Quick and Dirty System Imaging

I recently had the experience of trying out a basic imaging utility for Windows called DriveImage XML. This easy to use imaging application was a breeze to use and did the job well. Paired with a couple of well known utilities, you will be imaging in no time. This may not apply to everyone considering the different system configurations. If you are one of the many who use different hard drives,you may not even use Gparted so skip steps as needed.

1. Download DriveImage XML, GParted ,DriveImage XML BartPE Plugin (You will need this later on) and lastly BartPE’s Bootable CD Creator called PEBuilder

2. Burn ISO of Gparted and install BartPE software

3. With Windows XP CD handy and loaded in the optical drive, load PEbuilder

4. When first loading the program it will ask to scan for Windows files. Since you have your Windows XP disk inserted, choose yes to scan. This scan may take awhile so be patient. Another way with the CD inserted is to point Windows files directly to your optical drive letter.

5. Choose Plugins button and point to the location where the DriveImage XML plugin was saved. Make sure on the plugin list that Drive Image XML is showing as “Enabled”

6. Choose “Build” with the option of ISO. Once it is completed, burn ISO onto CD-R

7. Next load Gparted Live CD into the drive and reboot. This will start the partitioning process.

8. Depending on your current system setup you may choose different ways to partition. Choose wisely and make sure the partition or drive will be at least 20GB or more for the image storage. I opted for creating a seperate partition that is at least 20GB since only one h.d.d is utilized. Those of you that have multiple hard drives and plan on storing the image on a totally separate hard drive, move on to the next step. Those of you that have the one drive and have toi create \ re size partitions,be patient this may take awhile.

9. After the partitioning is complete, load the BartPE CD that was created. BartPE may take a couple of minutes to load. Once it is finished loading up, click the Go button and choose DriveImage XML in the program list.

10. Once in the program, choose backup and the location used will be the drive or partition you desire. This process will take at least 20 minutes or more depending on data. Whenever you need to restore repeat steps 9-10 and choose Restore from the menu choices within Drive Image XML instead of Backup.

That is i you are finished! Thanks for tuning in and Good Luck

**I am not to be held liable for any software or data loss that may have occured using these steps! Use at your own risk!**