Perfect Image Professional

by Avanquest

Product Features

• Create an exact copy of your PC
• Never Re-Install Software or Windows again
• Back up music, photos & videos, emails, Outlook data, and settings
• Restore individual files or entire hard disk
• Schedule backups automatically

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B000N8LPPI
• Date first available at Amazon.com: March 1, 2007
• Average Customer Review: 2.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,016 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
  • #78 in Software > Utilities > Backup

Product Description

PerfectImage Professional creates an exact copy of your hard disk and lets you instantly restore the entire machine including operating system, applications and all data in the event of a fatal system crash or virus attack — no reinstallations required! Best of all, Perfect Image does all the work for you! It automates the process and backs up your music, video, photos, emails, contacts, calendar, tasks and user settings with just a few clicks. Protect your entire system and important data today! BENEFITS: 1) Backup and Restore all data: entire operating system; music, pictures and video; emails, contacts and calendar; and applications and settings. 2) Real-time Hard Disk Image Backup. Using different hard disk imaging modes, Perfect Image is able to backup any file system you use. For Windows' partitions you can create complete system backup images with no need to reboot Windows or close any application. 3) Backup Capsule. You can create special secure place on your hard disk to store disk backup images. You can also create bootable DVD/CD backup archives, save disk backup images on USB, FireWire and other external, local or network drives. 4) Differential Backup. Perfect Image allows users to create backup images of the changes performed since initial system backup, thus reducing the size of the further backup images. Differential backup along with a built-in scheduler delivers a completely automatic disk backup solution. 5) Data Restore and Recovery. Perfect Image delivers fast and easy data restore from a hard disk image. You can browse backup images and restore separate files and folders or entire partitions and hard disks. In case of an unbootable system, Perfect Image includes a powerful recovery CD. You can also create custom bootable recovery media containing backup images. 6) Hard Disk Cloning. You can easily clone your old hard disk to deploy a new one, eliminating tiresome and time consuming operating system and application installation and adjustments.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Worst Software I ever purchased, September 20, 2008

By 

Ronald R. Larsen (Camdenton MO USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Perfect Image Professional (CD-ROM)

I Purchased 'Perfect Image'on August 2, 2008 (Order# 1019051984). Product received Saturday August 30, 2008. Four weeks to deliver; not a good start.
After installing the product on my office computer, the CD drive wouldn't read discs. Error was "incorrect media". I tried using a USB DVD/CD, with the same results. I uninstalled the software, and the devices were once again usable.
I thought I would give the product another try on my laptop computer. Product loaded ok, and when I backed up my laptop, 'Perfect Image' indicated to log off and reboot for the changes to be effective.
That is when the lap top completly failed....on boot I get "Operating System not found" My laptop is totally wasted...wont boot from any MBR order, and like my office computer, the CD drive is "inop", as apperently is the HD.
Changing boot order, etc to no avail. It is extremely fortunate that I did not shut my office computer down before removing uninstalling 'Perfect Image', or I would have trashed it as well.
This is the worst software I have ever used, and I have been doing this for nearly 40 years. I am a EE with a Masters in computer Science, and have never encountered such a poor product, It obviously has serious compatibility issues.

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars No support, September 27, 2007

By 

Aaron Harper (Michigan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Perfect Image Professional (CD-ROM)

Does not support Vista 64-bit. I bought this at a retail store and the box says supports windows vista. I get the product home only to find out it does not support 64-bit vistas which is not on the box any where. Also if you need support over the phone its 24.95 the first 10 minutes and then a certain dollar amount for every minute after that. Doesn't look like a very good company.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars PERFECT For Making An IMAGE (Clone) of Your Hard Drive, May 29, 2009

By 

Avid Reviewer "A Music Fan" (San Jose, CA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Perfect Image Professional (CD-ROM)

First off, the product page makes no mention of the version number: the version of Avanquest Perfect Image on sale here is 11 and Avanquest Perfect Image 11 is NOT compatible with Windows Vista 64-bit! This review is on the Avanquest Perfect Image 11 - if you're a Windows XP or a Vista 32-bit user, read on.

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When I saw the average user rating for Perfect Image 11, I navigated away from its product page faster than I was able hit the Back button on my browser. I discovered, however, that the ratings for the alternative products such as Acronis True Image, Paragon Drive Backup, Powerquest Drive Image, and Norton Ghost were less than stellar as well. I decided to give Perfect Image a whirl - and I'm glad I did.

Perfect Image does a superb job of making a clone (image) of your entire hard drive!


Hard Drive Image
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For making an image (clone) of your hard drive, there's no need to install Perfect Image. Simply boot up with the CD into a GUI interface. The GUI isn't as pretty as Vista (or even XP), but it gets the job done.

Here's the *caveat*:
There's NO surefire way to acertain that Perfect Image has successfully made an image of a hard drive other than to TEST the image by performing a restore of the image and verifying that the restored hard drive does in fact work (-1 Star).

In my experience, Perfect Image is fairly reliable for making an image of a hard drive but it does occasionally fail to produce a working/restorable hard drive image - so, test, test, test to make sure you've successfully produced a working image of your hard drive. (Occasionally, when doing a restore, you might get a message saying that the PFM file isn't found. Simply select Generate and Save from the list of options).

You can save your hard drive images onto CD's, DVD's, flashdrives, or external hard drives.

With Perfect Image, formating your hard drive and reinstalling all your applications from scratch (sound familiar?) is a thing of the past.

Backup
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If you plan on selectively backing up files on your computer, Perfect Image seems to be plagued with a multitude of problems from an excruciatingly slow backup process to incompatibilities with OSes to the application failing to load up altogether (-1 Star). If that's what you plan on using Perfect Image for, I'd recommend FolderMatch instead.

Conclusion
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It all depends on what you use Perfect Image for. Perfect Image is pretty darn near perfect for making images of your hard drive. But for selective backups, I'd recommend FolderMatch.