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"I would recommend Drive Image 5.0 to anyone who is looking for a fast processing backup program"

System Requirements:
Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP/DOS 5.0/OS2/NT3.51-4.0

PowerQuest Corp., 1359 North Research Way, Bldg. K, PO Box 1911,Orem, Utah 84059-1911.
TEL: 1.801.437.8900
FAX: 1.801.226.8941
www.powerquest.com

Support:
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Drive Image 5.0 Review

By John C. Lee

Introduction

Drive Image is a hard disk imaging program designed to create and restore an exact image file of an entire hard disk or selected partitions of a hard disk. The image file can be saved to a separate hard disk, a separate partition, on a network, or on a Jaz, Zip, MO, CD, or other removable media device, from which the original content of the image file can later be restored.

Drive Image provides SmartSector imaging support for FAT, FAT32, NTFS, HPFS, Linux Ext2, and Linux Swap file systems, and sector-by-sector support for UNIX and NetWare. Drive Image‘s SmartSector technology speeds up the copying process by copying only clusters and sectors that contain data. The feature can be disabled if you need to copy both used and unused clusters and sectors in their original layout. However, the processing time and image file size will be increased. Version 5.0 of Drive Image has the capability to image hard disks up to 80 GB in size.

Drive Image DOS

The main program in the Drive Image package is Drive Image DOS, which is basically structured to operate under the DOS environment with a graphical user interface. It is recommended that rescue diskettes be created for operating systems Windows 95 or later. The first one of the two disks is a DOS boot diskette, and the second one includes the Drive Image program. In case of a hard disk failure or inability to access the Windows operating system, the rescue diskettes can be run to boot the computer and access Drive Image to recover the content of the image file.

If the Drive Image DOS program is opened from Windows, it will automatically close all the other active programs and reboot to DOS mode. After the changes such as Create or Restore an Image, Drive Image automatically boots back to Windows.

Since Windows Me, 2000, and XP do not offer a real-mode DOS environment that Windows 95 or 98 does, Drive Image boots to DOS from a file called a "virtual floppy diskette", which is basically an image file of a boot floppy. The virtual diskette uses the system files from the current operating system to reboot the computer to DOS.

The main Drive Image DOS screen consists of three subprograms: Create Image, Restore Image, and Disk To Disk. The first subprogram goes through all the steps required to create an image file, including: (1) selection of source disk and partitions; (2) naming the image file and the directory or media where the file is to be saved; (3) selection of the desired compression level; (4) and finally the creation of the image file.

The image file can be created directly on IDE, SCSI, SCSI PCMCIA, CD-R or CD-RW drives, and usually requires multiple disks. USB and FireWire CD-R drives are not supported. If the file is created on CD-RW media, it must be empty and unformatted. Most of the available RW media come with formatted disks, and have to be unformatted to make them operable for Drive Image.

Drive Image employs UPX compression technology and has three levels of compression: No Compression, Low (40%), and High (50%). Low and High compression reduces the image file size, but not the processing time. The average transfer rate varies between 120 and 180 MB/sec. An image file of 5GB can be created in about 30 minutes.

Restoring an image file using the second subprogram is quite straightforward. First the destination drive and partition where the image file is to be restored are selected. Then the Disk Write Mode is selected. Fast Mode copies data as quickly as possible, while the Safe Mode goes through integrity checks during copying. Resizing and formatting of the destination partition is automatically carried out according to the resize option you select.

It is worth noting that restoring multiple logical partitions could cause the drive letters of subsequent partitions to change. This may make the computer unbootable or applications inoperable. To avoid the change of drive letters, the restored partitions are hidden by default.

A neat way to minimize the confusion of drive letter changes is to manually assign removable media drive letters with letters such as X, Y, Z, so that the drive letters of any new restored logical partitions will not infringe or displace the assigned drive letters. Under Windows 95 or later, new drive letters can readily be assigned by setting the Reserved Drive Letter in the System>Device Manager screen. Unfortunately, the drive letters for the hard drives are assigned only by the operating system and cannot be changed manually.

The Disk To Disk Copy (or more conveniently called Drive Copy) copies partitions or an entire hard drive from one place to another without creating an image file. It is quick and easy to use, and is best suited for backing up partition data or for upgrading a hard drive in a dual hard disk system.

Once the source and destination drives and partitions are selected, Drive Copy automatically performs these functions: (1) formatting the destination partition; (2) partitioning the hard drives; and (3) copying the data. It also resizes the partitions according to the selected option. As in Drive Image, either Safe Mode or Fast Mode can be chosen to copy the data in Drive Copy.

There are two ways of copying. If a new hard drive is added to the system, select Replace to copy information from the old drive to a new drive, in which case the source partitions will be hidden after copying. For backing up data, select Backup, in which case the destination partitions will be hidden after copying. By hiding either the source or destination partitions, Drive Image ensures that the drive letters will not change when the computer is rebooted.

The Tools drop-down menu on the Drive Image DOS main screen lets you manually perform some disk partition-management tasks including Displaying Drive Information, Creating Extended Partitions, Deleting Partitions, Hiding/Unhiding Partitions and Setting the Active Partition. Drive Image and Drive Copy automatically perform some of these tasks when they process image files or when they copy partitions.

QuickImage

New in Version 5.0 of Drive Image is a Windows program, QuickImage. Its main function is to schedule automated backing up and restoring of specified drives or partitions on your computer. The imaging is carried out in DOS mode. Unless there is a need for scheduling the task, the use of Drive Image DOS is preferred.

PowerQuest ImageExplorer

ImageExplorer is a Windows application. It performs modifying functions on image files similar to those performed by the Windows Explorer on files and folders. Its main screen has a similar setup to that of the Windows Explorer, with the left pane displaying current or recent (Locate or Recent) drives, directories, partitions and file folders and the right pane displaying file folders and files. Files are displayed only for image files with PQI extensions. For other non-image file folders, only folders are displayed on the right pane.

Drive Image generally creates image files with a size limit of 2GB. So each image file may have multiple segments (file counts), if its size exceeds 2GB. For instance, an image file of 6GB will have three file counts with extensions of PQI, 002, and 003. On the ImageExplorer screen only the file count with the PQI extension is shown. However, it displays all the folders, partitions, and files created in the entire image file.

A number of functions can be performed within the single main screen of ImageExplorer. For instance, you can drag and drop partitions from one image file to another image file. You can split an image into multiple segments to be later transferred to removable media. You can use ImageExplorer to restore individual files or partitions from within an image file. Other functions you can perform with ImageExplorer include Verifying Image Files, Deleting Image Files, and Displaying Information (properties) about Images.

PowerQuest DataKeeper

DataKeeper is included in the Drive Image package as a separately installed Windows program. It provides an easy way to perform secure, automated backups of all your important data. DataKeeper supports all the Windows operating systems except Windows XP. It supports FAT, FAT32 or NTFS file systems.

Conclusions

Drive Image creates an image or a copy of selected partitions or an entire hard drive. It does the imaging or copying sector by sector, and not file-by-file. Thus, the imaging or copying process is much faster than if it were a file-by-file process. Also, Drive Image includes SmartSector technology which only copies allocated sectors. This results in much faster processing than by most backup applications. On the other hand, sector by sector copying necessitates the creation of multiple partitions using software such as PartitionMagic. Otherwise, Drive Image will have a limited scope of use, except to create an image or a backup copy of an entire hard disk.

Drive Image images and Drive Copy copies sector-by-sector and not file-by-file within partitions. Hence both processes work with partitions rather than files. To make more efficient and broader use of the Drive Image program, the hard drive should be divided into multiple partitions. Otherwise, the program will have a limited scope of use that is only to create an image or a backup copy of an entire hard disk. The sector-by-sector imaging or copying process is much faster than if it were a file-by-file process. Drive Image includes SmartSector technology which only copies allocated sectors. This results in much faster processing than by most backup applications.

Installation and use of Drive Image is rather straightforward and easy. The user's guide covers the necessary steps quite well to be followed in creating, copying, restoring, and modifying image files. I would recommend Drive Image 5.0 to anyone who is looking for a fast processing backup program. If you wish to use Drive Image to back up multiple partitions to other partitions I suggest that PowerQuest Partition Magic be installed to make full use of the Drive Image program for this purpose.