Full Guide: R-Drive Image Hard Disk Backup and Its Alternative

R-Drive Image Review 

R-Drive Image is a powerful utility that provides disk image file creation for backup or duplication purposes. This economical software can run on Windows without restarting your computer, so it will not affect your work efficiency. Let's take a look at its highlights:

❂ Advanced Drive Imaging/Image Restoration: R-Drive Image creates/restores an image on-the-fly, that is, without the need to restart Windows. The image file can be written to any storage location visible to the host system, including removable drives and network drives.
❂ Disk to Disk Copy: R-Drive Image can clone an entire hard drive or several partitions on one hard drive to another hard drive. During this operation, the partition can be shrunk/expand to match the size of the new HDD.
❂ System Recovery Media Creator: You can use it to create startup disk(s) that may be used to restore a computer system after a complete failure when it requires a complete fresh setup (system recovery disks). Such as a R-Drive Image bootable USB, CD, DVD, ZIP drive or any other removable media device.

R-Drive Image is one of the backup and disaster recovery solutions to prevent data loss after a fatal system failure. But this program is not free, R-Drive Image initially provides a 30-day free trial. After that, a lifetime standalone license will cost $45. Thus, this is article also provides you with a free R-Drive Image alternative in the latter part. If you are interested, please continue reading. 

Why Create Disk Image?

Disk imaging is the process of making an archival or backup copy of the entire contents of a hard drive. A disk image is a storage file that contains all the data stored on the source hard drive and the necessary information to boot to the operating system.

With a disk image, you can completely and rapidly restore your system after heavy data loss caused by an operating system crash, virus attack or hardware failure.

Create Hard Drive Image via R-Drive Image

After understanding some basic information of R-Drive Image software, I will show you how to create R-Drive Image hard disk backup.

1. Download R-Drive Image and install it on your computer.
2. Click Create an Image on the Action Selection panel and click the Next button. R-Drive Image will start analyzing the computer disk configuration.

3. Then the Partition Selection panel will show the configuration. Select the objects which image you want to create. Click the HDD icon to select all objects on the hard drive and then click on the Next button.

4. Select the place on the Image Destination panel to which the image files will be written, specify the file name, and click the Next button.

5. Then, specify image options on the Image Options panel and click the Next button.

Tips✍:
◆ Check the image file immediately upon its creation: Select this option if you want R-Drive Image to check the newly created file image for its consistency. Please note that this operation requires additional time.
◆ Image compression ratio: You may compress the data in the image to save space. Please note that the smaller size you select the more time will be spent creating the image file and vice versa.
◆ Backup type: You may store in the image either the exact Sector by sector backup copy of the object or Backup useful information only, that is, you do not have to store empty space of the object in image files.
◆ Image split size: You can set this option to automatic and let Windows decide how to split the image file. You can also specify the split size explicitly.

6.  Next, you can specify backup options and click the Next button. These backup options are used to create consistent point-in-time backups.

7. Verify that the information on the Processing panel is correct and click the Start button. The progress bar will show the progress of the current operation and the overall process.

When the image is created, the Image created successfully. message will appear. You can use this R-Drive Image hard disk backup to restore your system after heavy data loss.

Best Free Software for All Windows to Create Disk Backup

Although R-Drive Image is not difficult to operate, because it is not free, many users are discouraged from it. Also, we can see from the graphic tutorial above that its user interface is not particularly modern. If you’re looking for a free R-Drive Image alternative, it’s worth considering AOMEI Backupper Standard.

It is a versatile software for all Windows with Backup, Sync, Clone, Restore functions. And you may enjoy many useful tools in it, for example, you can also use it to create bootable media to successfully boot your computer when it fails to boot. To create backup image, you can enjoy the following features:

It not only supports disk backup, but also system, partition and file backup corresponding.

And you can choose to run this task automatically with the help of its schedule backup, you have 3 options, daily, weekly, monthly. And more specifically, you could set the backup date, time and intervals during this process.

Besides, this software only backup only changed files in a scheduled task, and it uses incremental backup by default.

All the backup types support backing up to internal or external hard drives, cloud drives, network location and NAS devices. Such as set auto backup to USB drive, backup PC to cloud, etc.

Next, I will show you how to use this free disk backup software to create a hard drive image. First, click the download button below to install it on your computer.

(Note: This software only supports Windows 11/10/8/7/XP/Vista. For server users, try AOMEI Backupper Server.)

Step 1. Start AOMEI Backupper, and you will see its simple and modern user interface. Click Backup on the left panel, then select Disk Backup.

Step 2. Click “+ Add Disk” to choose the source disk that you want to create a hard drive image.

Step 3. Choose the destination place you plan to store the hard drive image. It is recommended that you back up to an external disk.

Step 4. Then you will enter an interface to confirm your backup settings. You can click on “Options”, “Schedule Backup”, and “Backup Scheme” to specify backup settings and make it effective. After finishing all the settings, click Start Backup.

◆ Options: You can write comments for backup tasks, enable email notification to get the result of the operation, set normal or high compression, etc. To encrypt your backups, you could consider upgrading to AOMEI Backupper Professional.
◆ Schedule Backup: It enables you to set automatic backup at daily, weekly, or monthly frequency so you will never miss any changes. Also, you can enjoy event triggers and USB plug in on the premium version.
◆ Backup Scheme: It allows you to save disk space via incremental or differential Backup and free up disk space with cleanup methods (By quality, By time, By daily/weekly/monthly). Except for full backup and incremental backup, all the other options are available on the professional version.

Besides, it is the best substitute for DriveImage XML clone boot drive. With its Clone function, you can easily transfer your system and data on one hard drive to another without boot issues. 

Final Words

That’s all for performing R-Drive Image hard disk backup or using its alternative on Windows PCs. Creating a disk image is very important to protect the computer's system and data. If you don't want to pay for it, try free disk backup software - AOMEI Backupper Standard.

It fully meets the needs of most users. With it, you can select any items you want to backup, even for individual files or folders. And it allows you to run this task automatically without human intervention. Besides, it reduce disk space usage as much as possible with incremental backup, compression, intelligent sector backup, etc. What are you waiting for? Try this freeware now!