Your Most Trusted Imaging and Partitioning Combo

Since imaging and partitioning functions are somewhat related, I continue to strive to find an all in one solution but for now am somewhat content with having two separate programs for these necessary functions.

Right now I am using BING for partitioning and ShadowProtect for imaging. I am just wondering what your favorie imaging and partioning combo is? Or, are you using an all in one solution? Thanks for your input.

Gary

 

Gary,

For your information, BING ver 2 should be released in the next week or two. It contains a version 2 imaging app which is IFD GUI. For the first time IFD can be navigated with a mouse. This makes BING ver 2 a very diverse app.

However most TeraByte users will continue with IFW as their hot imaging app but will be able to restore those images from BING ver 2.

 

I don't use a dedicated partitioning program, Windows built-in Disk Management is good enough for my basic needs.

As for imaging program, I do use Paragon Backup & Recovery Home Special.

 

Hi Gary,

I don't understand the need (or even the desire) in having those two functions exist in 'combo'. Image-backups are something I imagine you do at least weekly, if not daily. But how often do you really need to use a partitioning program?

Furthermore, unless you use an ISR program like Rollback Rx it seems to me that imaging from within Windows is far more convenient than using a boot disk, especially since you can run other programs while backing up. On the other hand, I have found partitioning software works best when used from a boot disk.

So that brings me back to my point - why the desire to have both of these program types exist as a combo?

Aaron

 

Aaron,
For me, since partitions are simply the containers in which data is stored that is imaged so it can be restored when desired - they fit together. Eventually, adjustments need to be made for partitions that exist or the creation of new ones that will be imaged. I don't know if they necesarily have to be together but this is my reasoning about how they relate together.

Gary

 

imaging : Ghost or IFW/D/L

partitioning :
-Simple : Windows built-in
-Complex : Paragon


Simply, if you have Paragon Hard Disk Manager, you can just use one, because it is an all-in-one imaging and partitioning software.

 

Gary, how often do you find the need to resize the 'container'? - I really don't mean to be arguementative, I'm just having difficulty understanding.

Aaron

 

I don't know if frequency fo adjusting partitioning is relevent but when you look at various imaging programs, there are many with partitioning functions to some degree built in. Some have more functions built in than others but seems like they are related to me but maybe I am missing it here. Anyway, have no problems with your input Aaron.

Gary

 

Gary,

Just playing devil's advocate here - but it all boils down to 'different strokes for different folks'.

Aaron

 

Aaron, I like that approach.

I have BING installed. It is my most useful program. I probably haven't adjusted partitions for months but I use the boot manager function of BING several times a day and BING is involved in all of my auto restores.

 

ShadowProtect is my favorite imaging program (I also use Acronis, Paragon, and Keriver, but they are significantly slower than ShadowProtect).

I have partitioned my notebooks for a while using mainly Easeus Partition Master professional and home edition which worked perfectly. In the end as I keep very little data on my notebooks on a permanent basis, I reverted to using no partitions.

 

Osaban,

Acronis's speed is quite fast for me, similar to ShadowProtect. But I like ShadowProtect more .
Paragon's imaging speed is really slow

 

Well for imaging my favorite is Image for Linux, but I also use ShadowProtect sometimes (boot CD only). I just bought Disk Snapshot 1.40 so I am looking forward to that once I get the license (thanks for all of you who pointed it out to me). I own and have kicked the tires on Paragon HD Manager 2010, Farstone TR7 Pro, Macrium, R-Drive Drive Image 4.7, O&O Disk Image 5.5, Eazy Image 5, Easeus Todo Backup Workstation, and Acronis (Acronis not in a few years...long story). I can gladly offer an opinion on any of these if anyone is curious about one of them.

Partitioning...hmmm...I own Paragon HD Manager 2010 and Easeus Partition Master Professional. However, I rarely need to resize or create any new ones. I use a C: and D: and that's it. I recently upgraded to a larger drive and just used the resize partition option within Image of Linux when I restored the image with no issue. So I guess I can't say much about that...

Thanks.

 

DS users may have more chances to resize, because it cannot restore the original image/snapshot to a smaller partition.

 

True...based on my own experience I have never needed to resize smaller anyway...100% of the time I am making them bigger to accomodate bigger drives. I haven't used DS yet so I am not sure if it can resize going to a larger drive?

 

if you restore DS's image to the same size or larger partition, no resize is needed.

 

Cool, thanks. So can I tell it use more space, or will it just restore it as it was backed up on the larger drive and I will need to use a partition tool to resize larger afterward? Thanks.

 

#15 and #17 I have told you.

As for DS, you can only restore an image to the same or larger size of partition.
e.g. making an image from a 40GB partition, you can only restore to a 40GB or larger partition.
If you want to restore to a 39GB partition, it cannot. So, you need to rezize first.

Drive Snapshot"s official told me :

 

OK, I figured it out. What I meant was - and maybe I wasn't clear - if I have a 40gig C: image and want to restore it to a 100gig drive, I know it will restore fine BUT can I tell it to restore it to the full 100gig or will it just restore the 40gig then I can use another tool to expand it. Thanks.

 

Wait a minute?! Are you using ATI and SP on the same drive, because if you are I'm going to give SP a try.

 

I generally use separate products for partitionng vs imaging.

Partitioning: Acronis Disk Director 10 and BING. I like the more graphical interface of ADD so use it more than BING, but a key limitation of ADD is that the extended partition container supporting logical partitions is not visible / manageable. Using ADD of course requires that I limit primaries in BING. I use ADD from within BartPE.

Imaging: Using IFW exclusively now, mostly from BartPE, occasionally from within installed Windows environment proper. I may look at triggering image creation and/or restoration from the new version of BING once it's formally released.

Re overlap of the two tools and potential benefits of a combined app, when I do the odd restore of a partition (typically for test purposes or to add a new OS instance to my multiboot arrangement), I like to at least see the results in a partitioning app prior to booting to any of the Windows partitions, and once in a while, I do invoke subsequent repartitioning tasks.

Doug

 

Imaging: Image for Windows/Image for DOS/Image for Linux.

Partitioning: I have used several with good results: Windows Built-In Partitioning, BING, GParted, Partition Wizard.

 

For general users, both things are separate but for many geeks or for some users with special multi boot setups/ test systems etc, it,s very convenient to have both software together as they are often needed at same time.

I use Acronis( Western Digital free version) and Macrium free for imaging and Parted Magic for partitioning.

 

I only do restores with the recovery CD, therefore none of these programs needs to be installed, ATI has a driver that conflicts with SP.