Image for Windows is a disk imaging program for Windows that backs up entire drives or selected partitions, including the operating system, installed programs and personal files. It saves that disk state in an image that can later restore the selected partitions or drive. The program is part of the paid TeraByte Drive Image Backup and Restore Suite, which also supplies recovery tools that run outside the installed Windows system.
What Image for Windows captures
The backup wizard lets you choose individual partitions or select a drive to include all its partitions. Image for Windows can capture the Windows partition while it is in use: Volume Shadow Copy Service or the included PHYLock component holds the backup to a consistent point in time while you continue using the computer.
For recognized filesystems, Image for Windows can copy the occupied areas instead of every sector. These include NTFS, FAT, Ext2/3/4, BTRFS, XFS and HFS+, allowing a backup to cover more than Windows partitions. ReFS and exFAT used-area backups depend on Windows filesystem support. Partitions with other filesystems can be captured in full, and the program also supports partitions encrypted by third-party software.
Backup storage
Images can be written to an internal disk, an external drive or a network location accessible through Windows. UNC paths and cloud-connected shares can serve as destinations when Windows can access them. Direct recording to CD, DVD or Blu-ray is also supported, and images written directly to optical media can become bootable recovery discs.
Compression settings let you balance processing time against the space occupied by an image. You can also set a maximum image-file size to divide the output into parts suited to removable media. Password protection and optional 256-bit AES encryption control access to the saved backup.
After an initial backup, the change-only option saves data that has changed since an earlier backup. Image for Windows can validate image integrity during creation or in a separate operation afterward. Its optional byte-for-byte validation checks the backed-up data, adding time to the backup process in exchange for that additional check.
Restoring from recovery boot media
Restoration takes the contents of an image and writes the selected partitions or drive back to disk. The suite’s MakeDisk wizard creates recovery boot media, so a failed Windows startup does not prevent access to the recovery tools. The included DOS, UEFI and Linux imaging components provide other recovery environments alongside Windows recovery media.
TeraByte imaging products from the same major release share compatible image files. This allows an image created in Windows to be restored with another compatible suite component. When restoring a partition, you can expand it to use free space at the destination rather than keep its original size.
File extraction
A full partition restore is unnecessary when only a few files are needed. The included TBIView utility opens an image, displays its contents and extracts selected files or folders from supported Ext2/3/4, FAT, FAT32 and NTFS partitions. This selective extraction has a narrower filesystem list than the program’s ability to image whole partitions.
TBIMount attaches a .TBI image to a Windows drive letter. TBIHD can expose an image as a hard drive.
Scheduled and scripted backups
The Schedule Backup control creates a task through Windows Task Scheduler, letting a configured backup run at chosen times. Image for Windows also provides command-line controls for backup and restoration. These support scripted operations when the same selections and settings need to be applied repeatedly.
System migration
The suite extends recovery to changes of hardware through its OSD Tool Suite. After restoring Windows to a different machine, those tools can install the drivers needed for the new hardware. Included scripts also support converting a physical machine to a virtual machine, either directly or from a backup image, and moving a virtual machine back to physical hardware.
