PowerQuest Adds Support for Windows 2000 Professional, Linux in Drive Image 3.0. Upgrade to Version 3.01 is now available.

  PowerQuest Corp., a leader in storage device management software, is announcing Drive Image 3.0 with support for Windows 2000 Professional, Linux Ext2 and Linux SWAP file systems. The new version also includes support for large hard drives and faster compression. When a new version of Partition Magic has released, last year, PowerQuest excluded OS/2 Warp from the support for PM interface. Now, the company is announcing that the CD with Drive Image 3.0 is also for OS/2. Drive Image 3.0, a super-improved release, incorporates the famous Partition Magic.

Drive Image 3.0 allows users to create image files of entire hard drives or individual partitions of their drives. Images can be stored on a removable drive, secondary hard drive or a different partition until needed for data restoration or migration to a new drive. The software is also used to perform full system backups for disaster recovery.

Drive Image 3.0 is a robust, proven hard-drive imaging solution for data protection, reliable and easy backups, disaster recovery and upgrades.

Common Drive Image Scenario

As an example of how Drive Image is used, a computer user has a 27.3GB hard drive that has been formatted into two operating system partitions, three data partitions, and a backup partition. He wants to back up only the data partitions for safekeeping. The user creates an image of the data partitions and saves it to the backup partition. But before creating the image, he instructs Drive Image to span the image so it can be easily copied to CDs. After putting the image in the backup partition, he tells Drive Image to hide that partition so that another user can't accidentally delete it.

Several weeks later, data one of the partitions becomes corrupt. The user launches Drive Image and has the program unhide the backup partition. He restores just the third data partition from the image file and within minutes is up and running.

"With its Windows' look and feel and the wizard-driven interface, Drive Image 3.0 eliminates the hassle and confusion most computer users experience when attempting to protect, backup, recover, or upgrade their computers," said Travis Lee, product line manager at PowerQuest. "It provides a simple and effective way for users of all experience levels to recover from computer disasters and gives users peace of mind that their data is safe."

Among its features, Drive Image 3.0 boasts the ability to view individual files within an image and select which file to restore. Additionally, the Drive Image File Editor allows the user to selectively copy or delete partitions from an image file to create a new customized image.

Additional SmartSector Support

SmartSector technology, the underlying power in Drive Image 3.0, has two distinct advantages over file-by-file methods. First, SmartSector reads the file allocation table or master file table, then reads each track only once, improving speed and accuracy, instead of moving back and forth between tracks as file-by-file methods do.

Second, SmartSector preserves the exact placement of file blocks or clusters ensuring hard drive and Windows optimizations are imaged and restored in their exact state. File-based solutions copy the data and then relocate clusters as they copy the files to the destination drive. SmartSector ensures that those copy-protected programs will operate properly after being restored to the destination drive.

Drive Image 3.0 creates image files for FAT, FAT32, NTFS, Linux Ext2, Linux SWAP, and HPFS file systems and has the ability to hide, unhide, delete, or set active disk partitions. These features are used when working with systems containing multiple partitions and operating systems. They provide the power to configure systems without having to exit Drive Image 3.0 and run other utilities.

Users may also protect an image file created with Drive Image 3.0 from a crash or from additional users by writing it to any partition and then hiding that partition. ImageShield, a security feature which allows users to password protect important image files, is included in Drive Image 3.0.

Pricing & Availability

Drive Image 3.0 will be available by late-April for a suggested retail price of $69.95 (US) in English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Japanese and Chinese. Users may purchase the product through computer retail stores or via download from PowerQuest's Web site at https://order.powerquest.com/webstore/index.html.

As a bonus, PowerQuest is offering a complimentary copy of PowerQuest DataKeeper 3.0 English version. The bonus product can be downloaded in conjunction with the purchase and online registration of Drive Image 3.0. PowerQuest DataKeeper is an incremental data backup solution that automatically backs up designated data files, providing a solution to secure and maintain the availability of your most critical data. For non-English-speaking users, PowerQuest DataKeeper does not support extended characters in the filename, but completely protects and restores all data in those files.

Product System Requirements

Intel 386 SX compatible or higher; 16 MB RAM (32 MB required for FAT 32 or NTFS); 5 MB hard-disk space; Windows 2000 Professional, 95, 98, NT Workstation, 6.X DOS or OS/2; CD-ROM drive; 3.5 inch diskette drive; VGA or higher video support.

It's official. Independent testing has finally proven what thousands of IT professionals have known all along – that Drive Image Pro 3.0 is the fastest way to clone your hard drive and back up your data. Just how much faster is Drive Image Pro than the other leading imaging solutions? Try 20% in the all-important multicasting category and nearly 100% in disk-to-disk creation. And that's not all. In testing, Drive Image Pro beat its competition in virtually every other category as well.

The key is PowerQuest's unique SmartSector® technology that dramatically speeds up the Windows deployment process while preserving all of your Windows performance enhancements. Combined with TCP/IP multicasting, SmartSector imaging makes it easy for you to PowerCast™ a single image over a network to simultaneously configure up to 999 Windows workstations in just minutes!

 Click here to view the latest benchmark tests results

Fast and Easy Windows Deployment
Simultaneously deploy Windows workstations across the network
in just minutes!

• PowerCasting™ - Combines SmartSector imaging and TCP/IP multicasting to simultaneously deploy Windows workstations across the enterprise in minutes.
• SmartSector™ Imaging - Dramatically speeds up the process of creating and restoring an image by only copying used or allocated sectors on the hard drive for FAT, FAT32, NTFS and HPFS file systems.
• Fast Image Compression - Saves valuable disk and network space, while significantly reducing the time required to create and restore images over a network.
• Sysprep Tool Support - Drive Image Pro integrates seamlessly with Microsoft's®
  Sysprep tool.
• BootDisk Builder - Dramatically simplifies the process of creating a network boot diskette, by automatically loading the appropriate network drivers.

 Preserves Windows Optimizations
Unlike file-by-file cloning solutions, Drive Image Pro preserves your Windows optimizations and saves you time.

• Exact Imaging - Preserves optimizations by creating and restoring an exact image. This not only ensures that all your programs, including copy protected programs, will work properly, but that all your Windows performance enhancements will also be preserved.

 
Fast Hard-Drive Upgrades or Backups
Drive Image Pro simplifies the work of upgrading and configuring
existing workstations.

• Simple-to-use Interface - Helps you perform various tasks with ease using the interactive step-by-step guides.
• Disk Integrity and Bad Sector Checking - Protects your valuable data by notifying you of bad sectors or other potential problems present on the drive before imaging.
• Selective File Restore - Quickly restore selected files or folders for backup or recovery purposes from compressed, uncompressed or spanned files for FAT, FAT32, and NTFS.
  

  Manage Changing Desktops
Whether you're deploying new PCs, upgrading existing hard drives, or distributing software updates, Drive Image Pro is the best solution to help you manager your changing desktop environment.

• Drive Image File Editor - Swap partitions from one image file to another, or selectively copy or delete partitions, and compress and uncompress image files.
• DriveMapper™ - Updates drive-letter assignments that may have changed during the imaging restoration process.
• MagicMover™ - Moves applications from one partition to another.
  

 PartitionMagic Pro
Drive Image Pro includes the world's best partition management solution—allowing you to create, resize, move or convert partitions before or after deployment.

DeltaDeploy
Manage changing desktop environments from a central location, and distribute software updates and changes across the network and Internet.

Complete Cloning Solution
Nothing is as complete as a SmartSector image. That's why more IS professionals are choosing the complete solution—Drive Image Pro—over file-based solutions.

• ImageShield - Password protect and encrypt image files for an extra level of protection.
• SIDchanger - Reassigns a new unique security identification (SID) for imaging NT workstations.
• Command Line Scripting - A hands-free approach to automate the entire Windows deployment or cloning process.
• BootMagic - Lets you easily run multiple operating systems on the same machine without compatibility problems.
  

CD-ROM version system requirements

• Windows 2000 Professional, Windows 95, 98, Windows 3.x, NT Workstation, DOS, or OS/2.
• Intel/386™ SX compatible or higher

About PowerQuest

PowerQuest Corp., a leading software developer and technology pioneer, provides jaw-dropping tools for IS professionals to manage, deploy and protect storage devices in the enterprise. PowerQuest is headquartered in Orem, Utah, with offices in Austin, Texas; Munich, Germany; and London.

PowerQuest, Drive Image, SmartSector and ImageShield are trademarks or registered trademarks of PowerQuest Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

CONTACT AUTHOR

PowerQuest

http://www.powerquest.com

Call 1-800-379-2566 (North America)
or +1-801-437-8900
e-mail to magic@powerquest.com

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