3. EZ Gig II: Data Backup Tool

The EZ-GigII Utility includes the two data transfer tools Clone EZ and Image EZ.

Clone EZ can be used to make a 1:1 copy of a hard disk with only a few mouse clicks. We have already described the procedure in an earlier article. If your are interested, you can read the details in the article An Easy-Upgrade for Notebook Hard Drives . This tool is very practical if the user is thinking about replacing a full hard disk with a model having greater capacity and better performance.

However, due to its 20 GB capacity, the Ez-Bus-Mini that we tested is more suited to backing up partitions. For this job, Apricorn includes the Image EZ program. With this tool, an image of a hard disk partition can be created in only seven mouse clicks.

After the program is started, the user decides which partition he wants to backup by selecting the partition with the mouse pointer. In our example, this is the boot partition "C". The partition that is to be backed up is marked with a red bar in the graphical user interface.

Afterwards, you can choose whether the partition should be saved to a hard disk or a drive with exchangeable media, for example a burner. In the following dialog, the exact position as well as the name of the backup copy are defined.

With three more mouse actions, the user establishes whether the backup copy should be split into multiple smaller files and their degree of compression. If required, the copy can also be protected against undesired access by means of a password.

In the practical test, a compression level of "3" proved to be optimal with regard to the backup speed.

Just one more mouse click, and the backup begins.

At this point, we don't want to conceal a disadvantage of the program. It appears to not be suitable for professional use because it doesn't support recovery of NTFS partitions. Consequently, NTFS drives must be converted to FAT32 format before the backup.