FAQ

We do not provide support for the free Private Edition of DriveImage XML. You should browse our documentation for a solution or search the Internet for any problems you might have.

For the buyer of the Commercial Edition, we provide support for one year for the number of support incidences specified at the purchase time. We provide only support to the buyer and not to the users of the Commercial Edition, as the buyer should provide support to the users.

It depends on whether you create a multi-file image or not. A multi-file image will have a .xml file, a .dat file, and files numbered .001, .002, .003, etc. If you do not create a multi-file image, there will be a .dat file and a .xml file.

You will be prompted for a location in the software, and you can choose wherever you like (not on the source drive though). The default location is My Documents.

With the software installed on a PC, supported file systems are Windows XP, Server 2003, Server 2008, Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10, 32 and 64 bit.

However, you can boot from our Runtime Live CD or a WinPE Boot Medium and backup older Windows machines as well.

No, you can only restore your data to a partition that is precisely the same size or larger, regardless of the data size.

No, you have to write the data to a hard drive first. Then if you have chosen multi-file images, you can burn those files to CD or DVD.

For the backup there are the following commands:

  /bx	 Backup drive x, e.g. /bc	 
  /tx	 Write backup files to x, e.g. /td:\backups\drive_c	 
  /r	 Raw mode, e.g. /r or /r-	 
  /s	 Split image, e.g. /s or /s-	 
  /c	 Compression (fast), e.g. /c or /c-	 
  /c1	 Compression (fast), e.g. /c1	 
  /c2	 Compression (good, but slow), e.g. /c2	 
  /v	 Try VSS first, e.g. /v, do not use with /l	 
  /l	 Try locking first, e.g. /l, do not use with /v

Restore and Drive-to-drive are not allowed in command-line mode.

You must put the image into an existing partition. If necessary, create a new partition with Windows Disk Management first. You do not need to format it. The size of the partition you create will determine the drive's size — for example, if you create a 20GB partition and then restore a 10GB size image to it, the size of the drive will still be 20GB. You can not restore an image to a smaller partition.

To start Windows Disk Management, click "Start->Run..." and enter diskmgmt.msc.

Alternatively, you can also go to the command-line and invoke diskpart.

To restore an image to an existing partition, click "Restore" in the main program window.

Note on boot drives: If you want your computer to boot from the new partition, you must set it to "active" with Windows Disk Management.

It is a good idea to perform a "Restore" from our Runtime Live CD or a WinPE Boot Medium.

This error can occur if VSS (Volume Shadow Services) is not running correctly on your system. This is not a DriveImage error. Poorly configured Windows systems usually cause it.

Click "Start->Run..." and enter services.msc. Verify that the following services are enabled:

• MS Software Shadow Copy Provider

• Volume Shadow Copy

Also, make sure you can stop and start these services.

Possible reasons for VSS failures:

1. For VSS to work, at least one volume in your computer must be NTFS. If you use only FAT drives, VSS will not function. The required NTFS volume does not need to be identical with the volume you want to image.

2. You should make sure that VSSVC.EXE is running in your task manager. If the problems persist, going to the command prompt and registering oleaut.dll and oleaut32.dll using regsvr32 might help.

Without VSS you still can make images with locking or without locking.

To boot from a drive,

• The boot partition should be located on the first drive (DISK0). Remove other drives to ensure this designation.

• The boot partition should be the first partition on the drive.

• The boot partition must be a "primary" partition.

• The boot partition must be "active".

Set Disk ID

If your drive still does not boot, you can try to set a new "Disk ID". Windows remembers old drive letter assignments, which can cause problems when trying to boot from a cloned drive. You can force the removal of old drive letter assignments by setting a new Disk ID. Click "Tools->Set new Disk ID" and follow the instructions.

Vista Boot Problem

If your cloned Vista drive refuses to boot with a "winload.exe is missing or corrupt" message, you might need to change the BCD store.

Fix automatically:

• In DriveImage, click on Tools->Fix Vista boot problem.

• Select the BCD Store of the new (cloned) drive.

• Click "Update BCD Store".

Your drive should now boot.

Fix manually:

• Boot from your Vista installation DVD and start the command prompt. If your Windows directory is on C: navigate to c:\windows\system32.

• Type bcdedit and press Enter. You should see the following screen:

  Windows Boot Manager
   --------------------
   identifier {bootmgr}
   device partition=C:
   description Windows Boot Manager
   locale en-US
   inherit {globalsettings}
   default {current}
   displayorder {current}
   toolsdisplayorder {memdiag}
   timeout 30
  Windows Boot Loader
   -------------------
   identifier {current}
   device partition=C:
   path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
   description Microsoft Windows Vista
   locale en-US
   inherit {bootloadersettings}
   osdevice partition=C:
   systemroot \Windows
   resumeobject {d96b9513-83c6-11db-8615-bcd1a0f0502e}
   nx OptIn
  

• If under "Windows Boot Loader", "device" or "osdevice", the information does not show your boot partition's name but displays "unknown", you need to correct this. Type:

  bcdedit /set {default} osdevice "partition=C:
  bcdedit /set {default} device "partition=C:
  

Read a good article about Vista cloning problems here.

Windows 7 Boot Problem

Windows 7 provides all the challenges mentioned above, and a boot manager located in a small partition preceding the Windows 7 partition. However, we found the Windows 7 installation DVD very helpful with fixing boot problems. If you do not get the drive to boot, put in the installation DVD and initiate a startup repair. Here is a comprehensive article on how to do that. 

The image was created in RAW format. In RAW format, DriveImage does not interpret the data. Thus it has no knowledge about individual files.

Look at this example, backup of 33 GB using DriveImage:

Only home users are allowed to use the free "Private Edition". It is not possible to get support for the "Private Edition".

Businesses, organizations, and commercial users must buy the "Commercial Edition". The "Commercial Edition" comes with support, and you can customize the Welcome screen.

No, our data recovery software generates different kinds of images that are not compatible with images created by DriveImage.

Yes, as long as it is a hardware RAID. If it is a Windows software RAID, you can back it up, but you can not restore it back to the software RAID. You can restore it to an individual drive or hardware RAID, though.