Customer Reviews

Drive Image 5.0

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I've been using Symantec's Norton Ghost for several years. Recently I upgraded to Ghost 2002, as the 2001 version doesn't work with Windows XP. Guess what? Neither does 2002. I kept getting some error message. I ... saw other reviews with similar XP problems. Quick research led me to DriveImage 5. What a difference! First of all, with Norton Ghost when you make a backup you have to boot to a floppy disk. With DriveImage you don't need a floppy, you do it from Windows. Drive image boots to DOS automatically and starts the process. With Ghost, each time you backup you have to designate your source and destination drive. DriveImage remembers after your initial backup, so next time you boot all you have to do is click on the create image icon.

DriveImage made me kick myself ...for all the years I wasted on Ghost. Also, I had one question with the use so I called the company. Almost no hold time and I got my answer immediately. Norton doesn't have phone support now, so you have to dig through their poorly laid-out support site; but when they did have phone support, it was far from the greatest. It turned out that every time I had to make a backup with Ghost, I had to delete my backup. I was paranoid thinking during the backup process a power surge or some abnormality would mess up and leave me without my previous backup.

My only negative is I wish DriveImage's interface were a little easier to figure out. Other than that, it's a dream.

When it works, it works great ... however, even though this program is touted as compatible with Windows XP, there is a known problem with backing up to NTFS disks. Buyer beware.

I've been using DriveImage as my primary backup solution for literally years. This latest version is the best so far. I have had no difficulties whatsoever under WindowsXP. I especially like the ImageExplorer!

I make backups on a very regular basis, under multiple machines. I've never had a corrupted backup, or been disappointed with the results.

The description says "Support for Windows XP", but that's only partially true. You don't find out until you read the manual that the included DataKeeper software for data file backups is not supported for XP. If your running Windows XP Professional you can backup and restore your hard drive with the Automated Sytem Restore and Automated System Recovery that you paid for when you bought XP Professional. ....

With a 450 Pentium III and Win 98SE, I could not get Drive Image 5.0 to write to the second CDR when prompted to do so. Powerequest Tech support said "they are aware of the problem and working on a solution". In an online forum, it was mentioned that "5.0 would not work with SDRam" in their conversation with PQ Support. In my followup call to support I was asked "who told you that 5.0 would not work with SDRam? and that I had 5.01, not 5.0 and the CDR spanning issue was resolved in the 5.01 version". In frustration I asked for a refund of my money -has to be within 30 days of purchase, even though I pointed out that the limited warranty talks of 90 days, one of the conditions being "that the software will perform substantially in accordance with the accompanying documentation". And it does not perform for me.

Easy to use and understand. Does everything you need a partition restoration program to do. It achieved success where Norton Ghost 2002 failed miserably. I would recommend this product to anyone who wants to get their Windows (including XP), DOS, OS/2 or Linux operating systems back after a crash or installd on a new machine. Excellent product!

I looked at the comments posted by other customers. This is at least a four star product. The problem with CDR, Possible solutions 1) write the file to the hard drive, then to the CD under windows (If the free allows) 2) update the software, and hardware drivers..
Even then it's unfair to give the product a rating of one for one problem.

I have used Drive Image on DOS > WinXP Pro with no problem. I have also always used the updates provided on the site.

NB This (5.0) is an old version the latest is DI 2002.

Drive Image 5.01 will not work properly with a number of CD writers that were supported by DriveImage 4.x. My HP9300i (a 10X writer) writes garbage. DriveImage 4.x works great. PowerQuest support indicates that several customers have reported this problem on several different CD writers. They indicate that version DriveImage 5.0 may work. As of 4/12/02, they have no fix.

Look, I've used Drive Image and Partition Magic for many years now and they have saved my data and posterior on many occasions. I had to upgrade to these newer versions because I now use Windows XP, what a pain! Neither one will boot to DOS so I am forced to use the emergency disks. The solution involves my having to send a copy of the 0 head of my drive to tech support so they can change it (WTFO). AND, Drive image doesn't like NTFS partitions created by XP. Any image files created on such a partition will not be accessible to use, rename, move, or delete (again, WTFO). I don't know what else to say, but after spending this much $$$ these dudes had better be putting out some major patches ASAP (no, the ones they have out do not fix these problems)

I'd consider Norton Ghost, they seem to the compatibility thing down....

I installed Drive Image 5.0 on a Windows XP machine and upgraded from Powerquest's Web site. I followed the User Guide, which is somewhat vague and may be difficult to follow for the inexperienced user. After I used Drive Image to move all files to a new drive, the computer would not boot. I was wise enough to create the boot disk which allowed me to reactivate the original drive. After calls to tech support, which cost me several dollars, they were not able to help me make it work. This went on for about a month. They wrote up a trouble report for their Testing department. After another month, they finally said that they could not resolve the problem. Customer service agreed to refund the purchase price but not pay for shipping or my phone expenses. I think they would have a good product here but they are not fully ready for Win XP.