
your machine after you’ve finally tweaked it enough to be stable? How long
would it take you to be up and running again if your machine took a software
dive into the big blue screen?
Drive Image has been around for a while
and can make your life a lot easier. Generally regarded as one of the better
disaster, backup and upgrade utilities this new version adds upgrades to
the previous version.
QuickImage – simplifies the process of
backing up and restoring images by being able to schedule them
automatically from within windows. Set the parameters and let the utility
back up or restore any drive. CD-R and CD-RW support is great as a backup
medium. The cost of CD-R has plummeted to about 50 cents each and is a
great way of backing up and restoring IDE, SCSI and PCMCIA drives. PowerQuest
claims improved speed in version 5 but I really can’t confirm that but
it does handle drives up to 80GB.
Drive Image File Editor has been renamed
to ImageExplorer complete with an enhanced interface that is great for
extracting individual files and copying image partitions to another PQI
DriveImage file.
You can boot directly from the CD-ROM
providing that your BIOS supports that feature. It will handle FAT, FAT32,
NTFS, HPFS Linux EXT2 and Linux swap file systems. It supports UNIX and
NetWare by sector by sector support. Using PartitionMagic’s SmartSector
imaging technology unfortunately does not make a complete duplicate image
as it does not bother to image unallocated disk space. Drive image still
works in DOS if all else should fail and supports installation from Windows
9x through to Windows XP. Rescue diskettes can be created under Win95 or
newer. The first rescue disk is actually a Caldera DOS boot disk and the
second disk includes the Drive Image Program. The usual caveats apply about
Caldera DOS not recognizing any disk or partition beyond 1024 cylinders.
A work around for this is by using a Win95/98 standard boot disk in place
of the one created by Drive Image.
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When was the last time that you backed
up your hard disk?
Do you trust applications loading on your
machine
after you’ve finally tweaked it enough
to be stable?
How long would it take you to be up and
running again if
your machine took a software dive into
the big blue screen?
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One of the more interesting new add-ins
is VF Editor. This utility lets one edit the files included on the virtual
disk to create a customized boot disk. Too bad that this only works with
the Caldera DOS boot disk as it really limits it’s usefulness
on larger hard drives. If you are using FAT, FAT32 or NTFS then the included
backup utility Datakeeper might be a backup solution for you. It provides
you with a secure automated backup of your hard disk, a partition that
has an assigned drive letter r a network drive. You can back up any files
or folders on to any other drive or external media such as a LS-120, Jazz,
ZIP or external drive assigned a drive letter to any other recordable drive
available. It supports file compression to save disk space and password
protection. What makes it even more useful is that you can even restore
a single file, by date if you wish, from a compressed backup volume catalogue.
Restoring files or backup is very intuitive as it follows the windows explorer
type interface.
Drive Image and the included utilities
are easy to use and quite intuitive with well placed descriptions and explanations.
The manual is easy to follow and well organized. There is a quick reference
sheet for
those that hate to RTFM (Read The Fine
Manual) .
As always, PowerQuest has a special price available for user group members.
While the list price for V 5.0 is US$69.95 (upgrade US$49.95), you can
order it on-line at http://www.ugr.com/order
for US$35. You will need to use the order code UGEVAL00. Given that they
tack on a US$10 shipping charge, you may be able to find it cheaper around
town.
Bottom Line:
Drive Image v.5.0
US$69.95 (US$35 from urg.com)
PowerQuest Corporation
http://www.powerquest.com
Originally published: March, 2002
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The opinions expressed in these reviews
do not necessarily represent the views of the
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