Computer Shopper October, 2006
Disk-Imaging Software
A hard disk failure is certainly a kind of nightmare for any PC user. If your hard disk fails, you'll be glad you spent a few pounds to back it up with a disk-imaging program. Tom Royal tests the software that provides reliable damage limitationIf you're a regular reader of Computer Shopper you're probably sick to death of hearing about the importance of backups. Even if you do keep a copy of your valuable files, though, recovering from a broken hard disk can be a time-consuming process, which involves reinstalling Windows, along with the drivers for your hardware and your software packages. Fortunately, there's an alternative that can completely restore your computer in less than half an hour. Disk-imaging software creates a second copy of an entire hard disk or disk partition. The backup file created is large, but it contains everything: your files, your software and even Windows itself. If your hard disk fails, you can boot from a special CD and copy all the contents of the backup file to a new disk. Half an hour later, your computer will be back to the way it was.
Choosing… Disk-Imaging SoftwareSeveral companies produce disk-imaging software, and as they all do much the same thing it can be tempting to buy the cheapest one. This could be a serious mistake, though. When buying any kind of backup software, it's important to buy something that's easy to use and reliable enough to depend on. Ease of use is very important. There's no point buying the most technically advanced backup software in the world if it's too complicated and you never use it to make backups. Disk-imaging software should be simple enough to use without any great thought, so that you can quickly set a backup running when you get a minute to spare. Backups take a while to complete, so it's good if you can continue using your computer while they're created.
The recovery disc is also important. This CD will be your lifeline in the case of a hard disk failure, so it should be very easy to create. You'll only ever use it in the case of a serious problem, so it should be easy enough to use even if you're flustered and annoyed. Reliability is also vital, as there's no point taking backups if they don't work when you need them. We created and restored a PC system using every package here, and every test succeeded in recovering our data. Our reviews will tell you which software made it easy to create, verify and restore our files.
Symantec Norton Ghost 10Norton Ghost is probably the best-known disk-imaging software. This latest version runs only on Windows 2000 or XP, but if you buy the retail box version you get a free copy of Ghost 2003. This older product runs on previous versions of Windows. The large printed manual is also good to have, and will be particularly useful if you're unfamiliar with disk-imaging software.  Even without the manual, though, Ghost is easy to use. Symantec refers to image files as 'recovery points', which makes some sense, and the Windows interface is neat and easy to use. You can make backups according to a schedule, or every time an event happens such as new software being installed. This latest version can do incremental backups, so after making one full backup the next few backups will be smaller and quicker. Not everyone wants to schedule disk image backups, though, and if you only want to make a single file this is also easy to do. Using its standard settings, Ghost created a backup of our Windows partition in just under 19 minutes, then verified it in just under seven. This was the slowest time in the test, but it produced one of the smallest backup files at 7.17GB. Booting the recovery CD takes an age, but when it eventually loads the interface is friendly and easy to use. Restoring our backup file took just over 11 minutes, which was faster than any other in the group. If your hard disk is still working and you start a recovery task from Windows, the CD quickly loads up the correct settings and begins automatically. Ghost is easy to use, and its interface is particularly suited to those without experience of using backup software. We like the way that it verifies your backup files by default, and the scheduling options are impressive. This is an excellent product, but then Acronis True Image is just as good and significantly cheaper.
Summary- Very simple interface
- Incremental backups and scheduling
- Restore CD takes ages to load
Disk-imaging software Requires Windows 2000/XP, 300MHz processor, 256MB RAM, 160MB disk space. Ghost 2003 (included) requires Windows 98 or later
Acronis True Image 10.0 HomeBest buy Acronis True Image 10.0 Home which is one of the easiest programs in this group to use. Its interface isn't as smart as that of Norton Ghost, but it's friendly enough, with easy access to everything you need for making and restoring backups. It can do full, incremental and differential backups, and it does a decent job of explaining the difference when you start to make a backup using its wizard.  The Acronis Secure Zone feature lets you create a special hidden disk partition for your backup files. This prevents you from accidentally deleting them, but we recommend storing backups on a separate disk in case your hard disk fails. Backups can be scheduled easily. Acronis was the fastest utility here when creating our test backup, taking a little over 11 minutes, and its 7.31GB file was one of the smallest. It didn't verify this file automatically, but you can do so manually if you want to check. The Acronis restore CD is one of the best here. It starts very quickly
and has a friendly Windows-style interface. We were able to verify our backup file in just over eight minutes and restore it completely in just 14 minutes and 18 seconds. Just in case the full recovery interface doesn't work, there's a simpler version to try. Acronis True Image works just as well as Ghost, and it's cheaper, too. This is an excellent buy.
Summary- Simple interface
- Incremental and differential backups
- Excellent recovery CD
Disk-imaging software Requires Windows 98/NT4/Me/2000/XP, 133MHz processor, 64MB RAM, 20MB disk space.
Paragon Exact ImageParagon's Exact Image costs just £21 to download. This download contains a utility that burns a rescue disc to CD. The Windows interface isn't bad, but it's not particularly
impressive, either.  Unlike most of the software here, it doesn't show the names of disk partitions, so you'll need to pick out those you want to back up by drive letter. It also lists unnecessary technical details such as the master boot record and first disk track of each hard disk. Exact Image can create a hidden disk partition for backups, but it can't perform incremental backups. Exact Image completed our test backup in 16 minutes and 40 seconds. It didn't verify the backup we created and the option to "control backup integrity" was disabled by default. At 9.39GB, the backup file created was fairly large. The restore normally loads quickly to a main menu, but we found that it couldn't run at all with our external hard disk connected via USB. Fortunately, we found that by plugging the disk in later it could still be accessed. The Simple Restore function is easy enough to use, but overall the recovery CD isn't as good as those from True Image or Ghost. Exact Image does work acceptably, but it's a little too fiddly for our liking. We recommend paying a little more for something that's easier to use.
Summary- Created and restored backups well
- Problems with external hard disk
- No incremental backups
Disk-imaging software Requires Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP, 300MHz processor, 128MB RAM, 40MB disk space, Internet Explorer 5
R Tools Technology R-DriveR-Drive costs around £25 to download and contains a utility that
creates a bootable rescue CD. Its colourful Windows interface occasionally borders on the garish, but it's easy enough to select a partition or disk and create a backup image. It took 14 minutes and 30 seconds to create a backup of our Windows partition, but the 10.5GB image file it created was the largest in the test.  R-Drive does not verify image files by default, but an option on the main menu called 'Check an image file' makes it easy to do yourself. If you select an existing image file when making a backup, R-Drive will ask if you want to create a smaller, incremental backup file. The Scheduler offers some interesting functions, including the ability to send a confirmation email when a scheduled backup is completed. Unfortunately, R-Drive's rescue disc is less impressive. Although it loads quickly, the DOS-like interface is likely to scare off less experienced users. You can control the interface using a mouse, and it successfully restored our PC in iust over 13 minutes, but it's not as easy to use as True Image or Ghost. R-Drive creates large image files, but it works well. However, it's not that easy to use and its rescue disc interface is outdated. Experienced PC users may find it suits them perfectly, but if you're new to disk imaging we suggest paying more for simplicity.
Summary- Good scheduler
- Incremental backups
- Rescue disc interface looks ancient
Disk-imaging software Requires Windows 98/Me/2000/2003/XP, Internet Explorer
Terabyte Unlimited Image for WindowsAt just £15, Image for Windows is bv far the cheapest disk-imaging software here. The Windows interface is functional rather than beautiful, with pictures that look like they were created in Word Art. We tried to create a backup of our test disk, but it failed, stating that it was "unable to obtain a lock" on the disk. We were then prompted to download and install a separate utility called PHYlock. After doing this, the software created a backup of our disk using just 6.62GB of space in a reasonable 13 minutes and 44 seconds.  We downloaded a utility from Terabyte's website to create a rescue disc. The rescue disc has an old-fashioned DOS-like interface, and when running the disc several options provoked an error stating "this option is only available when running in DOS". In the end, we found that we could recover our system by using the partition menu, but the disk menu didn't work. We tried creating a set of rescue DVDs to see if this was easier. The discs were created successfully, but they failed after recovering just 48 per cent of our partition. Image for Windows is capable of making working backups, but with extra utilities to install and a poor rescue disc it's particularly tricky to use. Although it is very cheap, we'd recommend paying a little more for software that's easy to use.
Summary- Very cheap
- Extra software needed for backups
- Rescue DVDs failed
Disk-imaging software Requires Windows NT4/2000/XP, 64MB RAM for NT, 128MB RAM for 2000/XP
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Acronis Inc. Backup software.