How to create disk image?

Usually you need to make a disk image if you suspect (or know for sure) that the disk has bad sectors. In this case, even just reading the data, as data recovery software does, can lead to further damage to the data on the disk, since, for example, it can provoke the appearance of new bad sectors.

In the case of a small number of bad sectors, you can make an image of such a disk at home and continue working with it in data recovery.

Usually, data recovery software desgined for home users cannot work with disk images, while professional software, such as ReclaiMe Pro, can make an image even from badly damaged disk (provided that the problem is in bad sectors, rather than in mechanical damage to the disk head). Our ReclaiMe File Recovery software can create disk image files even in demo mode.

  1. Run ReclaiMe File Recovery from the command line with the /nofilter option.
    Run ReclaiMe to create disk image file
    This is necessary so that all physical disks are shown, and not just the partitions on them. You can safely press Cancel to parse various partition schemes: you still need a disk, not partitions on it, besides, searching for partitions involves massive reading of data from the disk, and you don’t need this in the case of a disk with bad sectors.
  2. Find your disk under the Physical devices section or under the USB devices if the disk is connected via USB.
  3. Select the disk and click Disks -> Create disk image -> RAW (sector-by-sector).
    Select your disk in ReclaiMe to create disk image file
  4. Specify the location where the image file will be saved. Note that such a sector-by-sector image will require an amount of free space equal to it.
  5. Wait until the software completes creating a disk image file.

There are also other formats for image files: vhd and vhdx, but creating disk image in these formats is not available in the demo version of ReclaiMe.

After the image file is ready, you can disconnect your disk from the computer, load the image file into the program via the Disks -> Open disk image button, and then do all the data recovery procedures on it.

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