Runtime imaging is image creation for a drive object performed simultaneously with other data read operations from this drive. When R‑Studio reads data from a certain area of the source (a drive, partition, or region), it writes the data to the target which can be either a dedicated drive or an image file. When the data from this area is needed again, R‑Studio reads it from the target rather than the source thus reducing access to the source. This is very important for faulty or unstable drives which health may be constantly deteriorating during data recovery operations.

 

R‑Studio also creates a sector map file during runtime imaging.

To start runtime imaging of an object,

using a plain image file

or right-click the object and select Set Runtime Image on the context menu.

 

Select Plain or VMDK image file in the Image type field, specify the file name and path for the image and sector map files, and click the OK button. Don't select the VMDK image file unless you can disable writing to the drive. Cloning to a physical drive is not recommended because Windows can write some data to the drive corrupting the imaged data when the image has been completed and runtime imaging is over.

Plain image file requires immediate allocation of disk space equal to the object size, whereas VMDK image file is growing gradually upon imaging progress.

Select the object and click the Stop Runtime Imaging button or item in the context o menu turn runtime imaging off.

using a physical drive

or right-click the object and select Set Runtime Image on the context menu.

 

Select Physical drive in the Image type field, specify the name and path for the sector map file, and click the OK button.

Note: all data on the drive will be destroyed.

Select the object and click the Stop Runtime Imaging button or item in the context o menu turn runtime imaging off.

 

R‑Studio stores the information about runtime configurations and asks the users whether they want to keep runtime imaging or discard it during its startup.

and this configuration will appear in R‑Studio .