Image Copy - I'm not an enthusiast but if you must

Thank you to all who e-mailed me concerning the confusing last paragraph of my August 9th Good Boot. It should have read:

Note: You can arrange Windows 7 Taskbar shortcuts by clicking on and dragging them left or right.

Once your shortcuts are arranged to your satisfaction, the first ten program shortcuts added to the Taskbar are numbered from 1 to 10. So if Internet Explorer is in the No 2 position, you can either click on the shortcut or press your Windows key and numeral 2 to open it.

For whatever reason perhaps the result of a marketing campaign by a disk imaging (a.k.a. cloning) software vendors, many Good Booters have requested my opinion on whether or not they should use a disk imaging program as their primary backup utility.

I’m not an advocate of disk imaging particularly for novices as reinstalling a disk image is not without serious potential problems. I prefer they back up their irreplaceable data to an external hard drive(s).

It goes without saying should a hard drive fail or Windows be corrupted fatally having to reinstall Windows and all programs is a hassle, but in my opinion one I can live with. Although to be fair, I must confess my technician convinced me my new computer should include RAID technology which eliminates the need for disk imaging.

Note: RAID (redundant array of independent disks) is an umbrella term for computer data storage that divides and replicates data among multiple hard disk drives. The data distributed across the multiple disks is seen by the computer user and operating system as one single disk. If my primary hard drive fails I can continue on my merry way as the secondary hard drive continues to function as though nothing happened. When I replace my primary hard drive the data from the secondary hard drive is copied back to it.

Be as it may, if you do decide to try disk imaging please be sure to purchase a state of the art software program. Keep in mind your goal is to image your entire hard drive to include your data and operating system, ready to be copied back onto a replacement hard drive or a reformatted hard drive if Windows was corrupted fatally and must be reinstalled.

I suggest you visit Acronis True Image Web site. Acronis’s user friendly way of making weekly full images and daily incremental images automatically is why I recommend it so highly.

Here’s wishing you a Good Boot.