Back up computers and drives
Backing up your digital data is a critical step to protect against data loss due to hardware failure, software issues, or cyberattacks. In the O&O DiskImage Help, under the Back up drives tab, you will find all the necessary functions and instructions to effectively back up, duplicate, or restore your drives.
Backing up drives
This chapter provides a comprehensive guide to protecting your data. It explains in detail how to:
- Create complete system backups to secure your entire system including all applications, settings, and files.
- Perform selective drive backups to back up specific drives or partitions – ideal for regular backups of important data.
- Utilize advanced backup options, such as compression and encryption, to make your backups efficient and secure.
Whether you are an experienced IT professional or a home user, the following pages will help you maximize the benefits of O&O DiskImage and effectively protect your data.
Imaging functions
O&O DiskImage offers two different types of imaging; complete imaging and imaging of the changes. Any image, regardless of the type, can be created either file-based or forensically.
A file-based complete image, such as one for partition D, contains all data found on the partition. The size of the image corresponds approximately to the used space plus the space needed for metadata. Sector-based imaging is enabled by default and is fully adequate for most user scenarios.
The size of a forensic image of a partition corresponds to the size of the disk, regardless of how the current space is allocated. All clusters of the disk will be backed up according to their current status. You can enable forensic imaging if you experience data loss and need the exact status of that disk in order to recover data, but still have to use the system. In cases like this, we recommend using the O&O DiskImage bootable disk. Doing so helps prevent O&O DiskImage from overwriting the lost data. Further information about this can be found under Create bootable disk
An image of the changes requires either a complete image or another image of the changes as a starting point. A check will be made to see if any data has been added, removed, or changed. These changes will then be saved in the new image. This type of imaging is especially useful for saving space. The image will be the size of the changed data plus any metadata.
For security reasons, we recommend a limit of five to ten images of the changes for every complete image. For optimal protection, create one complete image and then five images of the changes. After that, you can create a new complete image that can be used as the base for another five to ten images of the changes.