Hard Drive Imaging
Hard drive imaging has been used for years to copy the contents of computer hard disk drives to a variety of media. The ‘image’ or exact copy of the contents of the original hard disk drive is simply copied over to a new location, either for storage or use on another computer. Although not commonly used as a daily backup method, hard drive imaging definitely serves its key purpose well.
The better remote data backup software applications and services offer a degree of hard drive imaging capabilities. Some include the ability to do a ‘full’ system backup as the initial backup in the data protection regimen. Others include optional settings for backing up system state and active directory settings and parameters.
When used as a data backup and recovery tool, hard drive imaging can dramatically shorten the timeframe for restoring a complete system due to the native inclusion in the images of system state and active directory settings from the failed or destroyed computer. Additionally, many applications that come pre-installed on today’s computers are not accompanied by OEM disks.
For this reason, many desktop computers currently ship with the capability to perform hard drive imaging as an initial step in their setup by end users. The process is usually offered by a popup text box which encourages users to create a set of recovery disks for that machine. Many people ignore this option repeatedly, or choose to never be reminded of that option again and again, without ever acting on it.
If you are investigating hard drive imaging utilities as a means of backing up critical data and settings, consider RBackup software from Remote Backup Systems. In addition to native support for critical user settings, RBackup software can back up many other critical files and data that will make your recovery from even the worst computer nightmares relatively simple.
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