NWA-PCUG Newsletter Article
PowerQuest Announces Drive Image 2002
by Gene Barlow, May 2002
User Group Relations

barlow@ugr.com
(click to email author)


NWA-PCUG Editor note: The following was sent to a user group member with prior PowerQuest purchases.

PowerQuest announced this week a major new release of Drive Image. This new release, Drive Image 2002, moves from a DOS based application to a Windows based application. This significantly improves the usability of the product as well as increases the number of devices that are now supported with this excellent backup utility. In addition, some functions from PartitionMagic have been added to Drive Image 2002 to help you setup your backup partitions. Drive Image 2002 lists for $69.95, but you may purchase this exciting new product for only $35. This article will highlight some of the more important new features of Drive Image 2002 as well as tell you how to order your own copy at the user group discount price.

When Drive Image was first introduced 6 years ago, it was a DOS based utility. In order to run Drive Image, you had to shut down all of your active applications as well as the Windows operating system and boot out to DOS. This was necessary to make sure that all files within a partition were closed before Drive Image could make a backup image of the partition. By closing all of the files within a partition, you were certain that all parts of that file were properly stored on the hard drive and not still located in some buffer in RAM memory. This was especially important with your c: partition. It contained the operating system and many open files used by the operating system. To close these files would closed down the operating system and forced you to boot to DOS. While DOS is also an operating system, it was simple enough to run without any open files on the hard drive. Hence, running Drive Image under DOS was the only way to make sure that the hard drive was ready to make a backup image of your hard drive with all closed files.

Drive Image 2002 now runs as a Windows utility to define the backup operation you want to perform. When you are ready to actually run the backup, Drive Image will look at the partitions that you want to backup and if none of them contain open files, the backup will be done immediately in Windows. However, if a partition contains an open file, the file will be forced closed before the backup can be accomplished. Since your c: partition will always have open files used by the operating system, closing them will force Drive Image to boot out to DOS to make a backup of your c: partition. This is done for you automatically, so it should not matter, but it will take an additional minute or two to boot to DOS and then to re-boot back into Windows. I would recommend that you make sure that you have all of your applications closed down before running a backup and that you backup your c: partition in a separate step. This will let most of your partitions backup directly under Windows.

Moving to a Windows based utility makes the system easier to use and more familiar to most Windows users. While earlier versions of Drive Image had the look and feel of a Windows application, they were still running under DOS. With Drive Image 2002 the limitations of DOS are no longer a problem and they have designed the new interface to make using the product extremely easy. The product guides you through the steps to select the type of a backup you want to perform and then helps you to define the options you'll need one by one. Once you have defined exactly what you want to backup and where to store the backup image, you can elect to have the backup done immediately or schedule it to be done sometime in the future. For example, you may want to make a backup once a week in the middle of the night when you are sleeping. You can set up Drive Image 2002 to run unattended on a routine schedule so that you have regular backups of your system. I was extremely pleased with the new user interface and I'm sure you'll find it easy to use and very friendly.

Another advantage of running as a Windows based application is the many devices can now be supported easily under Windows. Drive Image 2002 can create and restore images of the partitions on your internally attached hard drives. These backup images can be stored in a wide variety of locations on your system or across a LAN to another system. You can store the image files in a backup partition on your locally attached hard drives. You can also store the backup images on USB or Firewire attached external hard drives. You can even store the image files on another computer system that you are attached to over a local area network (LAN). You can also store these image files on ZIP or JAZ cartridge systems or burn them in any CD-R/RW devices supported by your Windows system. So, the flexibility of where to store your backup images is greatly enhanced using the Windows interface.

Finally, to make using Drive Image a more independent operation, a few of the features of PartitionMagic have been added to Drive Image 2002. Since you cannot store an image file into the same partition that you are backing up, you must set up separate backup partitions on your hard drive to contain these backup image files. You can now use Drive Image to create a backup partition on your hard drive so you will have a place to store your backup images. Also, as you save more backup images in your backup partition, you may find that you need more space in that partition and less space in other partitions. Drive Image 2002 has a redistribute free space wizard from PartitionMagic that will balance the free space on your hard drive partitions to give you more room for future backups.

In summary, Drive Image 2002 is a major new version of this outstanding backup utility. Being a Windows based application, it will let you do your backup functions easier with a wider selection of devices than was possible under DOS. It is a hard drive utility that all serious computer users will want on their system.

NWA-PCUG Editor note: The following is meant for user group members only.

You can purchase this exciting new product at a significant user group discount. Drive Image 2002 lists at $69.95 and can be found soon in most computer software stores for about that price. If you have a prior version of Drive Image, you can upgrade directly through PowerQuest's web site for $39.95 plus shipping. The user group price for Drive Image 2002 is only $35 plus shipping. This is a new license of Drive Image and not just an upgrade of your old license, so you can use your old copy on a different computer system or give it to a friend. To obtain your copy of Drive Image 2002, go to our secure web site at www.ugr.com/order and complete the order form. Enter the price code of UGEM0402 in the form with the other information required. Once you complete the form and submit it, we will ship your order the following day via US Priority Mail. Delivery is normally 3-4 days after you submit your order. Order your copy of Drive Image 2002 today and you will have the best hard drive backup utility available.

Gene Barlow
User Group Relations
PO Box 275
Orem, UT 84059-0275
Voice: 801-796-7370
Fax: 425-675-2075
barlow@ugr.com
http://www.ugr.com

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