TeraByte Unlimited

Hello everyone, I am trying to compare Image for Windows and BootIt Bare Metal for system backup and recovery. I want to ask: in the situation where the computer cannot boot, which tool should I use to ensure the safest and fastest? Anyone who has experience combining both tools, please share with me.

for imaging you usually use IFW or IFL boot media. See https://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bundle-overview/

Hi,

I haven't used IFW much (I have it, but don't use it). Basically I do pretty much everything via (in my case, BIU - in your case BIBM), including imaging (both creation and restoring).

IFW runs under Windows, I think, so if you machine can't boot to Windows, then you won't be able to use IFW, I think.

I guess to me, with minimal experience with IFW, the main thing about it was that you could create image while Windows was running, but that always seemed a little scary to me (because the partition is probably changing constantly during the imaging process).

IFW/IFL are typically faster.

ohaya1000 wrote: Mon Oct 06, 2025 10:24 pm
I guess to me, with minimal experience with IFW, the main thing about it was that you could create image while Windows was running, but that always seemed a little scary to me (because the partition is probably changing constantly during the imaging process).

Getting a little off the subject here, yes, but PhyLock (part of the TeraByte package) or VSS (part of Windows and I don't use it) can effectively freeze what is being created into the image. Changes do still occur on the partition/disk of which an image is being made but those changes are not included in the image. The image is of the partition/disk as it occurred at the beginning of the imaging process.

Once upon a time, I did the same as you due to the same concerns you have, but years ago I switched to using IFW for most of my image creation. I've never had a problem that I could attribute to the fact that the partition/disk was being changed while the image of it was being created.

One can deliberately change something on the source partition/disk while the image is being made and verify afterwards that the change is on the disk/partition, but not in the image.

And, yes, as mentioned, BIU/IFU or BIBM/IFD are the slowest of the choices for creating an image.

Having encouraged the use of IFW and PhyLock to create images of disks or partitions that are in use, I feel that in good conscience I need to say something else.

PhyLock tries to wait until disk writing has stopped before freezing the effective contents of the disk. If I remember correctly, the default wait time is 10 minutes, but I'm not sure about that or exactly what happens if the time expires.

I'm going to try to explore this subject in a thread of its own.