Drive Image Pro version 4.0 is a package that can be used to manage coordinated changes to data recorded on almost the whole hardware environment of a 486DX or higher system with an operating system of DOS 5.0 (or higher), Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000 Professional, or NT 4.0 workstation. A simple application might be to restore vulnerable files (programs or databases) for rapid recovery, but a more practical example might be to coordinate a gross change to an entire suite of programs installed on identical - or at least similar - systems throughout an enterprise.

For historical reasons, an enterprise may consist of programs and whole configurations duplicated at several different sites, such as regional offices, and the systems coordinator has the task of maintaining the integrity of the systems overall by keeping their data, programs and operations in synch, all with the latest corrections. An excellent (thorough, yet easy) way of accomplishing this is by creating an image that can be distributed to each site. Essentially, Drive Image Pro is a facility for making an image of a hard drive which will serve as a duplicate of the system.

Suppose for the moment you are responsible for administration of software on an enterprise entailing several systems, all very similar, in several locations. Drive Image Pro will equip you to coordinate, quickly and securely, a change to a database or to programs. A master 'clone' image of a hard disk containing the files is constructed, and this can be distributed to each of the sites in such a way that hardware configuration differences (for example, disk capacity, partitioning, disk type) can be accommodated.

The image of a disk created by Drive Image Pro is not a simple file-by-file copy of the information: instead their SmartSector imaging strategy is used to make an exact counterpart of a disk or partition. A file-by-file copy offers, for several purposes, a less suitable method of copying. When using a file-copying strategy, disk fragmentation can slow down the process significantly, but a disk image copy is unaffected by this. There are also common instances of programs that rely on physical disk location characteristics in order to provide copy protection. File backup programs are useless in these cases, as the program may not load or run properly - yet with a drive image, both fragmentation characteristics and disk location references are preserved within the image itself.

Another advantage of using Drive Image Pro instead of a file copying or backup strategy, either to deploy clone systems or to restore a corrupted system, is that any Windows optimized characteristics will automatically be preserved within the drive image, while they will be lost in a standard file-by-file copy process.

Drive Image Pro will integrate seamlessly with Microsoft's SysPrep tool, available to Windows NT and Windows 2000 workstation users wishing to use security IDs.

Included along with Drive Image Pro is the same company's well beloved PartitionMagic Pro, which provides tools to manipulate, copy and create partitions within a disk, and BootMagic, which handles booting into one of two or more operating systems from the same disk. For example, one single computer can be tailored to boot either into Windows 95, with its own data partition, or into Linux, with its own quite separate partition. The latest PartitionMagic includes extremely useful tools for splitting a partition into two, each supported with its own root directory organization. With these tools you can also create a bootable recovery CD.

With the inclusion of the new Windows 32-bit PowerCast Server application, you can send an image file you have created to one or multiple Drive Image Pro clients at the same time, although the image is copied only once to the server, and then once by the server to all the clients. (Note that all clients, recipients of image files, must be included in the license.) Typically, each system to receive an image should be booted using a specially prepared disk that sets it up as a PowerCast client, and then it will be capable of downloading the image file swiftly to disk.

Another component is called DeltaDeploy, crafted to supervise and automate customized updating of applications and desktop changes. Its routines create a bespoke or tailored executable program that will ensure that the relevant elements (i.e. software updates, applications or desktop changes) are installed in the desired way on each workstation. In this way even a complex update deployment (where there are numerous exceptions in each configuration) can be planned, executed and monitored automatically, without burdensome administration and with a central register of configuration differences.

The Task Builder sets up automated tasks and ensures that they are run correctly on each of the configurations for which each task applies. This is useful for executing some of the most useful and common tasks presented to an enterprise manager, such as adding a workstation (with disk devices), restoring a computer to its original configuration (after a crash, or a security breach), or even backing up systems in a regular cycle. In addition it can be used to simplify rarer but time-consuming tasks such as preparing a system remotely with a new partition on its disk, in order to accommodate a new or temporary operating system.

Typically the result of image compression is a saving of space by fifty percent. It should be noted that in Windows terminology and for Drive Image Pro purposes, a 'device' is a medium (or partition of a medium) which is addressed by a letter of the alphabet: since tape drives are not handled as devices, their contents must be transferred elsewhere before they can be imaged. The package provides all the tools required to handle most cloning complications (for example copying data from IDE drives destined to be copied to SCSI drives), and step-by-step instructions in the manual guide through such complications.
  

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