USB Image Tool 1.90

The new version of USB Image Tool adds a couple of new features. A new section on the info tab will show details about running backup/restore tasks (time started, estimated ending time, average speed). A new feature will check the device for fake size information by testing the whole drive data integrity. I also added a new option to list multiple volumes on an USB drive, even if they are formatted with a file system, that is not accessible from Windows. All changes and bugfixes can be found in the changelog.

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Comments

  • Hello Alex,

    I’m trying to use your USB image tool to backup image of ESXI on USB stick. However, I’m getting a ‘Not Responding’ message and frozen window when launching USBIT. I’ve tried it on 3 different computers and it produces the same behavior. Any help is greatly appreciated as I’m trying to get an image of ESXi so I can clone to a SSD.

    Cheers.

    • @Isaia: The first thing, that should appear, is a question asking for admin rights (USB Image Tool needs them for accessing the device low-level). Does this message appear? Can you try to start it with admin rights manually (right-click, Run as administrator)? Any more details on the environment (Windows version, .NET Framework version).

  • Hello Alex!
    USB Image Tool 1.90 is really a great tool and “saved my day”! 🙂
    I created a USB-TO-GO stick (based on Windows 11) and tried several tools to create a bootable(!) copy of it on a second stick. None of the tools brought success. Either the boot sector was missing or defective, could not be mounted, produced the dreaded “blue screens” (BSOD), etc.
    Only with this tool I could create a usable image, and from this image then again a working, bootable stick!!! GREAT!

    However, it seems that the tool only recognizes (and can only work with) “pure USB sticks”, but not “USB SCSI ATTACHED” SSDs or USB sticks. Correct?

    Greetings from Germany
    Klaus

    • @Klaus: Thanks for your feedback and donation. Please try the option for non-removable drives to find SCSI attached USB drives. If this does not show the device, you are looking for, please activate the debug output for the drive detection and provide the log either by mail or message/forum.

  • • While downloading a 115GiB USB drive (in Device mode), USB Image Tool 1.90 filled my computer’s hard drive and then stopped. (It didn’t check for enough space before starting.)
    • USB Image Tool 1.90 did not seem to compress the image file as it saved it. (I’m pretty sure because I had pre-filled the whole drive with this app’s “Check” pattern, which is very compressible, before creating the volume.)

    • @guy818: I will put checking the target for enough available disk space on the todo-list. Compression is done for zip and gzip files only. I’n not sure how compresseable the size checked device is, as it is not a repeating but increasing pattern, that is used for the check.

  • • USB Image Tool 1.90 makes a “forensic” image by default. That copies a lot of “junk” and can create security risks. Many imaging and copying programs find ways to copy much less; some can even copy a Volume image to a smaller Volume if the image fits. They only copy EVERY byte by special request.
    When copying a “Device”, you could copy the boot area and all [selected] partitions, and ignore all unallocated regions before or after the partition(s).
    When copying a “Volume”, for disk formats that you choose to recognize (FAT32, etc.), you could copy the system areas and all files, and ignore all unused sectors and “file slack” (extra bytes and sectors at the ends of files).
    • If the user has RW access to the USB “Device” or “Volume”, volume, they can “help” USB Image Tool 1.90 make a safer and more-compressible image file by filling the unused space and “file slack” on the “Volume” with all zeros; CCleaner and other utilities can do this. ((Or they can write all zeros to the whole Device before populating it with the content to be imaged.))

    • @guy8118: Thanks for your feedback and suggestions. I’m aware the device mode is a 1:1 byte copy of the device (and volume mode of a specific volume). This is intentional and at the moment the main purpose of this tool. It is not meant to create a small but instead a byte identical image, even if there are no partitions or file systems on the device at all. I tried to avoid to do much file system or partition parsing and keep the tool as agnostic to file systems as it can be. Maybe future versions may offer something like a partition and file mode, but at current state it’s just 1:1 device or volume.

  • Hello Alex, thanks for this amazing tool.
    I’ve run the fake size check and discover my SD card has only 14,8gb
    Issue is that I cannot flash its own backup which has 16gb. Any suggestion how to fix this?
    It’s a retro console OS. Is it the only option to use a genuine 16gb or higher capacity?
    I would prefer to keep this…

    • You have some options – best way would be to use a genuine SD card from a trustworthy seller/brand. I wouldn’t trust a fake card in keeping my data save (you can’t really trust any SD card over a long time). Depending on the partition size, you have to reduce it to the new cards size and make sure the partition is on the beginning on the device. With that made sure, you can write an image to file and then to the genuine card using the truncate option in USB Image Tool. I’m using MiniTool Partition Wizard for such tasks, but any partition tool will do.

      • Hello, thanks for your prompt reply. I did it by just selecting trucate option and image was sucesfully written back to SD, I really appreciate, my kids can continue playing… I will order a genuine soon, fully understood your advice..

  • Hi Alex,

    Just discovered USB image tool; just want to say it’s BRILLIANT! Small, fast, reliable – perfect! I wonder why a certain etcher needs 133 megabytes(!) for the same funcionality 🙂

    Viele Grüße, Robert

  • Hallo,
    das image tool funktioniert bisher absolut tadellos, vielen Dank!

    Neulich wollte ich mal einen Speicherstick mit USB 3.2 vorbereiten, er und andere USB 3.2 Speichersticks von verschd. Herstellern werden vom Tool aber nicht erkannt. (Jeweils 128GB)
    Alle USB Speicher mit 128GB und USB 3.1 werden problemlos erkannt und verarbeitet.
    Ist das Thema bekannt?
    Vielen Dank für die Info. Beste Grüße,
    Andreas

    • Hallo und Danke für die Meldung. Bekannt wäre da aktuell noch nichts. Habe neulich noch einen 64GB getestet, sollte auch mit 3.2 gewesen sein. Funktioniert es auch mit aktiver NonRemovable-Option nicht? Wäre es möglich, die Ausgaben vom Debug-Log per Mail zu schicken? Danke schonmal. Alex

  • Dear Alex,

    Thank you for making such a useful tool!
    I have a feature request consideration please.
    Are you able to support restoring images to multiple USB devices at once?
    If I need to make copies of images, I can only do one at a time.
    Thank you 🙂

    • @adam: This feature is planned for the next major update. Btw: You can do this right now manually either by the command line tool + a batch file or by starting parallel jobs manually in the GUI tool. New version will have a dedicated mode for multi-backup + restore.

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