From The Naked PC issue #5.11...

An Update on Updates

by Al Gordon
May 23, 2002

Let me share with you several software updates that have tickled my fancy of late.

-- DRIVE IMAGE 2002: Another new and improved item to reach The Naked PC testing labs is the latest edition of PowerQuest's drive imaging software, street price: $65.
http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/511/tr.cgi?al1

Imaging software essentially makes a photocopy of your hard disk's contents at the bit level -- in other words, it only sees the arrangement of 0s and 1s on the drive rather than files. The resulting "image" can then be quickly restored on another drive. As the price of CD burners and external hard drives continues to tumble, drive imaging is becoming an excellent backup solution. PowerQuest has made DriveImage easier to use by adding wizards and providing an easier-to-understand interface. It walks you through the process of setting up and scheduling imaging jobs, and also allows you to do some disk partitioning to set aside a partition to store image files. (You can't save an image of a disk partition onto itself.)

The centerpiece of the software is that for the first time some image jobs can be done inside Windows. It is a limited feature, frankly. You cannot image any partition that contains Windows system or boot files, and those typically are partitions you want to image. But if you create a partition just for your data, you can use DriveImage to back it up inside Windows and make this an "everyday" data backup method.

* SISOFTWARE'S SANDRA 2002 is the latest incarnation of the definitive PC information and diagnostic utility. The software ("Sandra" is an acronym for System ANalyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant) comes as a free Standard edition, a Plus version with more capabilities and advertising, and Professional -- still more tools and no ads, which costs $29.
http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/511/tr.cgi?al2

I started on this review about a year ago, with Sandra 2001, but lost interest when SiSoftware said they weren't planning to support Windows XP. However, Sandra 2002 is out and it works well with XP, so back it goes on my recommended list. Sandra can probe into your system and bring back the identity of what seems to be every single chip or component you have in place (very handy, for example, with OEM products as it usually allows you to determine the actual manufacturer of a component), perform diagnostics on them, and do benchmark testing.

Just remember, Sandra is nothing if not thorough. If you do launch the full 80-module test run of Professional, expect the process timeframe to be measured in hours. But if, like me, you want to know what's inside that computing box, Sandra is the most complete information source available.

(c) 2002, Al Gordon
You can reach Al Gordon at:
mailto:al@TheNakedPC.com

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