Previously unknown to me, I recently came across yet another backup imaging utility:  imageIT.  It's free, and might be of interest to some readers of this forum.

(How many different imaging tools does the world need?  :o)

hi pleo.

i added this prgm to the (growing) list of "ghost alternatives" (i now count 20), along with a link to this thread. See here:

http://ghost.radified.com/ghost_1a.htm

seems imaging prgms have become in-vogue.

i like that it supports dos and bart-pe.

they offer a free version (standard) version and a pro version for us$195 for a (10-license pack).

it says about itself: "Fast backup and restore using differential mode"

what is "differential mode"?

if somebody takes it for a ride around the block and kicks its tires, that would be cool.

"Differential" is usually something like an incremental backup, depending on what company is using the term.

“In general a differential backup backs up only the files that changed since the last full backup, while incremental backup also backs up only the changed data since last backup be it a full or incremental backup.”

Source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backup

Actually, upon further reflection, the definition of a differential backup quoted in Reply #3 doesn’t exactly match my understanding of the term.

Consider this scenario:

• Monday:  A full (baseline) backup is performed by User A and User B on their PCs.
  
• Tuesday:  A differential backup is done by User A, and an incremental backup is run by User B.
  
• Wednesday:  Again, a differential backup is done by User A, and an incremental backup is run by User B.
  
• Thursday:  Both User A and User B perform a recovery operation to restore their PC to its condition at the time of the backup on Wednesday.

The backups done by User A and User B on Tuesday are operationally equivalent, since both the differential and the incremental backup are recording changes relative to the baseline backup performed on Monday.

However, on Wednesday, the differential backup done by User A is again saving changes relative to Monday’s baseline backup, whereas the incremental backup done by User B is saving changes relative to Tuesday’s incremental backup.

On Thursday when the recovery is performed, User A is only utilizing the baseline backup created on Monday and the differential backup created on Wednesday (i.e., Tuesday’s backup is irrelevant).  User B, however, must utilize all of the backup files created on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday – since each is relative to (or builds upon) the prior one in the sequence.

Ah, found an article (see What is a differential backup?) that confirms my impression of the differences between a differential versus an incremental backup.