DriveImage XML for Windows

Used DriveImage XML for Windows?

Developer’s Description

By Runtime Software

Take backup, image, clone and restore logical drives and partitions.

DriveImage XML is an easy to use and reliable program for imaging and backing up partitions and logical drives. The program allows you to backup logical drives and partitions to image files, browse these images, view and extract files, restore these images to the same or a different drive, copy directly from drive to drive. Image creation uses Microsoft's Volume Shadow Services (VSS), allowing you to create safe "hot images" even from drives currently in use. Images are stored in XML files, allowing you to process them with 3rd party tools, so you'll never again be stuck with a useless backup. Restore images to drives without having to reboot. DriveImage XML also runs from a WinPE boot CD-ROM.

DriveImage XML for Windows

Used DriveImage XML for Windows?

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Full Specifications

GENERAL

Release: April 7, 2015

Latest update: February 26, 2016

Version: 2.50

OPERATING SYSTEMS

Platform: Windows

Operating System

Windows 8
Windows 10
Windows 2003
Windows 7
Windows XP
Windows Vista

Additional Requirements: None

POPULARITY

Total Downloads: 189,012

Downloads Last Week: 2

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Last Updated

User Reviews

3.9/5

88 User Votes

Quicker than expected
Don OswaldApril 6, 2015
Pros
Basic, easy to use.
Cons
none found
Summary
Still haven't used this to restore but backup went smoothly which I take as a good sign.
will not restore
Albino_RedJanuary 24, 2015
Pros
it backs up a hard drive including the operating system. or just partial hard drives.
Cons
will not restore a working copy of Win7. must have a working operating system to restore the back up.( I did NOT use the WinPe boot cd ROM). more of a headache then promised.
Summary
I tried to back up my c:\ drive, with the operating system intact, well it backed it up to a different hard drive, but when I restored the back up copy to a new hard drive it would not boot. I tried to use the win 7 install disk to repair the boot sector and what happened was I ended up with a fresh install of Win7. I WANTED to use the back up I was promised by using this program. I can ALWAYS redo Win7 at anytime. what I can't do is recover all of my files with a clean install. hence the need for a BACK UP copy. even for FREE you are wasting your money getting this program.
Did an excellent job (but worked not like a charm)
GluckstalerSeptember 3, 2013
Pros
- FREE - Clones / Copies Files from a running system - Does an excellent job where other programs ($$$) fail catastrophically - The only windows tool to be able to clone a bootcamp partition
Cons
- Bootsector needs to be manually updated
Summary
Driveimage XML is the windows based equivalent to the mac based carbon copy cloner. It will be your salvation in circumstances where most other programs will fail, like a slowly dying harddrive with drive errors. Driveimage did not update the bootsector, for this you need to either a) use bootup recovery (from the windows installation DVD or b) open up cmd.exe and write (let's suppose your new drive's letter is x) bootsect /nt60 x: /mbr /force If your system doesn't have bootsect anymore, then download it and copy it into your windows directory. In my case I had a slowly dying harddrive, which means that some sectors of the harddrive are irrevocably dead and will generate input / output errors when a (partitioning) program tries to access those sectors directly. The windows based ones failed so catastrophically that they destroyed the partition map of the new harddrive (here testdisk and / or gdisk were my salvation). Most windows based partition software are still not really capable of handling gpt partitioning, with the notable exception of the professional software by runtime. I knew I was bound for a nightmare because a fresh install was not an option and this was a mac book harddrive, which means gpt partitioning, mac and windows partitions. A slowly dying harddrive is very difficult to detect because it just takes much longer boot (both mac and windows partitions) until the mac part didn't boot up at all with the mac emergency recovery partition telling me to replace the HD. 1. I partitioned the new harddrive on a mac using the mac disk utility. I created two partitions, one for mac and one for windows. 2. I used Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the old mac partition to the new one. CCC will create the extra recovery partition for you. 3. Put both HDs into a windows machine and convert on the new HD the FAT partition into NTFS (using the windows computer management utility in administrative tools; you can also delete the partition and then create a new one by windows computer management, but remember windows only sees the first three partitions and the mac os takes up two partitions) 4. Mount both windows partitions and use driveimage xml. 5. Manually update the bootsector as described above
Don't use it!
jglloAugust 10, 2013
Pros
Copied files
Cons
Tried to clone a new hard drive. It copied the files but did not make the new drive bootable. It also installed adware in Firefox and changed default search engine and home page.
Summary
Wasted time and effort using this. Better off spending a few bucks on something that works and you can trust.
Worthless. 80 hrs of added work Find something else
synclix2888August 3, 2013
Pros
easy to load
Cons
Backup was created, but when tried to re-install system it ruined the MBF and then my system no longer booted.
Summary
Find a program that you dont have to be an IT professional to use.
Worse than Nonfunctional It Gives False Security
barney_killerFebruary 1, 2013
Pros
It made what it claimed was an image of the hard drive. Files were recoverable.
Cons
Utterly failed restoring my wife's PC after an issue. We'd have been better off not ever having seen the program since it gave us a false sense of security.
Summary
Go ahead and try this if you want to use it as file backups, but even if you manage to restore the image to your Windows drive, it won't work and you'll be @#$%ed anyway.
Wasted two days using this
getterdunnowJanuary 6, 2013
Pros
It copied the files to my new drive
Cons
1) After the copy, the new drive would not boot. Eventually I got it to boot using Startup Repair on my Windows 7 64-bit repair disk. 2) Got dialog box re Steam.exe error (not a problem on old drive) 3) It did not copy the 100 MB System partition. I had qualms about this from the start since the program only let me select one partition on old drive. 4) Got error message that the system could not save the resume file during reboot. 5) Could not run CHKDSK on new drive. Got message that it could not open volume for direct access. Additionally, the program took 7 hours to run. Spent another 8 hours trying to use what it copied before giving up.
Summary
Used DriveImage XML Private Edition Version 2.44's Drive To Drive option Copied 650GB of Windows 7 data from 750GB Seagate Barracuda drive to a 1TB Seagate Barracuda drive. Caveat: After doing the copy, I read the Help file for the Drive to Drive option. It makes it clear that I was supposed to create a new partition on the new drive first. I didn't. But, when the program completed, there were no error messages, so I don't know if this had anything to do with the problems listed above. I didn't want to keep fixing the problems, and opted for another method of copying files to the new drive. Decided to use Seagate DiscWizard. Used the automatic Clone option. Took 3 hours. It overwrote the files that DriveImage had copied to the new drive. When done I was able to immediately use the new disk to boot without error. And, when I checked the partitions, all three were just like the original C: (and, the new primary drive was C:). Incidentally, when first booting to use the new drive, I went into the BIOS and disabled the old drive. One last thing: I couldn't get CHKDSK to run at startup this time either. But, I did get it to run from the Command Prompt on the Windows Recovery Options screen.
cloned drive is not bootable
pfeldmanDecember 19, 2012
Pros
The interface is simple and easy to understand.
Cons
I couldn't make the application work.
Summary
I attemped to clone a Windows 8 boot drive to a secondary drive. Unlike some cloning applications, DriveImage XML will not clone a larger drive to a smaller one, even if the used part of the source drive is smaller than the target drive. So, I followed these steps to clone the drive: 1. Download gparted-livecd-0.14.1-1.iso from sourceforge.net. "GParted is a free partition editor for graphically managing your disk partitions. With GParted you can resize, copy, and move partitions without data loss ..." 2. Right-click on the .iso file and select the option to burn it to a CD. 3. Boot on the CD and use GParted to reduce the size of the source partition to match the size of the target drive. 4. Download DriveImage XML version 2.44 (drive cloning software) from runtime.org and install it. Note: One must right-click on the installer and select "Run as Administrator" from the context menu. 5. Use DriveImage to perform the cloning operation. 6. Use GParted to return the source partition to its original size. All of the above steps appeared to work, but when I attempted to boot on the cloned drive, it was not bootable. A comparison of the original and cloned drives showed that user files and application files are the same, but apparently the boot sectors were not copied. It is fairly clear that GParted did what it was supposed to do, so it appears that DriveImage XML is buggy. I think that I may try Acronis next, although some people have reported problems with that application as well. Dr. Phillip M. Feldman
Excellent product that will clone a hard drive quick.
deckers1November 10, 2012
Pros
Everything works, if you have to be fast there is no other way.
Cons
If the main drive is slightly bad when you start, it will make a copy of a bad drive. But how would they be responsible for that?
Summary
I can't ask for a better deal. Cloned my drive in a few minutes {around an hour}. I am very happy with it. Don't look elsewhere, trust me, it works and you will not have to buy anything, ever.
Stable, not over-complicated and it works!
HowardBallingerOctober 20, 2012
Pros
In Win-7, start it to "run as administrator" with a right-click. You'll be reminded if you don't. The interface is great -- just do read the screens so you'll know what you're up to. The third dialog -- the one headed "Backup" -- is to select where the backup will go. Of course the test is whether it will restore your drive. I did that once, a few years ago, with DriveImage XML together with a Bart-PE startup CD. Put my new (larger) HDD in the machine, hooked it up, and the old drive was recreated on the new one just perfectly.
Cons
I don't see a way to restore specific files with DriveImage XML, only the whole drive (maybe I'm missing something). But anyway I use another, conventional backup program in addition to this one, so I can restore a list file or two.
Summary
Excellent software, and it's reassuring to know it's been around for years and still works! And I appreciate the opportunity to have it for personal use at no cost.