O&O DiskImage 17 Review

Full review

These days, malware of all types has the potential to put an operating system out of commission, threatening all sorts of important data, including documents, music files, and digital photos. Also, it is not uncommon for hard drives to simply wear out unexpectedly, which could potentially cause all of the data that they contain to be wiped out. Fortunately, there are a variety of software utilities available that were designed to protect data from the aforementioned issues. O&O DiskImage is one of these utilities, and we were quite eager to find out how well its data-imaging capabilities would function on our system.

Setup

As is the case with most disk-imaging utilities, DiskImage does have a fairly large installer. However, when compared to many similar products that have installers over 100MB in size, the 20MB installer for DiskImage is certainly more moderately sized than most. Regardless, on our system, the process of downloading and installing this utility took less than ten minutes to complete, and we encountered no issues.

Once DiskImage was installed, it presented us with several options. Each of these options, which include image creation and data restoration, feature wizards that are easy to follow and fairly versatile.

Imaging

DiskImage contains enough disk-imaging features to keep most users extremely satisfied. With primary features that allow it to clone hard drives, compress and encrypt data, and schedule future backups, DiskImage can easily perform all of the disk-imaging functions that most users need. Also, with additional features that allow it to check hard drives for errors and inconsistencies, merge image files, and more, experienced PC users will find a lot of things to like about this disk-imaging utility. It is worth mentioning that most of the features in this software are highly customizable; this means that most users should be able to use this software to meet their disk-imaging needs without having to compromise due to a lack of flexibility on the software's part.

Restoring

DiskImage is quite capable of restoring entire hard drives, so it is certainly an option for those who like being able to create entire backups of their data, including the operating system, when protecting their data from harm. Thankfully, though, it is also capable of restoring individual files, folders, and hard-drive sectors so that users can restore smaller amounts of data in a quick, efficient manner.

Effectiveness

While using DiskImage, we never had any issues backing up or restoring data. In fact, the whole of the process was much easier than we expected it to be. Thanks to the wizards that guide users through this software's various functions, it is very difficult to make a mistake when backing up or restoring data.

Features

One-click imaging – This feature makes the process of creating an image incredibly quick and easy. Novice users will probably find this feature especially useful.

Integrated disk burner – DiskImage features an integrated disk burner. This disk burning component is capable of burning data to CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray disks.

Ease of use

For a disk-imaging utility that contains so many features and is so powerful, DiskImage is pretty easy to use. In fact, even novices should have little difficulty performing the backups that they need as long as they use the default settings. The various wizards contained in this software make it very difficult for users to mess something up, and we were pleasantly surprised by their usefulness. While we initially expected this software to be one of the harder-to-use disk-imaging products, we found that it is actually quite the opposite.

Help & support

O&O Software provides extensive support for DiskImage. Not only do they offer online help pages, FAQs, and more, they have also written a manual for DiskImage, which is available for free in the form of a PDF. For a period of 90 days, registered users of this software also have access to free support via chat, e-mail, and telephone. In our experience, the direct support provided by O&O Software was useful, and we received responses to our e-mail inquiries in just a few days.

Overall

O&O DiskImage 17 is a great tool for backing up and restoring data. Not only can it create images and restore entire hard drives, it can restore individual files and folders as well. Thanks to a great interface and several well-made wizards, this software is incredibly easy to use. Some competing products do offer more features, but O&O DiskImage 11 is still a solid disk-imaging tool.