This information was originally published 19th July 2007 in my web log At my wits' end. If you wish to comment on it, please visitthis link.
Save yourself some agony - image it!
As well as helping friends, neighbours, rellies and volunteer organizations, I spend 2 or 3 hours a day dealing with dozens of emails from people with computer and Windows problems. Too often those problems are only resolvable by reinstalling Windows. That means at least a day down the drain - if you can find all your installation discs.
Many people don't know how to reinstall Windows and have to pay someone to do it for them. Or they find a mug like me to do it for nothing.
I never, ever have such problems. Well, not since I discovered imaging. I haveimages ofboth of my Windows installations and my Ubuntu Linux setup. If disaster strikes, I start my imaging program (Acronis True Image 11) click on the appropriate buttons and 20 minutes later my computer is restored to the lovely clean state it was in before Windows had a hissy fit or got devoured by a rootkit.
Windows Vista has Vista Backup which works in a similar way, but the full version isn't available in the Vista Home versions. Why not? They want you to pay for an upgrade – that's why not. Anyway, the Acronis program is more flexible: incremental images, imaging across a network and many other useful features: extra compression, image integrity checking, etc.
Symantec Ghost does the same job, but the Acronis product is getting the best reviews. Symantec seem to have been off the boil for a couple of years. Hurts me to say that, Ghost was written by a fellow Kiwi who became a zillionaire selling it to Norton only to have them lose the plot.
How does imaging work?
OK, you run the program and select backup and various options. The imaging software then makes a compressed copy of the complete partition or drive of your choice.
The image is written to a DVD, CDs, another partition or internal drive, or to an external USB drive, or to another computer on your network.
How do I fix things when it all turns pear-shaped?
You just run the program again, select restore, browse to the saved image, the PC shuts down, reboots and overwrites your mangled installation with the pristine backup.
But wait! There's more...
The best imaging software allows you to create a boot CD containing the program. If your computer is so badly corrupted that you can't run the program from Windows, or even if Windows won't start, you boot from the CD and restore sanity from there.
I have several images at different stages of my installation. You can see my strategy for doing this with XP here on mistywindow.com. The same principles apply with Vista.
Any buts?
Yes, obviously you can't save an image of the drive or partition which you're imaging to that same drive or partition.
You can save an image of one partition to another partition on the same drive.
An image of a basic installation of XP and MS Office will fit on one DVD, but when you start adding a lot more stuff you need several DVDs or, better yet, one or more of the following:
- A separate partition on your hard drive.
- A second (or third) hard drive.
- An external USB hard drive. More here about that near the bottom of this page.
I'm more than a little paranoid. I don't like losing stuff. So I have 2 internal and 2 external drives.
An extra drive or partition also allows you to separate your data: (Documents, Pictures, email, outlook.pst files and the like) from your Operating System and your Programs. So you can restore an image of your Windows installation and programs while keeping your current data files intact.
Any other plusses?
Yep. If I want to install new software I'll create an image of my current installation first. If the new program is a dog or causes compatibility problems, I just restore my latest image and all traces of the intruder are gone.
What Else?
It's great, buy it - today!
But if you don't, use Vista Backup.
:o)
BootItNG is a cheaper program (it includes disk and partition management),
it's just as good as Acronis, more powerful, but much "geekier" ie. less
user friendly.
If you don't mind a steep learning curve get BootItNG here.
"But I'm a real Scrooge" I hear you cry!
I feel your pain. I'm a pensioner on a budget too.
Acronis True Image is a hobby horse of mine. For US$49 it provides peace of mind worth thousands. If you're in business it may be worth millions. But if you're really on a tight budget (or just plain mean) here's a free imaging tool.
If you're determined not to spend any money, here's a free alternative. Not in the same league as True Image, BootItNG or Ghost, but better than nothing.
Miray Software's HDClone has a free version. Get it here. I haven't used it, it doesn't have the capabilities of Acronis' product, the free edition is very slow, but it's better by a country mile than nothing.