Search and Recover™ includes drive imaging tools that not only enable more effective data recovery, but provide an easy backup and storage solution. The following tools are accessed from the Advanced Disk Tools section on the Home page:

  • Make a Copy of a Drive or Disk to copy the contents of a drive into a drive image.
  • Create a Virtual Drive to create a separate drive that simulates a physical drive.
  • Manage Drive Images to view, create, and edit all drive images and virtual drives.

What is drive imaging?

A drive image is a file that can contain mirror copies of other files.

  • A drive image copy is single file that contains a copy of the entire contents of a drive, partition, CD, or other data storage device. Unlike other copying methods that may not save boot information and other critical files, drive images are exact copies of the drive.
  • A virtual drive is a single file that, when mounted, simulates a physical drive on your computer. A virtual drive is, in essence, a drive image that is initially empty, but you can then add files to it.Both types of drive images can be mounted to provide easy drive letter access through Windows Explorer, just like your other drives.

Benefits of Drive Image Copies

  • Part of emergency recovery Take a snapshot of your data before the operating system can potentially overwrite information. When recovering data, it is a good practice to create a disk image of your drive first, and then recover the files from there.
  • Full backup Drive images are exact mirror copies, so if your drive fails you still have an entire copy of your system to restore files from. Unlike an ordinary backup that may not save boot information and other critical files, drive images allow complete restoration of data.
  • Easy management of CDs Transform program CDs into a new drive on your system, with the original CDs inside and ready to use. Disk images are an ideal solution for gamers, graphic artists, and other users who frequently run programs from multiple CDs.

Benefits of Virtual Drives

  • Increased storage flexibility Virtual drives give you greater flexibility in storing your data. You can designate the size of the drive, mount the drive to incorporate it into the local file system, and set the drive to grow as you add data.
  • Storage area for private information A virtual drive can be created with password-protection or with one click, you can unmount the drive, making its contents unavailable until it is mounted again.
  • Simple and safe archiving Virtual drives allow you to easily create a library of your archived data.