Review: O&O Diskimage 3 backup software

With a basic, but clear, interface, it doesn’t take long to get to grips with O&O’s Diskimage 3.

Building an image takes quite a while the first time around - if you have a large hard disk you could be waiting a couple of hours, although the incremental backup option to update an image with modified files does speed this up for future images.

Images can be restored completely or you can mount them as a disk drive to access individual files via Windows Explorer. Alternatively, you can choose to clone a hard disk to make a straight copy or burn an image to disc for backup purposes.

A wizard-based approach guides you through much of the process and a range of options are available to help you fine tune the files to be included, or you can opt to add compression and encryption for extra security. You’re also supplied with a ‘Start CD’ with the full package to help you recover your system if Windows won’t boot.

Improvements over previous versions include more detailed reports and a time-scheduled backup tool, which will help configure automatic imaging on a regular basis. This works well and even allows you to import scripts or batch files to run before and after backup; the idea being you can start or stop services or applications that may affect the integrity of the image.

Diskimage 3 is quite a straightforward solution at heart. You’re given a good degree of control over image creation, but it would have been nice to see some extras, such as traditional backup tools or disk optimisation. Although there are some added features with this version, there’s not really enough to tempt existing users to upgrade.

However, as a basic package, it’s straightforward to use and fairly light on system resources.