David Smith

I have two hard drives C and D. I have used DI 2002 to make a back up of drive C (where I keep my OS and other important programmes). This back up I store on Drive D. On checking the amount of space used on drive D I noticed that quite a lot of space had been used, (its a 60gb hd). I often do a new back up using DImage about once a month and I noticed that when I looked at the contents of D especially the file called Image there was about 8 seperate files one marked Image the others when you click on them asks if you want to search the internet. I thought that when you made a new back up the previous one was deleted but I may be wrong. I have deleted all the files except the main image file, is this OK. Thanks

coathanger007

Seems like you made a big mistake. Disk image splits your backup into several files just like zip where the first one indexes the others. By deleting any part, you have corrupted the entire backup and need to reimage. Same goes with Ghost.

---

David Smith

Thanks for your reply coathanger, I will do a re-image. I still don't understand why everytime you do an image the space used on the hard drive increases. I thought the previous image would be removed.

coathanger007

No, you'll have to manually override the previous image yourself. You might be able to recover deleted files by using PC Inspector File recovery freeware.

---

kitct

When you do the image w/DI you simply have to direct the image to the previous image or it will jus go where it wants, as coathanger has stated. (Especially on a diff partition.) At least thats the way it works for me. Then its jus 1 file not several.

I make 2 images though.First one is after a "fresh" install. The other is a continually "up to date" image. I name each of them so that I know which is which. Jus takes a little practice.

coathanger007

If you were fussy enough, you could have a removeable hard drive partitioned to store each image. i.e 1 backup image per partition.

As for continual backups, kitct, you might like to try mirrored RAID

---

kitct

Thanks coathanger, actually my "continual" update is jus every few weeks or so, an I jus put the image (replacing the previous image) on my data partition on an 80g hdd an there is plenty of space there.

Edit: Jus wondered, would it be ok to put mandrake on my e: partition even though I already have 98 on c: and xp on d: do you know (noticed you have linux tri boot)?

coathanger007

Now that I think about it, RAID could be great alternative to goback - I'll post in the other thread.

Testing edit button - hope this works.

---

kitct

Me thinks you missed my "edit" coathanger...

coathanger007

That should be fine. Just remember to install in correct order - 98, XP, Mandrake. Wow, I didn't even notice the edit button until now - could be really handy!

---

David Smith

Thank you everybody for your input and I stand corrected. I deleted DI2000 completely and reinstalled the programme. I used the wizard and made a new image file on my second hard drive 'd'. I then used it to copy my c drive and yes it took up the same amount of disk space as before. The image file is just over 7GB and takes about three hours to copy using drive image. Thanks once again for your help.

coathanger007

You must have quite a slow hard disk or DI slower than Ghost. I imaged over 3 times that size in half that time.

---

kitct

Does seem odd.I do my 9G OS from my 80G hdd an it takes about 10 minutes.

coathanger007

Perhaps DI is slower as it works in Windows OS with stuff running in the background while Ghost reboots into faster DOS mode - or could just be slow 5400rpm HDD or IDE bandwidth, or could be because of high compression used...quite a significant speed difference...anyway, this is starting to go off topic.

---

David Smith

Hello again, I am not all that expert in the use of this programme all I did was install it and use the wizard to create the image copy on my D Drive. I think it uses high compression when imaging For your information there are ten files in the image folder, one PQI File showing 2,097,024 KB's and the other nine showing the same amount of KB's, does this mean that there is a multiplication of 2097024x10.

Hard Drive is 60gb running at 7200 Maxtor make.

I would be pleased if you could give me a few tips on how to do an image faster.

I may have given false info in my previous post, I do a complete copy of my C drive which includes other programmes and on checking I found that the used space is 22.9GB's on this drive, slightly more than I suggested earlier. Sorry.

coathanger007

What you've said is correct. I never use compression as I have plenty of space but the I'm guessing your speed should be about right. Only way I can think of speeding up is to run in DOS or get an even faster hard drive. But as long as you do backups relatively infrequently, 3 hours overnight isn't a huge hassle.

---

David Smith

Thanks coathanger007 for the time spent in helping me out. Even with the image done I still have over half the D Drive empty, I think next time I try it out without the compression and see what happens, once again thanks.

coathanger007

Not a problem - nice conversing with you.

---