when to create a drive image

• a new software/application to your computer
• operating system or application security updates, patches or service packs
• new hardware and or drivers (graphics or sound card, hard drive, printer, scanner, DSL or cable modem) New hardware often requires the installation of "drivers" or software that enables your new hardware to work with your computer's operating system (OS) (Example: Windows 98, 2000 XP). The drivers may be automatically installed with other software included with an installation disk/CD that came with the device. The "driver" must be compatible with your computer's operating system. If it is not compatible, is poorly designed/written or the incorrect driver is installed your new device or computer may not operate correctly.

If you have the extra storage space you might consider archiving your drive images. Create a folder/directory to store each drive image you archive. Assign the image file creation date as the name of each folder. Use Windows "Notepad" to add a description to each archive folder that details the changes made to your computer since the previous image file was created. The types of changes you will want to document include installation or removal of software, hardware, drivers and any security updates/patches installed. Knowing what changes were made will allow you to easily return your computer to a known good state. In an emergency this information may be useful to help you decide which particular image file to restore.

how to create a drive image

To begin creating a drive image click:

• the word "backup" in the DriveImage XML main window (click image below)

• Click the drive or partition you want to backup (C: in this example)

• Click the "Next" -> button.
  The drive backup wizard will appear.

• Click the "Next" button (click image below to enlarge)

• Click the yellow folder and browse to where you want to store your drive image.
  (You can also type the path/location in the box.)

• Click the "Next" button (not shown, bottom right of window) and the disk image creation process will begin immediately.

By default DriveImage XML splits the .dat file into 656 Megabyte pieces. You will have a .dat file and an XML file. Additional pieces of your .dat file are numbered beginning with .001, .002, .003, until the full capacity of the drive/partition has been imaged. This will allow you to easily backup each individual file to CD with a CD burner. Remember to backup all these files when writing/burning to CD, DVD or another backup medium with sufficient capacity. Remove the check mark next to "Split large files" to have your disk image file created as one large file. This option is available on the Backup dialog window (see image below).

You can also choose to "compress" the image file that DriveImage XML creates (see image above). Compression reduces the amount of storage space your disk image will require. Choosing to use compression will increase the time it takes to both create and restore a drive image. I performed a simple test to illustrate the differences between creating a compressed and non compressed disk image. I created two disk images on a computer I built a couple of years ago (my wifes). I imaged the partition on the hard drive that holds the computers operating system (Windows XP pro). The uncompressed image took 4 minutes and 41 seconds to create and was 2.7 gigabytes in size. The compressed image of the same partition took 8 minutes and 6 seconds to create and was 1.27 gigabytes in size.