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RTFA. Is is economically not very feasable to recover the data. the hardware alone would set you back 10.000 dollar, before the first bit was recovered. You will find no commercial recovery service that will recover the data for you. search for MFM and you will find "It is unknown if this technology is in use. It certainly is not "commercially available and affordable" "

Beside that, destroying the disk yourself is more reliable that outsourcing it. If the data is leaked it is your problem. The fact that the data destroying company might loose their reputation, does not give your company its reputation back. If you want to outsource this anyway, let them destry the archives on-site.

What's the best way for me to make a "snapshot" of an existing, functional Windows XP system, such that I can boot up (a copy of) this system at a later point in time?

DriveImage XML

[...continued from previous message. AG]
LSoft Technologies - Active@ Boot Disk, Active@ File Recovery and Active-Undelete
Micware Software - Encopy
Naltech - Multi Data Rescue (optical discs only?)
Nucleus Tecnologies - Kernel Recovery for FAT+NTFS
Ontrack Data Recovery - Easy Recovery Professional
Paragon Software Group - Paragon Rescue Kit
Partition Support - FindPart (and other utilities)
Phelps, Eric - Uncheck (for .CHK files)'
Piriform - Recuva
Phoenix Technologies Undelete+
ProSoft Engineering - Data Rescue PC
Quetek Consulting Corp. - File Scavenger
R-Tools Technology - R-Studio Data Recovery
Recover Data - Windows Data Recovery
Regall LLC (dba Object Rescue) - File Rescue and Data Rescue and Any Reader
Runtime Software - GetDataBack
Smart PC Solutions - Smart FAT Recovery
SoftLogica - Handy Recovery
Stellar Information Systems - Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery
SysTech Software - RECOVER Fixed/Floppy Disk FAT32 /16 /12 v3.0 Release 3 (floppy diskttes and hard disks <2GB)
TOKIWA - DataRecovery (erased files only?)
Zero Assumption Recovery - ZAR32 for Windows

Programs that I have personally used and had good experiences with are Acronis' Recovery Expert, DataRescue's Photo Rescue, Naltech's Data Rescue line and Runtime Software's GetDataBack line.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

[...continued from previous message. AG]
LSoft Technologies - Active@ Boot Disk, Active@ File Recovery and Active-Undelete
Micware Software - Encopy
Naltech - Multi Data Rescue (optical discs only?)
Nucleus Tecnologies - Kernel Recovery for FAT+NTFS
Ontrack Data Recovery - Easy Recovery Professional
Paragon Software Group - Paragon Rescue Kit
Partition Support - FindPart (and other utilities)
Phelps, Eric - Uncheck (for .CHK files)'
Piriform - Recuva
Phoenix Technologies Undelete+
ProSoft Engineering - Data Rescue PC
Quetek Consulting Corp. - File Scavenger
R-Tools Technology - R-Studio Data Recovery
Recover Data - Windows Data Recovery
Regall LLC (dba Object Rescue) - File Rescue and Data Rescue and Any Reader
Runtime Software - GetDataBack
Smart PC Solutions - Smart FAT Recovery
SoftLogica - Handy Recovery
Stellar Information Systems - Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery
SysTech Software - RECOVER Fixed/Floppy Disk FAT32 /16 /12 v3.0 Release 3 (floppy diskttes and hard disks <2GB)
TOKIWA - DataRecovery (erased files only?)
Zero Assumption Recovery - ZAR32 for Windows

Programs that I have personally used and had good experiences with are Acronis' Recovery Expert, DataRescue's Photo Rescue, Naltech's Data Rescue line and Runtime Software's GetDataBack line.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

In addition to R-studio, http://www.runtime.org/raid.htm works on RAID, especially in combination of getdataback.
I am rather fond of R-studio, though, as it supports UFS and UFS2. Most recovery tools only seem to suppott fat32, fat16, ntfs, and ext3.

GetDataBack has worked perfectly for me many times. Very easy interface, works on deleted files as well as formatted disks (provided the data you want to recover hasn't been overwritten, of course). Worth the $79, IMO.

Another vote for GetDataBack for NTFS. IT has worked well for me.

GetDataBack has worked perfectly for me many times. Very easy interface, works on deleted files as well as formatted disks (provided the data you want to recover hasn't been overwritten, of course). Worth the $79, IMO.

SelfImage 1.2.1.92
SelfImage is a disk imaging program for Windows. It's capable of making an image file of any hard disk or partition on your system. It can even make images of partitions that Windows doesn't recognize or assign a drive letter to (ie: Linux partitions). Perfect for the dual-boot system.
http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/SelfImage/1134441375/1

DiskTools ImageMaker 1.1
DiskTools ImageMaker is a lightweight disk backup software. It enables you to make exact images of your entire hard drive, or separate partitions on a hard drive, to disk files. The images then may be restored to the initial or any other hard drive or volume, regardless of a file system it is formatted in.
http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/DiskTools_ImageMaker/1055944044/1

DriveImage XML 2.01
# Backup logical drives and partitions to image files
# Browse these images, view and extract files
# Restore these images to the same or a different drive
# Copy directly from drive to drive
# Schedule automatic backups with your Task Scheduler
Image creation uses Microsoft's Volume Shadow Services (VSS), allowing you to create safe "hot images" even from drives currently in use.
Images are stored in XML files, allowing you to process them with 3rd party tools.
http://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm\

ODIN 0.11 Beta
ODIN is a utility for easy backup of hard drive volumes or complete hard drives under Windows. A disk image can be created or restored. Only used clusters can be backuped, compression on the fly is possible.
http://odin-win.sourceforge.net/

http://www.runtime.org/peb.htm

or dd & diff?

Many posters have already listed excellent tools for creating a snapshot offline.

From what you've described, however, it sounds like you might be interested in something that can take a snapshot of a Windows PC while Windows is running.

DriveImage XML is free for personal use
http://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm

If you need something commercial and you don't mind spending $40, then Image for Windows is also an excellent choice:
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/purchase-image-for-windows.htm

Thanks! I knew that it was a German site,but I haven't needed to use it in years. My customers actually prefer me NOT to add the Windows updates. Most are professionals,graphic artists,office workers,etc and I have found that Windows updates always seem to break something and it is a royal PITA to try to track down which of the 200+ updates is the one that broke the app they require to work. So now I use either Driveimage XML or Ranish Partition Manager depending on whether they have a spare drive for the clone process or not,and simply restore from image if something goes wrong.

I wasn't able to find the English version anywhere on site,but I did manage to run it through Google Translate and the link for that is here. So for anyone requiring Windows updates I would suggest using the batch file to make a slipstreamed ISO so the next time Windows bones you won't need as many patches. But as always this is my 02c,YMMV

Drive Image XML is free, and works great. http://www.runtime.org/dixml.htm

No it doesn't. Spend $80 and be legit. Better than $200,000, legal, and probably just as easy.

Get a girlfriend and let her use your computer. In less than two days you will have a trojan horse. One bed and breakfast site with a guestbook and it's all over my friend. Here's a piece of software to run before your first date:

http://www.runtime.org/dixml.htm

You can boot a Mac off of an iPod.

OS X isn't like Windows where the OS is tied to a particular hardware configuration.

You can even make a universal system that will boot either an PPC or Intel machine (I've done it).

You could easily write scripts to synhronize your desktop with your iPod. I believe Carbon Copy Cloner will do it.

del E:\Images\Older_C.dat
del E:\Images\Older_C.xml

rename E:\Images\Old_C.dat Older_C.dat
rename E:\Images\Old_C.xml Older_C.xml

rename E:\Images\Drive_C.dat Old_C.dat
rename E:\Images\Drive_C.xml Old_C.xml

"C:\Program Files\Runtime Software\DriveImage XML\dixml.exe" /bc /tE:\Images\Drive_C /r- /s- /c /v

DriveXML does what I need it to do. Not entirely human readable files but since it uses xml they should be extractable but I haven't looked too hard into it, I use it to backup an image of the drive. You can burn to DVD and create a bootable CD to restore to the system drive. And it's free. I personally use it to create an image to an external NAS drive.

http://www.runtime.org/dixml.htm

DriveImage XML will make CD or DVD size files, it will not burn them automatically. A portable drive is the best way to go as far as media is concerned. DriveImage XML is free and the backup is browsable and allows extraction of single files/folders as long as you did not use RAW format when making the backup. It does NOT do partitioning so you have to prep your new drive before doing a full restore. http://www.runtime.org/dixml.htm

http://www.runtime.org/dixml.htm for a few machines or http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/true image/ for many.

The products have spoken for themselves for me, I use them exclusively. true image has a bartpe plugin, also.

True Image Server: $699.
True Image Enterprise: more, but worth it.

Another fine tool is found up at http://www.ubcd4win.com/ (Ultimate Boot CD 4 Windows). I have a lovely WinXPSP2 bootable CD with tons of tools, including my registered copies of GetDataBack/DriveExplorer from Runtime Software (Yeah it's not cheap, but it's cheaper than most similar software, and in my case, seems to work in 90% of the situations I've found myself in. Couple that with a decent-sized HD in a USB enclosure, and you can restore most people's data in a few hours.

(Actually I'm booted off that CD right now, running K-Meleon and reading /. and my email waiting to copy some stuff from one drive to another.. :) )

But for NTFS recovery, use GetDataBack.

Assuming the physical media is intact (as in, all read requests to the disk are successful), SalvageNTFS can retrieve data if there is even a single record of the MFT intact.

My company purchased a product a while back called GetDataBack NTFS and it has worked perfectly. It worked great when I (accidentally) deleted a volume from the W2K Disk Management MMC (whoops). Recovered all the data (since only the partition map was changed). Yes, I did something stupid, but this software saved me hours of recovering from backups.

I've tried lots of data restoration software, from shareware to super expensive. Almost all of them worked pretty badly. Except one, and I mention it here if it helps someone who is desperate and thinks there's no hope, to go down a potentially fruitfull track...

I've tried Get Data Back for FAT and for NTFS on drives that were formatted, partially zeroed (both FAT's gone on a FAT drive) and new partitions partially used and they restored perfectly almost all files (luckily every file I needed). They cost money (frequently found on warez sites though) and the programs and web site don't look all that professional, but I've never found anything that worked as well. I rekon these guys deserve to be paid for this great software.