program needed for imaging before malware removal

I'm seeking advice on a free or paid, speedy, reliable backup program to use for creating disk images. The software will only be used to backup user data from XP/Win7 machines to a USB hard drive before virus/malware removal.

Thanks in advance.

 

Too Late!!!

if you are trying to get rid of the infection that is "by writing a clean Image"
back to the drive

I guess you can try to clean it but that kind of defects the reason to image
a drive in the first place

If I was you I would just go ahead and bite the bullet and reformat the
machine and start new, and then make sure I created a clean Image
to restore with

Anyhow I would try a program named Clonezilla, seems to have a little
learning curve at first but works very well

all the other image programs seem to be getting a little bloated for my taste
and this program works at a low level so should be compatible with most hardware, just goggle "Clonezilla" and do a little reading

Good Luck

 

Thanks for the advice, I'll look into Clonezilla. I should have specified that this is not for my machine, I use the backup built into Windows 7 which has worked very well for me.

I just recently started cleaning other's machines on the side of my current job and was seeking something that's quick and reliable. This will be used for saving off people's data as a precaution and for when the system is too infested for cleaning. In the past I've only used True Image with mixed results.

Thanks

 

You may be interested in these two free utilities. OSmount and OSclone.

http://www.osforensics.com/tools/mount-disk-images.html
http://www.osforensics.com/tools/create-disk-images.html

I have also used Puppy Linux to take data off of a hard drive that will not boot to windows. Works great.

http://help.artaro.eu/index.php/windows-xp/troubleshooting-xp/recover-files-from-hard-disk-xp.html
http://help.artaro.eu/index.php/win...windows-7/recover-files-from-hard-disk-7.html

And if you are working on a netbook with not CD you can still boot to puppy using Unetbootin to create a bootable USB.

 

Capacity

 

I also really like Puppy Linux for data recovery from a Windows PC.

However, I feel that Parted Magic may be better for data recovery for a "typical" PC novice. The PCMan file manager functions closer to what a PC novice would be used to with Windows Explorer.

A few months ago, I gave a copy of Puppy Linux to someone who was able to figure out how to copy a massive amount of photos (which of course had not been backed-up) from a non-booting Windows PC to a USB 2.0 hard drive. He was successful. However, he later saw me showing someone how to use Parted Magic for data recovery, and he and several on-lookers all wanted copies of Parted Magic.

The 'ease of use' for Parted Magic only applies to copying data to a USB hard drive, USB flash drive, etc. I found burning data to CD's/DVD's (using Parted Magic) too complicated for the average user. Puppy Linux is much easier for burning data to CD's/DVD's.

 

I use and recommend Image for Windows.

 

i would recc either image for windows or active@disk image. easeus would be okay i guess and its free just be sure to test it first before making it your only backup program as i have seen it do a few weird things. but its free and when it works it does a pretty good job. if you dont mind the lack of incrementals and will only do full backups macrium free is also a good choice for a free one imo better than easeus but it lacks most of the paid versions extra features.

 

Yep, it may be above average in cost but it's also an above average imaging utility. The continuous incrementals backup job feature is fantastic.

 

In case you want to backup only user data and not the entire system you may want to take a look at microsoft's utility RichCopy.
As for imaging program for your case I can only recommend Drive SnapShot mainly because is one of the speeder, if not the speedest, imagers when taking full images and is portable.

Panagiotis

 

If your only wanting to backup user data I would Suggest a linux live cd such as debian live

 

Another vote for Puppy Linux to recover data from Windows. It is also good, knowing the location, to eliminate malware that resist normal cleaning action.

 

I understand that I may be a little off topic but for cleaning malware out of the registry on an unbootable system PcRegit (Freeware) does an excellent job.

 

I also use and recommend Image for Windows.

 

Dear Panagiotis,

Welcome back after a long time!

Best regards,

KOR!

 

Hi Panagiotis

Wondered whether Richcopy has been stable for you - have you had any of the failures to do with long filenames containg certain characters reported on other sites?

Also, is there really no log created?

Cheers

philby

 

Hi KOR,

thanks for the warm welcome!
Do you continue to collect imaging tools?

Hi philby,

the only problem that I had was during copy/sync over the network, when the shared folder had a long name.
It has extended log but you'll have to use the advanced tab to enable it.
Another great tool is FastCopy (can deal with long paths)

Panagiotis