Is Image for Windows a good drive image backup?

[teddy60714]

Any one ever tried Image for Windows. http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/imagew.html I was wondering how good it may work and how quickly you can image your drive and restore it. Does it take hours or minutes? Ever compared it to Ghost and TI? Can I copy my entire hard drive with it, like Ghost and TI, or just certain partitions? Thanks for any replies/help.

[WSFuser]

i personally have not tried it, but i found a few responses in this thread (http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=113502&highlight=image+windows).

[zorro zorrito]

Hi, image for windows makes exact images from a partition or a complete HD.

ok, these are your questions:
1.-how good it may work and 2.-how quickly you can image your drive and restore it. Does it take hours or minutes? 3.-Ever compared it to Ghost and TI? 4.-Can I copy my entire hard drive with it, like Ghost and TI, or just certain partitions?
These are my answears:
1.-very good, never failed for me.
2 and 3.-for me 4mb partition in 25 minutes to backup and restore it. I use TI 8 and it takes 42 minutes to restore an image with the TI rescue CD.(TI is very good too, no matter the 17minutes of diference, I like it too).
4.-you can copy a partition or all of your drive.

[teddy60714]

Thanks for the replies guys.

WSFuser, thanks for the link. :) I noticed that you can't do incremental backups with IFW. I think that's a feature I would want though. Maybe not right now, but I will probably want that down the road and being the cheapskate that I am, I will probably only buy one image program. So I'm still not sure IFW is the right choice for me.

Zorro zorrito, thanks for the info and sharing your experiences. Very helpful information for someone like me still trying to find the right image program. :) I'm just not sure how important incremental backup would become to me after a while of using IFW. I suppose it depends on how long it takes to make a backup image without it.

Maybe I'll give it a try though because it does sound like it's very reliable and that's definitely something I want in an image program. I heard so many horror stories about the latest versions of Ghost and TI that it makes me want to stay far away from those programs. Thanks again.

[pvsurfer]

Teddy~ As one who uses an imaging program, TI8, I just wanted to mention something about making incremental images (with any image program). If (like me), you might defrag your HDD between image-backups, you will find that the incrementals can approach the size of the original image (as well as the time to create it)! As a result, I never bother with incremental images.

Btw, I run a file-by-file backup program (Retrospect 7) at the office and I do take advantage of their incremental ('progressive') backups, as they are not affected by defragging.

Cheers ;) ~pv

[forty]

Does anyone know why I can't get Image for Windows to boot from the boot cd I made? I get the error message: unable to execute image.exe. I'm using the trial version.

Thanks.

[Peter2150]

-{ Quote: "Does anyone know why I can't get Image for Windows to boot from the boot cd I made? I get the error message: unable to execute image.exe. I'm using the trial version.

Thanks." }-

You can't boot Image for Windows from the boot cd. You run Image for Dos from the CD. Did you download the trial of Image for DOS.

Pete

[forty]

I get it now! Thanks I'm a fool.

[ILikeLemonPie]

Actually, you should be able to boot from the IFW dvd (or whatever). The latest version supports complete bootable recovery.
Bootable rescue discs -- Whenever you save a drive image to a CD or DVD, it will automatically become a bootable restore disc.
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/imagew.html#IFWFEATURE

I love Terabyte products after years of using Drive Image and Partition Magic.

[Peter2150]

-{ Quote: "Actually, you should be able to boot from the IFW dvd (or whatever). The latest version supports complete bootable recovery.
Bootable rescue discs -- Whenever you save a drive image to a CD or DVD, it will automatically become a bootable restore disc.
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/imagew.html#IFWFEATURE

I love Terabyte products after years of using Drive Image and Partition Magic." }-

Absolutely, but I bet it's running Image for Dos to do the restore.

[pvsurfer]

From IFW's feature list, I note that it has the native ability to write directly to DVD. Sure wish Acronis TI could do that (rather then require a 3rd party packet-writer)! :isay:

[Reggie]

Although I've not yet had a disaster recovery situation (thank goodness), I have been backing up with IFW for a while now. Price is right, smooth operation creating image (dunno about restoring!) and best of all it can write directly to DVDs which I use to backup my notebook's hard drive.

[RealResults]

Like others who have already commented I also like IFW/IFD. It has been rock solid on my system. I like to play around with system settings and new software then restore system to previous state. Have probably backed up and restored 50 times never with a problem.

I tried Acronis TI but was never successful with a restore. I think it did not like my Highpoint raid controller. I am not knocking TI, a lot of people like it, just never worked on by system. IFW/IFD has worked perfect with my controller.

A few other points in regard to Image for Windows/DOS that I like:

1. You can try before you buy. They offer a fully functional 30 day trial.
2. No bloatware. The full install is about 2 megs.
3. Does NOT install any services or processes.
4. The price is right. Image for Windows and Image for Dos package for $26.98.
5. Backup and restore speed seems to be about the same as Ghost 8 (DOS boot disk).

I was using Ghost 8 (DOS boot disk) to do backups and restores. Excellent little program (DOS boot disk only). However, I was unable to backup from within Windows. Not a big deal. Then read about IFW on another forum and gave it a try. Was impressed with what the developers were able to accomplish with such a small package as listed above. After a trial, bought the software. Also like to support small independent developers that publish good software.

[Sean Sullivan]

I'm very interested in using IFW/IFD to backup (image) my notebook's HDD to DVDs (using its DVD-RW). I realize that it may take several DVDs to do this, but I don't have an external drive and I only plan on doing this on a monthly basis.

Is this software practical for my intended use and would IFW or IFD better serve my purpose?

[ILikeLemonPie]

Sean, I don't think you would need as many DVDs as you might think. The IFW compression is great and very reliable. I really like the verification routine. The program is simple, simple, simple. It's free for 30 days, you should give it a try. I used to use TI and Partition Magic at one time, but nothing beats the simplicity and reliability of IFW. I can't recommend it highly enough. With IFW now offering native support for your DVDs to be bootable, there's no need (if you have WinXP) for IFD.

[securityx]

I just mentioned Image For Windows in another thread and then saw this! I give a big thumbs up to Image For Windows. Very sweet.

[Antarctica]

I bought this program last week and I really, really like it. So simple to use and no problem at all to backup my system.

Nice job Terabyte.

[Sean Sullivan]

-{ Quote: "Sean, I don't think you would need as many DVDs as you might think. The IFW compression is great and very reliable. I really like the verification routine. The program is simple, simple, simple. It's free for 30 days, you should give it a try. I used to use TI and Partition Magic at one time, but nothing beats the simplicity and reliability of IFW. I can't recommend it highly enough. With IFW now offering native support for your DVDs to be bootable, there's no need (if you have WinXP) for IFD." }-
Thanks for the good words - Fwiw, I recently completed a 30-day trial of Acronis True Image which worked well EXCEPT that it couldn't backup to DVD without my having to buy yet additional software! That is when I decided that there must be imaging products with that feature. Looks like I may have found it...

I will download the IFW trial and give it a go tomorrow. Am I correct in that I will be able to create an IFW Emergency Recovery CD/DVD capable of restoring a system that won't boot?

[nick s]

-{ Quote: "...Am I correct in that I will be able to create an IFW Emergency Recovery CD/DVD capable of restoring a system that won't boot?" }-Hi Sean Sullivan,

When you burn an image directly to CD/DVD, IFW creates a self-booting restore disk(s). The restore process can be automatic and requires no interaction on your part. You are given an opportunity, via a count-down timer, to interrupt the process if you want to customize the restore.

Nick

[Sean Sullivan]

-{ Quote: "Hi Sean Sullivan,

When you burn an image directly to CD/DVD, IFW creates a self-booting restore disk(s). The restore process can be automatic and requires no interaction on your part. You are given an opportunity, via a count-down timer, to interrupt the process if you want to customize the restore.

Nick" }-
Nick: That is fantastic - I don't know what more one could want in an imaging backup system. :)

I've downloaded IFW and will be making my first backup today, but I'm very nervous about attempting a full system restore just to prove to myself that it works... So until I actually need to recover my system, I guess I'll take your word (and the word of others) that it does! ;)

[RealResults]

Sean,

Make sure you install Terabyte's free add on utility called PHYLock if you are going to backup a system partition from within Windows. It is located here:

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/utilities.html

Hope this helps.

[Sean Sullivan]

-{ Quote: "Sean,

Make sure you install Terabyte's free add on utility called PHYLock if you are going to backup a system partition from within Windows. It is located here:

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/utilities.html

Hope this helps." }-
RR:
I'm not sure I understand why that is needed... Is it required even if my hard drive consists of only one (C) partition? And if it is necessary to add that utility, do I install it into the IFW directory?

[SSK]

PHYlock is a utility that "locks" your Windows disk in a current state so that it can backup the data without Windows changing things that would cause corruption.

PHYlock is ONLY needed if you backup while running Windows, if you backup from a floppy / cdrom it is not necessary :)

[nick s]

-{ Quote: "RR:
I'm not sure I understand why that is needed... Is it required even if my hard drive consists of only one (C) partition? And if it is necessary to add that utility, do I install it into the IFW directory?" }-Hi Sean,

PHYLock is a free driver that you can install that assists IFW in locking a snapshot of your live Windows system as IFW creates its image:

"PHYLock is an add-on software component for Win NT/2K/XP/2003/x64 that enables Image for Windows to maintain a consistent backup of an unlocked partition or volume. See the readme.txt file in the zip for more information."

PHYLock is available on Terabyte's free software page: http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/utilities.html. Since you plan to image your system within Windows, you should install it along with IFW.

Nick

edit: SSK beat me to it :)

[10pack]

Does anyone know how long it takes to make a image of your drive with IFW? Let's say you had a 30GB drive with 20 full GBs of data on it, approximately how long would it take to do a full image of the drive?

[Peter2150]

-{ Quote: "Does anyone know how long it takes to make a image of your drive with IFW? Let's say you had a 30GB drive with 20 full GBs of data on it, approximately how long would it take to do a full image of the drive?" }-

When I Image from Windows it takes about 20minutes(23GB) to image, and another 9 or so minutes to verify.

If I do it from the DOS CD, thats another story, takes almost an hour.

Pete

[Sean Sullivan]

-{ Quote: "PHYlock is a utility that "locks" your Windows disk in a current state so that it can backup the data without Windows changing things that would cause corruption.

PHYlock is ONLY needed if you backup while running Windows, if you backup from a floppy / cdrom it is not necessary :)" }-
Let me approach this from another angle... Given that I will be backing up my notebook's hard drive onto DVDs on a monthly basis, do you users suggest I do it from within Windows or booting from a CD (as there isn't a floppy in my notebook)?

...and if booting from a CD is better, shouldn't I use IFD instead of IFW?

[SSK]

Imaging from outside of Windows reduces the possibility of corruption due to Windows accessing data on the disk during backup. That said, I haven't seen any problems on my computer when imaging from Windows (using PHYlock).

Image for Windows license includes a copy of Image for Dos. I would recommend buying / using Image for Windows :)

[crofttk]

My positive vote also goes out for the IFW/IFD package.8) It made a great replacement for an immature release of TI 9.

If you boot from CD or diskette, you WILL be using IFD. IFW is only for running within windows.

-{ Quote: "...While you can restore most partitions from within Windows, you cannot restore the Windows
partition in the same manner. That is, to restore the Windows drive, you cannot be running
Windows at the same time. Generally, the easiest way around this is to use Image for DOS to
perform the restore. In this case, you would simply boot using your Image for DOS bootable
floppy diskette or CD/DVD, and restore your Windows drive from there. Image for DOS provides
a simple, menu-driven interface, so you will have your newly-restored Windows drive up and
running in no time...." }-See http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/downloads/imagemanual.pdf

Although I don't do backups to optical media, my GUESS would be that, if it works with your DVD writer, backing up with IFW would be faster but backing up from IFD could be less riskier -- I'll defer to those with firsthand experience backing up to optical media to give you a more authoritative answer.

[Dean Anderson]

Everyone seems to be saying IFW can create images to cd/dvd, and that's a great feature, but can you also create images directly to a 2nd internal hard drive or external hard drive, and restore the images directly from one of those drives too?

[crofttk]

Yep. Folks' mileage varies with many softwares versus their own external hard drives but it works a treat with my external USB2 320GB Ion Drive (IOGEAR-Western Digital) and my external USB2 400GB Seagate as well as my internal hard drives.

[SSK]

-{ Quote: "My positive vote also goes out for the IFW/IFD package.8) It made a great replacement for an immature release of TI 9.

If you boot from CD or diskette, you WILL be using IFD. IFW is only for running within windows.

See http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/downloads/imagemanual.pdf

Although I don't do backups to optical media, my GUESS would be that, if it works with your DVD writer, backing up with IFW would be faster but backing up from IFD could be less riskier -- I'll defer to those with firsthand experience backing up to optical media to give you a more authoritative answer." }-
No problems for me using IFW when backing up to DVD / Internal Disk :)

[securityx]

Someone asked about the speed of imaging/restoring. That's kind of hard to answer as much of that depends on the specs of your system. On my system, Powerquest's Drive Image (not the new version) is the fastest at creating images and restoring. But, no support for native boot from DVD or external hard drive. IFW is a close second, with TI falling in third. I don't mess with anything else now but IFW. It's an excellent program, and a steal at only $27.

[ChairmanMeow]

-{ Quote: "It's an excellent program, and a steal at only $27." }-
Where can you buy it for $27?

On the web site http://terabyteunlimited.com/purchimg.html IFW is $38.94 and IFD is $29.95.

[Genady Prishnikov]

-{ Quote: "Where can you buy it for $27?

On the web site http://terabyteunlimited.com/purchimg.html IFW is $38.94 and IFD is $29.95." }-

The post you are referring to at $27.00 was january of 2006.
It's gone up. Still a good program though.

[HAN]

A couple of thoughts...

Firstly, I initially used Image for Windows but have totally migrated to Image for DOS/Image for Linux. I like the fact it doesn't even need to be installed... just runs from the boot CD. I back up to either DVD (every month or so) or my external HD (weekly.) Great products!

Lastly, the price increases may have something to do with us! ;) We have gotten the word out that at the earlier prices, these programs were a steal! But IMO, even with the increases, when compared to others in the market, IFD/IFL/IFW are still great deals!

[ChairmanMeow]

I did think of just buying IFD but there is only $8.99 difference to get IFW also.

[Blackcat]

-{ Quote: "I did think of just buying IFD but there is only $8.99 difference to get IFW also." }-
So well worth buying IFW ;)

You will also be eligible for a free upgrade to the new version 2, which may be out early this year.

[Defenestration]

I have recently switched from Acronis TI to IFW/IFD/IFL and am very happy that I did. I do most of my imaging with IFW + PHYLOCK (as it will ignore the pagefile and hibernation file) and do all my restoring with IFD.

I find IFW/IFD to be quicker at both imaging and restoring when compared to TI. Also, IFW/IFD "just work". :)

The new version 2 of IFW/IFD is due to be released soon and will include differential backups, among other things.

I'm also hoping IFD/IFL will support excluding the pagefile and hibernation file.

[King FN Kong]

yep, way faster than ati on my system as well. ive been doing image/restores at least 10 times a day the past week, no problems whatsoever.

i didnt know the v2 coming, looking forward to that too.

[kennyboy]

-{ Quote: "I have recently switched from Acronis TI to IFW/IFD/IFL and am very happy that I did. I do most of my imaging with IFW + PHYLOCK (as it will ignore the pagefile and hibernation file) and do all my restoring with IFD.

" }-


That was exactly my plan too, until I found out IFD would not see my External USB2.0 drive because of USB 1.1 computer even with a PCMCIA USB 2.0 adaptor.
Support told me to use the UHC1=1 switch but doesnt work.
Back to ATI.........

[Defenestration]

-{ Quote: "Support told me to use the UHC1=1 switch but doesnt work." }-Do you mean UCHI=1, as UHC1=1 would do nothing ?

[HAN]

-{ Quote: "That was exactly my plan too, until I found out IFD would not see my External USB2.0 drive because of USB 1.1 computer even with a PCMCIA USB 2.0 adaptor.
Support told me to use the UHC1=1 switch but doesnt work.
Back to ATI........." }-

Strange that it didn't work for you. I did a one time test of my ancient 98SE laptop just to see if the USB 1.1 switch would work and the image creation ran fine. Pretty slow but fine.

I didn't use any special adapter. Just hooked things up and tried it...