Hey all,

I have Drive image and was wondering how good an image it makes. If I load XP and all the drivers, can I then make an image and use that as my install cd when I want to redo my system, so I dont have to load drivers and such. i can get the system where I want then image it.

Will it work

Drive image copies the used areas of a partition in terms of....

well, that's a one....
and that's a zero....
and another zero...
and a one...
and a one....
and another zero...


it then compresses this into a file, which is around 50% the size of the amount of data on the partition, not the total partition size.

its advanced options can split this file into multiple segments, for writing to CD.

when you restore an image you invoke the program and then point it towards the image file(s), which must be on a seperate partition or device from the partition writing to.

this does some very cool things. for example, you can clone machines if they have identical or similar hardware, and today i moved my windows xp installation from disk 2 to disk 1 with little or no problems.

also, you install that beta driver....ooops.... you've just killed your entire windows installation.... ahahaha! but out with drive image you are, and instead of spending a whole weekend reinstalling its a mere 15 mins or so, and everything is back to the state when you made your last image.

it is also TOTALLY easy to use.

You could install your OS the way you want it. get everything right. then make an image of it onto another partition. then burn that to CD, or so as I do and have an images directory. as soon as you want to restore, you boot into DOS, run the pqdi.exe program that is drive image, tell it what image and what destination partition, and then go and make a cup of tea (or whatever....)

its quite possibly one of the best pieces of software i have ever seen.

you need a later version to support the NTFS 5 that comes with windows xp, and of course your area you write images to or restore from must be FAT32 or a CD.

Thanks Phantasm66,

That is just the info I was after. Now I have to check if my version is XP compatable.

Oh, and it works with FAT, FAT32, NTFS and even ext2, the linux file system....

So I have drive images of ALL of my installed operating systems. Sometimes I even have multiple versions, where I explored one different avenue of configuration that I am not perhaps entirely sure about....

In combination with its sister application, partition magic, its possible to do some really wicked things....

Probably as a result of playing with this, you will want to have multiple hard drives if you do not have them. These tools made me move from 2 hard drives to my current of 5, because its just to useful being able to restore, clone and move things like that.... You are not longer commited to your original idea on a partitioning scheme.... So long as you have a repository for the images or have burning them to CD, you can do pretty much whatever you want provided you have a spare half and hour here and there to make some changes now and again....


like i said, today i decided i liked the idea of windows xp on disk 2 instead of disk 1. so i moved it. this kind of operation does on the whole require some additional configuration, such as the editing of files like

boot.ini
in windows, and

fstab and lilo.conf
in linux

but if you can get the hang of that, there is pretty much no limit to the kinds of crazy things you can do....

...and its possible that you might go an eternity NEVER HAVING TO INSTALL AN OS FROM SCRATCH AGAIN.....

....Now a days, I only have to do that when I actually decided to, even in the event of hard drive failure (to a degree).....

You are free. No more tediously reinstalling everything from scratch again, which is so monotonous and totally crap.

There was a time a while ago, a hard drive in my machine with three operating systems:

Windows 98
Windows 2000
Red Hat Linux

started all of a sudden to make horrible grinding noises, whirring, going slow.... etc.... the sure signs of impending hard drive failure....

So, having made Drive Images of these operating system's partitions recently, I merely powered down, took the hard drive out, replaced it with another known good one, booted to DOS, started up Drive Image and restored everything, and then....

....Booted back up in Windows as if nothing had ever happened.

I then consulted the web site of the hard drive manufacturer for an RMA number and return procedures....


AS EASY AS THAT!


If you explore the possibilities of tools such as Drive Image and Partition Magic, then you are on the verge of having a machine like mine....

....Where (not to blow my own trumpet too much) - I have typically between 5 to 10 operating systems....

You have the key to unlock the potential to do this in a stable and fine fashion with such utilities in your software toolbox....

Yikes, I thought myself pretty computer savy. I know of mabee half a dozen OS's but 12 ?? Thats quite the number.

Shocking, simply shocking.

And yes after using partition magic I have found some great software's for doing such things. I will have to install Drive Image and poke around with it.

Thanks again