Image programs

When the software company Powerquest announced the program Drive Image v. 1.0 in 1997/1998, it was nothing short of a revolution.

Initially the program could be run from one diskette (1.44 Mb) and had a price tag around USD 700

However today, with more players on the market, you can get an Image-program for about USD 50.

Some of the main players are:

• Acronis - Acronis True Image
• Paragon - Paragon Drive Backup
• Symantec - Norton Ghost (aka. Norton Ghost with Drive Image technology :-)
• Terabyte Unlimited - Image for Windows
• r-tools technology - R-Drive Image
• Active Disk Image - Active Disk Image

Some free alternatives:

• Macrium Reflect FREE Edition
• DriveImage XML
• Seagate and Maxtor - DiscWizard Free TrueImage if you have a Seagate/Maxtor disk.
• Western Digital - Acronis True Image Western Digital Edition Free TrueImage if you have a Western Digital disk.

Assuming you already have an anti virus program like Avast! (Free for personal use), Mcafee Virusscan or Symantec Norton Anti Virus and an anti-spyware / -adware program like Lavasoft AdAware (free for personal use)), the tools you need are: