How to Create a Disk Image
Level of difficulty: Intermediate
A disk image file contains all the data stored on the source drive such as its files and folders, boot sectors, file allocation tables, and other system data. A disk image is not a collection of files or folders but is a mere duplicate of the raw data of the original disk. As disk images contain raw disk data, creating an image of a disk written in different format or Operating System is possible.
Materials Needed:- Computer
- CD/DVD Drive
Step 1
File formats of disk images are relative to the type of the source drive. ISO files for instance are CD or DVD images while IMG files are images of hard, floppy, or removable disks.
Step 2
Disk images are commonly used by CD/DVD recording applications for CD/DVD content storage and transfer. Various CD/DVD recording software utilizes its own formats for disk images.
Step 3
To create a disk image, users can download disk imaging programs online. These programs create disk images of any removable storage disk and other drives. Disk image files can be used to back up or clone your disks.
Step 4
It should be noted that these programs are also compatible with other disk image software applications. Other disk-imaging software can also open ISO files, IMA, and HD Copy pro hard disk images.
Step 5
Disk imaging program interfaces are easy to navigate. The drag-and-drop support of this program allows users to process disk image files like ZIP archives. Basically, one can extract any type of file from the image by using the drag and drop approach to bringing that file to desktop.
Step 6
There are disk images of various applications, videos, and audio CDs among other types of multimedia available for download, so if you have downloaded such disk images, always make it a point to scan the disk images with your anti-malware program before using it. This will allow you to determine whether the disk image is free from malicious software or otherwise. It is also best to download such disk images from reputable or legitimate sources on the Internet. Moreover, check the disk images sent by your friends or colleagues via email since there may be malware applications disguised as legitimate disk images among other files embedded on email attachments. These malware programs were created for the purpose of infecting email servers and embedded with automatic mass-emailing functions. This means disk images among other files embedded with malicious code can be distributed to unsuspecting users through infected email servers of your friends and colleagues without them knowing about it.