SelfImage: The free/open-Source hard disk imaging utility

The free/open-Source hard disk imaging utility

Current version: 1.2.1 build 92 (1.2.1.92)

[Screenshots] [Download]^* [News] [Forum] [Troubleshooting]

SelfImage is the little hard drive utility with big aspirations.

SelfImage is capable of making an image file of a hard disk or hard disk partition, and can restore an image back to any drive or partition that doesn't have open files. Useful for making backups. Unlike dd for Windows (or cygwin), SelfImage is capable of creating an image of a partition that is currently in use.

SelfImage can even create images of partitions that Windows doesn't recognize (partitions that Windows doesn't have mounted on a drive letter). This is perfect for the dual-boot system, you can create an image backup of a Linux partition directly from Windows.

Features include:

Create 1:1 image files of any mounted (or unmounted on Windows 2000/XP) hard disk partition.
Can create an image of an entire hard disk, including the master boot record, partition table, and all partitions (Windows 2000/XP)
Restore previously created images to any partition, even mounted ones, as long as it doesn't have open files.
On-the-fly compression accelerated with parallel CPU support to take advantage of today's hyperthreaded, multi-core and SMP systems.
Skip reading a disk's "free space", treating it as if it were zero. This decreases the size of a compressed image and makes it process MUCH faster. ^NEWVersion 1.2.0 can now do this for Linux ext2/ext3 partitions as well.
^NEWAvailable as an experimental BartPE plugin for use in boot/rescue CDs. SelfImage is also included on the excellent Ultimate Boot CD for Windows (UBCD4Win).
Network Block Device support to make images of disks on remote machines, and restore back to them.
Multi-threaded design for maximum throughput and low CPU overhead.
It's free software - free as in cost, and free as in open source - released under the GNU General Public License.

SelfImage is a new project. As such, there are lots of plans for the future. Currently on the drawing board:

Added restore functionality:
- Creation of bootable restore media to restore to drives that can't be restored to from witin Windows
- Ability to read files from an image.
Output file spanning for easier use of CD/DVD-R media
Direct backup device output support (direct to CD/DVD/Tape)
Your idea here!

News:

7 Feb 2007 - SelfImage 1.1.2 is released. Mostly a bug-fix release, this version corrects problems with reading past the end of flash devices, and problems writing to certain partitions.
12 Feb 2007 - Whoops! The last release introduced a bug preventing decompression. Version 1.1.3 has been released that corrects this.
30 Mar 2007 - SelfImage 1.2.0 is released with the ability to skip unallocated space on Linux ext2/ext3 partitions. A long-standing bug that prevented SelfImage from running on Windows 2000 has also been fixed.
1 Apr 2007 - SelfImage 1.2.1 is released to fix the bug introduced in 1.2.0. Yes, I really did it again. This version also comes packaged as a BartPE plugin, so all is not bad news.

Acknowledgements:

Linda Bucklin has been kind enough to allow the use of her image "Binary Data Leak" to derive icons, splash screens, and other art for SelfImage. That, and many other (quite stunning) images from her portfolio are available from her page at Dreamstime.com.
Icculus.Org has been kind enough to provide all the file download bandwidth for this project.

[Download]^*

* All SelfImage binaries are signed with the author's public key (key id 0xF621EDAD), available from most public OpenPGP key servers. Download the key and verify its fingerprint matches the following: 7CA5 50FD A83D 9BBA 68CB 86DA DDFA E8A7 F621 EDAD.

Published on: 2005-08-07 (674596 reads)

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