take snapshots of running computers or servers
Sometimes, you need to backup a machine while it’s running, if it is performing a vital function on a network. As an example, a domain controller will affect access to network resources if it is shutdown midday for a backup. Purchasing a full-scale backup solution to allow full machine backups is expensive for home users. What if there was a way to do both for free?
There is. You can download a small .exe from DriveSnapshot and perform a live backup as long as you have admin permissions on the computer you want to backup. The trial program will run for 30days after which, it will still perform restores, but will no longer backup. It will work for system disks while they are in use and create an image of the disk without affecting system availability.
Simply download the executable and run it.
Click Backup disk to file
Choose your source disk, even if it is the system drive your machine is running from.
Next, choose the disk you want to save the snapshot to. It cannot be the same disk that you are taking the snapshot of, for obvious reasons. (hint: use an external USB hard disk)
You can set a password there to encrypt the backup, if desired.
Then click Start Copy. A progress meter will let you know when it is finished.
You now have a duplicate of your hard disk ready for an emergency. If you need to, you can even load your saved snapshot with Drivesnapshot to retrieve files from the disk image.
