Powerquest Drive Image 2002

Backing up your hard drive couldn't be easier.

Price: £39.95

Manufacturer: Powerquest

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Verdict

Pros:

Excellent Windows interface; Partition Magic tools included.
Cons: Very few new features for the home user.
Overall: While there's no real reason to upgrade, some interesting new features make this software very good value.

Lee Waldock, Personal Computer World 17 Jul 2002

Protecting your data has become easier with the new release of Powerquest's Drive Image 2002. This adds features from the company's Partition Magic hard drive partitioning software, and comes with an updated look and feel.

Drive Image makes an image of your data or hard drive for recovery or backup purposes. This release enables you to work within Windows until you hit the button to do the desired tasks, then the PC reboots into Dos and gets on with the job.

The main new feature strikes you as soon as you open the application. A wizard invites you to make an initial backup of your PC. This wizard checks your drive, then checks for a destination partition for the image you are about to create.

Ordinarily you would use Partition Magic to create this partition, unless you had the foresight to do it when you installed Windows.

Drive Image 2002, however, includes some Partition Magic features and will create a partition for images that is hidden by default. It can also reallocate free space and delete a backup partition.

If you want to convert or resize a partition you will still need Partition Magic, but many users will find that Drive Image has all they require.

The other new features are less exciting for home users. Local area network support has been added to allow image creation and restoration across a network. You also get limited imaging within Windows, without booting to Dos.

This does not include the Windows or System partition, so you'll require a minimum of three partitions (Windows, data and backup) to make use of this feature.

Drive Image 2002 is worthwhile if you do not own any other Powerquest software. However, it's less essential if you currently use Partition Magic and Drive Image as individual packages and are looking to upgrade.

Price: £39.95 (£34 ex VAT)

System requirements: Pentium-compatible processor; 20Mb of hard drive space, Windows 9x, ME, NT4, 2000, XP.

Contact: Powerquest 0118 945 0200
www.powerquest.com

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