Create a Backup Image of Your Drive with DriveImage XML
DriveImage XML is a free tool which can enable you to create a complete backup image of any logical drive or partition, allowing to to restore your entire operating system along with installed programs, user settings, registry and all. So whenever you have any problem with system crash or virus problem, you can just replace your current installation with a backup installation.
The program is simple and easy to use. Click on the Backup button and select the drive that you want to Backup. The program will launch a Backup wizard that will guide you. You can create the Backup in “Raw Mode” where the exact copy of your drive will be created including free space and all. You can select “Split Large Files” to split the backup files in chunks of smaller files. The Image creation uses Microsoft’s Volume Shadow Services (VSS) which allows you to create safe “hot images” even from drives currently in use. The Images are stored in XML files, allowing you to process them with 3rd party tools. You can restore the image later to the same or a different drive and can also choose to copy the drive directly to another one. The program also includes an image explorer that lets you open previously created backup images and extract individual files.
The program is very useful for creating a complete Backup. It is free for personal use and runs on Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7.
It seems bit lighter than other backup utilities as well. Reall nice to see that it is a free tool.
A cool tool.
Will it create the backup image into the same hard drive? I would like to create a backup image at some where else so, i can use it if my hard drive gets any virus.
One problem I found with DriveXML that I can’t find anything about when searching Google is the file size DriveXML creates when making split backups. (vs raw mode).
The Program creates files that are 672MB. Since you can only get 4400 MB on a regular DVD, that means you need 4594MB of space for 7 files and the DVD will only hold 4489MB…or six of the non-size-selectable DriveImageXML output files.
So, you’ll waste about 600MB per DVD if you back up to DVD.
I don’t get it? Why didn’t they make the output file size 640MB ea or slightly less so that it would conveniently fit on a DVD?
Am I missing something?