Backing up your computer is an essential process. Viruses, malware and hardware failure can all lead to you losing critically important data like bank details, personal documents, music and other files of significant value. If you backup on a regular basis however, if you lose your data you can restore it easily.
This tutorial will guide you step by step through backing up your hard drive using DriveImage XML.
DriveImage XML Overview
DriveImage XML is a free backup program for Windows. It creates images of hard drives/partitions which can later be browsed so as to extract individual files, or fully restored. It is both fast and stable, and is easy to use. The major advantage it has over other backup programs is that file format it saves to is in XML, which can be read by any other program, unlike other pay-for products.
Now, open up the program, and you will be presented with this screen:
Click on the "Backup" link. You will now be presented with a list of your partitions/hard drives. Select the ones you want to backup (holding shift if selecting multiple drives) and then click Next.
The next screen will be a summary of the drives you have selected. Check it to make sure they are the ones you want to backup, and the click Next. You will now be presented with the following screen:
Here you have a number of options, which are explained below.
Directory: The folder you want the backup to be stored in.
File name: Change the file name of the backup. By default, its set to the drive label.
Raw mode: Creates a sector-by-sector backup of the drive. By default this is switched off, since it backs up the free space on your drive as well as the used space, thus creating a backup as large as your hard drive. Without this turned on, DriveImage only backups the used space on your drive. Keep in mind the raw backups cannot be browsed. It is recommended you only turn this on if you need an exact copy of the entire drive.
Split large files: If you are storing your backup on a FAT file system (which doesn't allow file sizes above 4gb) or burning them to CD/DVD, use this to split the backup into multiple files.
Compressed: This option can significantly reduce the size of the backup, but the backup will be significantly slower. Recommended if you don't have much storage space, but if you don't care how large your backup is, leave it turned off for a significant speed boost.
Hot Imaging Strategy: This is how DriveImage copies your files. You can usually leave this as it is, because if the first option fails it will automatically fall back onto the next.
Now just click Next, and your backup will begin. The time it takes varies on the size of the backup, the options you choose, the speed of your computer etc. As a rough guide for how long it takes, a 10gb backup I performed took around 20 minutes, with compression turned off, running on XP Pro with 2gb of RAM and a Pentium D 2.6ghz processor.
You will get this screen when the backup is finished:
Now you can either burn it to CD or transfer it to an external hard drive or another media type. Don't store it on the computer you backed up.
Restoring Individual Files
One of the great things about DriveImage XML is that you can browse the backups that you have created and extract individual files. This is very useful if you accidentally delete an important file or non-system files become corrupt.
Open DriveImage XML and click on the Browse link. A open file prompt will pop up. Browse to where your backup is stored and select the XML file associated with it. Then click Open. DriveImage will then read the XML file, like so:
When this is finished, you will be presented with a file browser interface that allows you to navigate around the backup. You can right click and View, Launch or Extract files. You can also search individual directories.
A tutorial on how to restore entire drives is coming soon.
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