SelfImage 1.2.1 build 92

[CoolCatBad]

http://selfimage.excelcia.org/

* Create 1:1 image files of any mounted (or unmounted on Windows 2000/XP) hard disk partition.

* Can create an image of an entire hard disk, including the master boot record, partition table, and all partitions (Windows 2000/XP)

* Restore previously created images to any partition, even mounted ones, as long as it doesn't have open files.

* On-the-fly compression accelerated with parallel CPU support to take advantage of today's hyperthreaded, multi-core and SMP systems.

* Skip reading a disk's "free space", treating it as if it were zero. This decreases the size of a compressed image and makes it process MUCH faster. NEW Version 1.2.0 can now do this for Linux ext2/ext3 partitions as well.

* NEW Available as an experimental BartPE plugin for use in boot/rescue CDs.

* Network Block Device support to make images of disks on remote machines, and restore back to them.

* Multi-threaded design for maximum throughput and low CPU overhead.

* It's free software - free as in cost, and free as in open source - released under the GNU General Public License.

[Si Veteran]

VERY cool (Y)

Thanks for the heads up on this :D

[wynaut]

Bookmarked the page some time ago and forgot about it. Good to know that they are still actively working on it.

[TGT]

Anyone knows how this application fairs? Coincidently, I was considering getting Drive Snapshot today.

[LightIdea]

Holy crap, this works great! I've backed up my 500GB media drive (only approx 220GB used :p) and compressed it to 140GB :)

Does this program do splits?...

[strekship]

Since it doesn't support restore yet, how is one supposed to restore the data. Just extract the archive?

[Si Veteran]

Since it doesn't support restore yet, how is one supposed to restore the data. Just extract the archive?

It does?

Restore previously created images to any partition, even mounted ones, as long as it doesn't have open files.

[Boeing 787]

Looks pretty good.

[Evolution]

Has anyone tried this in Vista? How does it compare against CompletePC Backup? Currently I'm using RC2 and CompletePC Backup can't seem to recognize its own images.

[Boeing 787]

The Vista backup app kinda sucks. It always selects C drive by default which makes the image much bigger then neccessary. I like acronis true image 10 better.

[Agnes Leroy]

WOW! This is nice

[strekship]

It does?

oops, I was reading this and though it didn't have restore capabilities.

SelfImage is a new project. As such, there are lots of plans for the future. Currently on the drawing board:

* Restore capability:

o Creation of bootable restore media to restore to drives that can't be restored to from witin Windows

o Ability to read files from an image.

* Output file spanning for easier use of CD/DVD-R media

* Direct backup device output support (direct to CD/DVD/Tape)

* Your idea here!

[J400uk]

Looks verry cool, was looking for something like this the other day.

[MrKuro]

sounds like a nice piece of software, will give this a try to see how it competes with my current favorite: Arconis True Image

[KurtFitzner]

Since it doesn't support restore yet, how is one supposed to restore the data. Just extract the archive?

As someone else already mentioned, SelfImage can restore back to some partitions without any fuss. Basically it's any drive/partition it can get an exclusive lock on (which means there can't be any open files on the partition). There are solutions for restoring your boot partition, though.

1. Windows: You can use a BartPE boot CD/DVD. SelfImage is now available as a BartPE plugin. There is also UBCD4Win, which is based on BartPE, but includes more software (including SelfImage). With SelfImage on one of these CDs, you can restore an image directly to your normal boot drive.
   
2. Linux: SelfImage was originally written to be a benefit to people who dual-boot Linux. The image file it stores is essentially a compressed flat image. This means that normal Linux command-line tools can restore a SelfImage-created image back to a partition.

   $ gzip -dc test.img.gz | dd of=/dev/hda1

   The above would restore test.img.gz back to the first partition on the first hard drive, for example. This means that any live Linux CD can be used to boot your system and restore an image.
   

Direct restore to a boot partition is something that I'm working on. Basically this will consist of a bootable CD with a mini-Linux build. This has been under construction for a while, though, so don't expect this out next week.