Why I buy this one ?
- Save yourself hours of frustration when failures happen, by keeping your complete hard drive & operating system as one backup file
- Restore with just a click and get your machine up & running within minutes
- Schedule your own automatic backups or run them manually whenever you're at the computer
- Create and restore a compressed image file of an entire hard disk or individual partitions of a hard drive with a click
- Optimized Windows settings are restored automatically through SmartSector imaging

What our customer's say!

"Beware and listen to the warnings", I ignored the warnings of others that I read here and ordered this. The Drive Image 7 product that I received from the Amazon.com seller had a big problem (old version perhaps?).
It created drive backups OK but when I tried to boot the product disk to load the "Power Quest Recovery Environment" to do a system restore it failed solid with TXTSETUP.OEM error 18.
Turns out that the product disk was burned with a directory that had its name truncated on the CDROM. Unbeliveable but true.
After editting a copy of the disk's image to correct things, and reburning it I have it working, but I now no longer feel I can trust this product to do the backup tasks that I bought it for.
Symantec web site wants money before helping you, so forget that option your all on your own.

"Poor product and even worst support!", I purchased Drive Image 7.0 to backup a 160G 3 partition hard drive on Windows 2000 pro. It only sees one partition, if you run a utility program from Power Quest it thinks the end cylinder is larger than the disk, but if you look at the data, it is the end cylinder from Power Quest that doesn't seem to support extended partitions larger than 137 GB. The main issue is that the Drive Image program doesn't report any errors, it just sees one partition. When I called for support, they were extremely un helpful, after downloading the latest version of the SW it still doesn't work. The problem is still not solved!

"Version 7 is not stable", I am using PQ products almost 5 years and agree with all previous reviewes version 7 is bad. I had problem with XP Home edition. There is no dicent support for current product. (...) Symantec blaming PQ and PQ are diluted in the Symantec - endless loop.

"Terrible support even for telephone activation", PowerQuest used to provide excellent support last 5 years when I used their product. Symantec is giving us almost no support. The web site won't even give you instructions for activating the Drive Image 7 or Partition Magic 8 by phone correctly. What they gave you won't work for DI7 or PM8. Telephone number they ask you to call for activation is always busy and tell you to call back later. We paid for the long distance charge too. After 15 or 30 days,(depends on which document you read) you are locked out of the software you paid for if you cannot get through to Symantec.. Other very serious problems are revealed by other customers. Read their comments before you want to pay for the software. Also if you own more than one computers, you must purchase another license.
I'll just go back to my DI5 and PM7 for now.

"You'll be sorry if you don't have it.", Like most computer users, I expected that sooner or later something would go wrong. So I made it a practice to back up my entire computer (3 of them) from time to time. Something got on one of them. Try as I might, I couldn't find it and it was occupying a huge amount of space (almost 20 gb). Long story short, I considered reformatting the hard drive and reloading a ton of programs. First, I thought I'd try to reinstall the backup image of the drive. It worked like a charm. My concern that the old "hidden" program or whatever, wouldn't be overwritten. It was and it was restored perfectly to the last backup point. Don't be without it. You will need a device to backup to such as an external hard drive. Otherwise, a charm.

Read this reviews before You buy...

"Drive Image 7 is a DOWNGRADE from Drive Image 2002", I've used Drive Image 2002 for 18 months and was very impressed with it. So much so that when my son bought a PC loaded with XP, I insisted on getting a copy of Drive Image 7 on it straight away. Other Dads (and Mums) who want to upgrade - beware!

Powerquest make a big play on DI7's ability to perform hot backups as an improvement on DI2002's use of DOS (meaning Windows can't be used during a backup). That's not the problem that Powerquest (and many reviewers) imply. With DI2002, it's easy to start a backup at the end of your day, which is a pretty sensible time to do it anyway. After the backup is complete, DI2002 can shut the PC down automatically. Those who use that trick will know that there is nothing simpler. Completely painless, reliable, 'cold' backups; capturing your latest work; with no inconvenience to you (you've gone to bed!).

In contrast, DI7 takes hot backups - i.e. while you're working on the PC. That's a bigger challenge, but DI7's fancy technology still gets a single-point snapshot of the system, even though your activity will change files between the start-time and end-time of the backup. Well that's fine, except that the PC seems to lock-up occasionally while running a backup. I imagine that's the clever technology working out how to deal with modified files but it IS annoying, all too similar to a dreaded system hang - albeit for only several seconds at a time.

So, here's where DI7 loses its first 'star' - backing up your system while working is NOT as safe as after you've finished, because (doh!) your completed work will not be on the backup.
And I'll take off another star for the loss of the automatic shutdown facility. Now I can't leave the PC until the backup has finished. No more 'unattended' backups. :-(

Next on my moan list is the loss of another feature - the ability to create and resize disk partitions. I'm not talking about multiple boot modes - just the ability to keep certain files on different logical drives, so that I can backup different types of data (on drives d:, e:, f: etc.) at different frequencies. Zip goes another star.

With DI2002, you were forced to keep backup files on a different logical drive to the one being backed-up. Why? Simple: you don't want to back up your backup files! Let me explain. Having one backup is better than none, but it's more secure to take (say) one-per-week, overwriting each when it's a month old. That's five backup 'cycles' in total. It means that if you delete a file and don't realise for three weeks, you can still recover it from a backup taken four weeks ago. That's exactly what I did with DI2002 - it works a treat!

Now, suppose you have 10gb of data and you keep your backup files on drive c: - as you must with DI7 if you don't buy their separate 'Partition Magic' product or have a second physical disk. Ignoring compression, your first backup will double the use of your hard disk (10+10), your second will quadruple it (10+10+20) and so on. After week 5, your backup files alone will require 310gb of space! By keeping them in a separate partition which you do NOT back up, your five backups take just 50gb. That's still a lot, but is not unrealistic with 120gb drives becoming common now. Compression does reduce the exponential effect, but the daft problem still exists - minus another star.

Oh... and Powerquest have failed to take the simple solution - get DI7 to just ignore backup files when doing a backup. Another star bites the dust for stupidity.

So that's it, one star left out of five. I suppose those without DI2002 will not realise what they're missing and will still get some benefit from the product. If you have Partition Magic or two physical drives, some of these problems will not apply anyway but for me, it's a very disappointing thumbs down.

PS. Amazon won't let me take away another star but I will anyway. The box that DI7 comes in boasts of the awards that DI2002 has apparently received, rightly so. As DI7 has - in my opinion - a cut down set of features, I consider Powerquest's mention of DI2002's awards misleading to the point of dishonesty.

"Dangerous, poor quality software. Be careful.", Drive Image 7 is potentially excellent software with at least two absolutely show-stopping bugs that make it impossible for me to recommend.

1. Under some circumstances, DI7 makes an un-readable backup. Attempt to open your backup in the Backup Image Browser (DI7's image reader) and get the message "Invalid Backup Format." This situation does not become obvious until you attempt to read your backup, something you normally don't do until you try to restore information you thought you had backed up. The knowledge base articles for the error indicate that turning on a backup verification switch in the software will cause the backups to be unreadable. The solution they recommend is to make another backup with the switch turned off. Obviously this is not an option unless you know about the problem before you need to use the backup.

2. If DI7 encounters an error during a regularly scheduled backup, it aborts the backup and remains silent. The only way to know that something has gone wrong is to look at the date of the last backup image, or to view the log information buried deep in the DI7 console. Errors that abort the backup occur more often than you might think. One common scenario is to run out of storage space on the target volume. What this means is that a periodic backup that has been working for a while can one day stop working, and Drive Image 7 will never tell you that this has happened. For a product that sells itself on convenient peace-of-mind, this is unacceptable.

3. Symantic tech support is non-responsive. I have waited more than a month for a response to my questions about the Invalid Backup Format problem. I have received nothing but an automated acknowledgement that I submitted the question.

Based on these fundamental problems, I cannot recommend the regular use of this software.

"Forget Drive Image 7.0 or 7.01, minus 5 stars", I bought Drive Image 7.0 when it first became available in July 93. I did not attempt to install until mid-October due to travel and work. First few attempts to install were un-successful. Could never get the program to start up after install. Removed, re-installed many times, with no luck. Complained to PowerQuest, they sent the upgrade 7.01 disk free except for shipping charges. Replacement disk arrived with a crack across one side. Reordered, paid 7.95 shipping again. Still no luck on getting it to run. I requested another disk, again for a fee since the disk I received did not have version 7.01 anwhere on the disk or sleeve and there was no way to tell if it was 7.01 since I could never get an opening screen. Third disk did have 7.01 on the disk sleeve but the CD does not show anything other than 7.0, on any of the copies. Same story, installed o.k but will not run. No support from my last email request to support over two weeks ago. I provided all the error codes, etc. They did not even acknowledge the email. Up until the last email, they always acknowledged. None of the error codes I received,nor the FAQ's or other database codes even listed the codes or problem I was having. I have loaded, removed, reloaded DI7, many times. I have also removed/reloaded .NET Framework, upgraded that, disabled all start up programs, except Norton Internet Security and made at least 50 reboots plus hours of wasted time. I did not remove Norton Internet Security, although it was disabled on during all my installs and attempts to run the DI program. Reinstalling NIS is not a problem but getting updates downloaded requires a lot of time. Not removing NIS may have actually saved me from a hard disk wipe out based on the reviews I have read which mentions disk wipe outs and having to reload WinXP and all programs again.

The only thing that works with DI 7 on my computer is the CD will boot my computer, nothing locks up during installs or attempts to run. All I get is an error message stating: "V2I console-common lanquage runtime debugging service". "Application has generated an exception than can not be handled. process ID=0xbe0(3040, thread id=0xfb8 (4024)" (The codes change for each start-up attempt. Also on the same page "Click O.K to terminate or cancel to debug" which, if you click "Cancel" then produces another message about no debugger attached asks for a manual attachment of a debugger I do not have and would not use, shouldn't have to!

After almost six months of ownership, I have never seen the opening screen for DI 7 and have never progressedto the point where a serial number or requested is requested.

I am running a very stable Toshiba 2.4 MHZ system with one gig of ram, WinXP-SP1 and all updates from Microsoft. It has never locked up or glitched!!.

I bought DI 7 to use, not test or trouble-shoot. Maybe I am truly fortunate DI 7 never gets past the error message point. Based on all the high number of error codes mentioned by PQ in the support and help documentattion plus all the negative reviews I have read, I should be glad DI 7 doesn't run on my computer.

One should not have to pay almost 100.00 (original price + tax + upgrade to 7.01 plus shipping and tax X 2)and then have to beg for help, or worse yet be asked to pay for help on defective software. Support the product or get out of the business!!!

I have been working with computers since before the first IBM desktop became available and have always been able to work around a problem without ever asking, even once, for help from any software developer. DI 7.0 and 7.1 is the worst piece of software I have encountered thus far. Second worst ia a tax program for 2002 tax year, name not mentioned.

Now PowerQuest has dumped DI 7 into Symantec's lap for support, which is non-existent at the moment. I suppose DI 8 by Symantec will be out soon. Until this point I have always had good results with PowerQuest products. But PowerQuest has lost me as a customer.

There is no "negative 5 star" rating, which is how I rate it. If it works for you, wonderful! I truly wish it worked for me since it sounded like the perfect backup solution when it first became available.

I have not and will not remove any program from my computer to enable any purchased software to install or run, unless it was advertised as being non-compatible and I decided to take my chances. If it can not coexist with other normally used software-----it is not good software!

I have now removed all traces of DI7, VI2 protector, plus .NET frame work from my computer since no longer need that. I edited my registry and WinXP files to get all traces of PowerQuest out of my computer and am finished with all PowerQuest products! I have also asked PowerQuest to take me off their mailing list for future news, upgrades, and new products.

Hasta La Vista, PowerQuest---I won't be back

"Warning: Bug in Drive Image 7.0", Warning! An apparent bug in DI7 prevents some .PSD and .PDF files from being restored correctly from a DI7 backup. This affects only individual file restores, rendering this option useless. Full restores (of the entire drive image) work properly. Unless this bug problem is resolved, I cannot give DI7 the 5-star rating it deserves.

I communicated with the PowerQuest DI7 product manager up until about 2 months ago, and then communications stopped. This may have been around the time Symantec acquired the product. I will assume that the bug is real and PowerQuest/Symantec has been unable to fix it. I am not sure why only some .PDF and .PSD files fail to restore correctly. File size doesn't seem to be a factor, though more large files than small ones have failed. Not every .PDF or .PSD file fails to restore.

This effectively renders DI7 to be no different than DI5, and no better than Symantec Ghost. My advice - Don't spend your money to upgrade to or purchase DI7 until PowerQuest/Symantec provides the necessary bug fix.

"Drive Image 7 puts Ghost to Shame", I've used Norton Ghost PE for several years on a Win 2k system. I can never be sure if I have a good Ghost backup or not. Often, I've had to rebuild my system from scratch after a disk crash when I discovered my Ghost backup was corrupted.

Overall, I've been very pleased with Drive Image 7. It makes a perfect backup of Windows 2k when Windows is running. Each time I've needed to restore, it has worked flawlessly. I am backing up to an external USB drive. When restoring, Drive Image 7 has no difficulty recognizing and restoring from the USB hard drive.

The negatives:
1) Have been unable to create a DVD-RW backup. It will run for over 24 hours trying to backup 7 gigs of data. I've never been successful doing this. I have come to the conclusion this software is incapable of backup to DVD.

2) It could just be my setup, but when booting from the Drive Image disk I am unable to see any other PC's on my local network. I've not spent much time troubleshooting this aspect, but from my limited experience so far, networking after bootup from the Drive Image CD will not work.

However, if you want to backup your data to a locally connected hard drive I don't think you can beat this software.

Hopefully future releases will fix the DVD and networking problems. When these problems are fixed, I don't think you could find a better solution to automated backups than Drive Image 7.