Announcing ODIN A free open source disk imaging tool

I would like to point you at a new program to backup and restore partitions or complete hard disks. You can download it from here: http://sourceforge.n...jects/odin-win/.

ODIN (Open Disk Imager in a Nutshell) is a simple stand-alone program running under Windows. I does not require installation, can be run even from CD or USB stick. ODIN uses the Windows API for raw disk access which ensures robustness and support of all Windows file systems (but therefore does not give you support of file system from other OS like ext3). ODIN can save only used blocks, optional compress data and split files. It runs under Windows PE (I tried with Bart PE). Using a boot CD is currently the only way to backup a Windows partition as backup of the system partition from a running Windows installation is not yet supported. ODIN can verify backup images for damages before restoring them to disk.

ODIN 0.1 is still in an early phase of development, not as powerful as commercial imagers but therefore very lightweight. There seems to be always have been a lack of freely available open source based disk imagers running under Windows. Having the possibility to integrate such a useful tool into boot disks without license issues might be attractive for one or the other reading this forum. And not having to deal any longer with questions whether /dev/hdax is my drive Y: or Z.: when I want to backup my PC to save the hours of installation efforts is an advantage in my opinion ...

Comments are welcome.

Looks like a very cool little backup tool, I'll give it a try. Thanks ungebremst and welcome to the forum!

Welcome to our community ungebremst!

Your project seems very interesting and for the initial beta it does look simple and robust already.

I'm mostly a DriveImageXML user but I'm certainly willing to try other alternative as well.

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I've visited the sourceforge page to try out the program - would you mind posting some screenshots on your initial topic to give a better idea of what to expect for other users?

Very small sized program, good work.

Very small [527KB] and a clean interface.
license.html
ODIN.exe
ODIN_en.chm

Looks good!

Suggestions: a) option to encypt the backup archive; b) option to mount archive so as to restore individual files; c) make use of vss so that hot backup is an option. These are options I personally look for in disk imaging software.

Regards,
Galapo.

Support of VSS and with that "hot backup" of system partitions is definitely the number one prio.

Other things in my mind:

• command line interface
• writing a log file for bug tracking
• network interface to be able to remote backup/restore

Encryption is a nice idea as well, but currently you can encrypt the image file with any existing tool (ok not so convenient of course)

Having the ability to mount an image as a drive is a feature I really would like to have. This would require to dig in driver development of WIndows which I never did so far... we will see

Thanks for your feedback.

Other things in my mind:

• command line interface

Having the ability to mount an image as a drive is a feature I really would like to have. This would require to dig in driver development of WIndows which I never did so far... we will see

You can "include" in your program either IMDISK or VDK, both are free AND open source.
http://www.ltr-data.se/opencode.html
http://chitchat.at.i...vmware/vdk.html

jaclaz

You can "include" in your program either IMDISK or VDK, both are free AND open source.
http://www.ltr-data.se/opencode.html
http://chitchat.at.i...vmware/vdk.html

jaclaz

Interesting option, need to take a closer look on this! Thanks for giving this hint.

Interesting option, need to take a closer look on this! Thanks for giving this hint.

You are welcome.

Please note that IMDISK will mount partitions only ("bypassing" hidden sectors, i.e. "LogicalDrive"), while VDK mounts "whole" hard-disks (thus allowing access through \\.\PhysicalDriven)

If you need/want access to MBR and hidden sectors, you will need VDK.

jaclaz

v0.11 is out.

version 0.11
=============

Bug fixes:
- Crash when partition is saved to a network drive
- Avoid saving "Browse..." entry if no file is contained in the file combo box

Changes:
- Add warning to reboot system after a restore of a complete disk (sometimes not recognized)
- If restore volume fails do not try to unlock disk (exception as disk was not locked)
- use generated build number in version info

Cheers

@ungebremst
@Jotnar

bacause nick names do not tell much, please allow me to be curious:

Is one or both of you developer in that project?

Peter

one-two comments about
It is a fact that ghost is the father of all imaging software. Not for its age but for its numerous abilities. Never again such a small program could do so many jobs, such as reading ntfs from dos, burning cds, creating reduced images of ntfs partitions, tones of switches , command line .... blah blah.... and for me, the most important is the stability and trustworthiness. All these factors epitomize the meaning of quality.

after my senseless prolong , it would be nice if some features were included in Odin, f/ex cd buring (an easy job I think) , command line and blah blah

bill

ungebremst is probably the author as far as i can tell from the posts. I'm just a fan of the software.

Version 0.31 released.

New Version 0.31Beta released!

Version 0.31 is a bugfix release to 0.31. New Features of version 0.3 are:
Command Line interface
64-Bit version available
ODIN now can be run in two modes, either with a GUI or from a console as command line application. All options and functions are available from command line. See -usage for details. The command line application is started as ODINC.exe. The GUI application is started as ODIN.exe without any command line parameter. The console mode is for example useful for automated tasks running from scripts. Important note : To use from the command line under Vista or higher (with User Account Control enabled) start the console as Adminstrator! The 64-Bit version now allows to make snapshots on 64-Bit operating systems. Due to Windows limitations this was not possible before with a 32-Bit application running on a 64-Bit Windows.

We have finally COMMAND LINE!

All available options can be seen with the usage command odinc -usage:       Usage:      ODIN [operation] [options] -source=[name] -target=[name]      [operation] is one of -backup, -restore, -verify or -list      [options] are:      -compression=[bzip|gzip|none]   use bzip, gzip or no compression      -makeSnapshot    make snapshot (VSS) before backup (implies -usedBlocks)      -usedBlocks      copy only used blocks of volume      -allBlocks       copy all blocks of volume      -split=[nnn]     split image file every [nnn] MB      -comment=[string] add comment to image file for backup      [name]    name can be a device name like \Device\Harddisk0\Partition0 or      a file name like c:\DiskCImage.dat or a number that refers to      an index from the -list command      -backup   creates an image from a disk or volume to a file      -restore  restores a disk image from a file to a volume or disk      -verify   checks an image for damage      -list     prints a list of available volumes on this machine      -force    suppress all warning messages and continue immediately (very      dangerous!)      Examples:      ODIN -backup -usedBlocks -compression=gzip -source=1 -target=myimage.dat      backups volume number 1 to image file myimage.dat with gzip compression      and only used blocks (1 refers to index 1 of devices from output of -list)      ODIN -restore -source=myimage.dat -target=\Device\Harddisk0\Partition0      restores image from file myimage.dat to first partition of first disk      ODIN -list      prints all availaible volumes and disks with their name and number

And of course all the guys with x64 systems will be happy as well.

jaclaz

It gets better with each release. You can drop the author a line on his project's sourceforge forum if you have problems or feaure requests. He's very responsive.

Cheers

Here is v2 of Odin script, includes, ODIN-0.31-32Bit.zip & ODIN-0.31-64Bit.zip
http://apps.winbuild...Lancelot.script

CU