R-Tools R-Drive Image 3.0.(Product/service evaluation)

Byline: Terry Relph-Knight

R-Tools R-Drive Image 3.0

Price [pounds sterling]29.99 (download only) Contact R-Tools www.r-tt.com

We reviewed Canadian company R-Tools' R-Studio, a good but complex data recovery tool, in our March 2006 issue (see www.pcw.co.uk/2151217). By contrast, R-Drive Image is a bit of a welcome surprise, since it is unexpectedly simple and very easy to use. The software features a graphical boot mode that makes it possible to restart directly from Windows to restore data to the system and other locked partitions, in many cases eliminating the need to use a restore CD. The program does have the ability to generate restore disks, either by burning directly to a CD or DVD, as an Iso image for burning to a CD using a third-party burning software, or even to a couple of 3.5in floppy disks if you wish.

Installation using the R-Tools install wizard is simple and very fast, but does require a reboot. The full downloaded program can be used for 15 days for evaluation purposes. Paying customers receive a registration key by email to unlock the software.

From the start-up screen you are offered eight possible task choices; Create an image, Restore from an image, Copy a disk to a disk, Connect an image as a virtual logical disk, Create start-up disks, Check an image file, Schedule/create a script and Disconnect virtual logical disks.

There is no menu toolbar and all operations are wizard- rather than console-based, so for example clicking the Disk Image icon on the opening screen leads to a series of further screens, as each step of the backup setup unfolds. Images and files are stored with the .arc file extension, a well-established archive file format. Unfortunately R-Drive Image doesn't provide a log file and, although a progress bar is displayed during a backup, there is no record of time taken to complete a task.