Active@ Disk Image

Active@ Disk Image is an ultimate solution that allows you to create an exact image of the data stored in selected partitions of a hard disk or an image of the entire hard disk. You can protect your valuable data by regularly making a disk image and keeping it in a safe place. If you have trouble with data corruption, or if you want to refer to an archived version of a file, you can easily restore the data.

The application provides many tools when it comes to backing up data on your hard disk:

Starting Active@ Disk Image

To start Active@ Disk Image:

• Select a required drive in the Local System Devices list on the main View
• From the Active@ Boot Disk shell click Disk Image > Start App... After initializing, the Active@ Disk Image workspace appears (with a Disk to Image View):

  

Disk to Image

The Disk to Image View makes the process of creating a disk image for a whole disk clear and straight forward.

To create a disk or partition image:

1. Select Disk to Image View and specify Destination:

   

2. In Description field you can put comments
3. Specify the following settings:

   Compression

   No compression creates an actual image file with no compression at all.

   Max speed provides a compression level with maximal performance.

   Normal and Min size are for creating a zip-style images. Min size provides the smallest file size and takes the longest time to complete.

   Note: The compression ratio and the compression speed depend on multiple factors. For example, .doc files under the Normal Compression can be reduced to up to 80% and up to 90% with High Compression. On the other hand image (JPEGs etc.) files are not compressible, while .exe files can be reduced by 40%-50% in Normal Compression and 50%-60% in High Compression. Compression speed can vary a lot depending on how fast your CPU is, how fast is the drive whose image you are making and how fast is the disk where you will be storing that particular image. We recommend that you stick with Normal compression since it has the best performance ratio. It is not as slow as the High Compression (it’s around x1.5-x2 faster) and it has a slightly lesser compression result (around 10% less).

   Chunk size

   The options are: 1, 2, 4 GB or creating a single file. Chunks are useful in cases of large storages (possible to manage chunks separately).

   To try saving the disk image to a single file, select the Attempt Create Single File option. If the system runs out of free disk space on the disk where you are saving the backup - or if you are storing an image file on disk with a FAT file system - Active@ Disk Image automatically will split the archive into multiple files and prompt you to add another path in order to continue writing the rest of the file.

   Ignore errors

   Ignore errors If this option is turned on, error messages will not be displayed while data erasing or verification is in progress. These messages will be displayed in the final report after the process has been completed.

   Replace Existing Files

   Replace Existing Files allows to overwrite an existing images

4. Click Start when ready. The process of creating will start. Use Stop if needed.

   

5. When the process is done the resume screen appears:

   

Check Image

For checking an existing image

1. Navigate to Check Image View

   

2. Pick up an image to check using the Add button and setting the Image Type settings. Click Start when ready.

   

3. When the process is done the resume screen appears:

   

Image to Disk

Navigate to Image to Disk View and follow the instructions:

Clone Storage

1. Navigate to Clone Storage View:

   

2. Select a proper destination drive. The target drive must have enough space to hold all the data from the source. Click Start when ready. If Ignore errors option is specified, error messages will not be displayed while data erasing or verification is in progress. These messages will be displayed in the final report after the process has been completed.
   Note: The clone operation must have exclusive access to the target disk while writing to it. Before you confirm the details of the clone operation, disk image software Active@ Disk Image attempts to lock the target disk for exclusive access. If another application or the operating system is using the target disk, you must close all applications or system processes that may be using the target disk.
   Note: An actual clone is an exact copy of the source. So you cannot specify the size of the destination drive. If you choose a destination storage that is larger than the source, a free (unallocated) space will appear after the cloned dump (data).