imaging hard drive

[haus_kat]

I have heard of this but have not yet tried it. Can anyone explain to me how it works? I've heard that you can save the entire contents of a hard drive to a single CD-Rom. Is that so? Are there any freeware versions of the imaging programs?

If I made an image of the hard drive and then reformatted my hard drive, could I reload my personal files from the image on the disc? Would I have to load all of the content of the image or could I pick and choose which things to drag from the disc (like with files burned in the ordinary way on any CD-Rom)?

[patio]

Answer 1:

Personally i use and recommend Acronis True Image for this...but it's not Free.
For a Free app my recommendation would be Macrium Reflect...best out there.

Answer 2:

Not sure why you would want to do it that way but the short answer would be yes...individual files/folders can be retrieved from the image file itself...or you can use it the way it was meant for which would be to restore the machine to the day the image was created...

Hope this helps.

[WillyW]

http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.asp

[talontromper]

Yes, it is possible to save the entire contents to an external source, however the odds of being able to save an entire disc image to a CD-ROM is quite low. What you would need is either A) an external HDD or B) a DVD burner and DVD's assuming that your image is under 4.7 gigs. An image is an exact replica of your HDD, yes you can choose what you put on the image, but as far as content loaded it loads all of what the image contains if used the way the image is intended which is to restore the computer to the day it was imaged (however, you can load individual content by exploring the disc)

[BC_Programmer]

(however, you can load individual content by exploring the disc)

No, not usually. Images are usually a special format. Acronis uses a special, compressed "TIB" file, I believe. don't know what Macrium uses but it's certainly not represented by an on-disc folder structure.

[patio]

Both Acronis and Macrium Reflect have an Explore feature that enables you to manipulet individual files/folders...

And for talon just so you know both apps also have a "spanning" feature...which means if it takes more than 1 CD/DVD to burn the file structure remains intact.

[talontromper]

I did not know that thanks for the extra little bit of knowledge there

[patio]

No problem...

[Allan]

No, not usually. Images are usually a special format. Acronis uses a special, compressed "TIB" file, I believe. don't know what Macrium uses but it's certainly not represented by an on-disc folder structure.

Yes, as patio said you can indeed view and retrieve individual files and folders from the image. Acronis will allow you to mount the image as a separate drive to make the process simple.