Getting Information on Disks and Backup Images

The program provides some helpful tools to get information on the properties of disks and peculiarities of existing backup The term backup originates from the time when the best way to protect valuable information was to store it in form of archives on external media. It's become now a general notion to mean making duplications of data for protection purposes. images.

Viewing Disk Properties

The main tool to view in-depth information on the properties of hard disks is the Disk Map. It represents the actual state of the computer’s hard disks.

Generally the hard disks are represented on the map by rectangular bars, which also contain small-sized bars. The small-sized bars represent logical disks (partitions). When you select a large-sized bar, the Explorer Bar displays information about the disk in a bright, graphical form.



The model and serial number In the DOS partitioning scheme, every hard disk and every partition has a 32-bit serial number represented by an 8-figure hexadecimal value. It is stored in the MBR and its value is assigned when the MBR sector is initialized by Microsoft standard disk managing tools, such as Windows Disk Administrator and the FDISK utility. In fact, a hard disk's serial number is not important for most operating systems and software. It is known that Windows NT, 2000 and XP store its value in the database of assigned drive letters. A partition's serial number is stored in its boot sector (in FAT16, FAT32 and NFTS file systems). Its value is assigned when the partition is formatted. It does not play an important role for most operating systems and software as well. of the disk serve as the title of the browsed page. The disk layout is shown in form of a circular graph, where the color of a sector corresponds to a file system of an appropriate partition. On the right you may see a table, which contains the following information:

q       Type of hard disk (basic or dynamic),

q       Total size (in GB),

q       Information on geometry of the disk (amount of sectors per track, heads and cylinders).

Below there is a list of available wizards. If you click a corresponding record the appropriate wizard will be started. All default values for the operation parameters will correspond to the disk’s settings. The list of wizards contains a detailed description of tasks that can be performed by the wizard. This nullifies the possibility of selecting the wrong wizard.



When you select a small-sized bar (i.e. corresponding to a logical disk) the Explorer Bar will display information on it as well. The page title will contain a drive letter, which is assigned to the disk. The disk layout graph will be colored in accordance with the volume ratio of the used space to the free space (the light colored sector). The table on the right will contain the following information:

q       Volume label or Partition Label is a small textual field (up to 11 characters) that is located in the partition's boot sector. This value is used for notification purposes only. It is detectable by any partitioning tool including the DOS FDISK utility. Modern operating systems save it within a file system, e.g. as a special hidden file. Thus it is able to contain a relatively large amount of text in multiple languages. (if available),

q       Type of the logical disk,

q       File system (represented by the color of the graph and the selected bar),

q       Total size, used space and free space (in GB or MB).

Below there is a list of wizards, which may be called for this disk. All default values of parameters will correspond to the disk settings.

Viewing Image Properties

General information on backup archives can be obtained either with the help of the Restore Wizard or the Archive Database:

Using the Restore Wizard

There are several ways to launch the Restore Wizard:

q       In the Main menu: select Wizards > Restore a Disk or Partition…

q       In Common Tasks bar: click the Restore a disk or partition item of the Wizards menu

q       Select a logical disk and then click the Restore the disk from an image link on the Explorer Bar page.

At first, the wizard displays the Welcome page – simply click the Next button at the foot of the dialog window.

The next page refers to Browse for Archive. By clicking the Switch to Archive List View link, you can see a list of images contained in the Archive Database (if any).

To get a clear-cut picture on properties of the required image, just click on it and the section below will (i.e. Archive File Details) display a short description, including:

q       Information on a type of the archive contents (whether it is sector-based or file-based),

q       Whether the archive is compressed or not,

q       Whether the archive is password protected or not,

q       The date, when the archive was created.

In addition, there are some special graphical flags to indicate crucial properties:

To easily manage images in the Archive Database, the program provides the following functionality:

Besides you may filter backup archives to decide whether to show only file, partition or hard disk archives. To do that, please select the required filter in the left top corner of the page.

By clicking the Switch to File View link, you can find the required image in the browser-like window.

The section below (i.e. Archive File Details) displays a short description of the selected image, including:

q       Information on a type of the archive contents (whether it is sector-based or file-based),

q       Whether the archive is compressed or not,

q       Whether the archive is password protected or not,

q       The date, when the archive was created.

Moreover, on this page you’ve got the possibility to create new folders, delete existing files/folders or map network drives by clicking the appropriate buttons.

The next page (i.e. What to restore) displays detailed information about the contents of the archive.

If you want to restore the image contents, click the Next button. In order to cancel, click the Cancel button.

Using the Archive Database

To open the Archive Database, click the appropriate tab in the Explorer Bar. The database window can be conditionally subdivided into several sections that differ in their purpose and functionality: