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Runtime Imaging


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

1 Select a drive object on the R‑Studio 's Drives panel and click the Start Runtime Image button,

or control-click the object and select Set Runtime Image on the contextual menu .

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Runtime imaging

 

Select Plain or another image type 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 later. 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.

> R‑Studio will turn on runtime imaging.
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Runtime imaging

Select the object and click the Stop Runtime Imaging button or this item in the contextual menu to turn runtime imaging off.

using a physical drive

1 Select a drive object on the R‑Studio 's Drives panel and click the Start Runtime Image button,

or control-click the object and select Set Runtime Image on the contextual menu .

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Runtime imaging

 

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.

> R‑Studio will turn on runtime imaging.
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Runtime imaging

Select the object and click the Stop Runtime Imaging button or item in the contextual to 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.

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Runtime imaging

and this configuration will appear in R‑Studio .

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Runtime imaging

Completing Runtime Image

You may complete the runtime image without browsing through the entire file system on the disk.

1 Select the object being imaged and click the Complete Runtime Image button,

or control-click the object and select Complete Runtime Image on the contextual menu.

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Runtime imaging

> The Complete Runtime Imaging dialog box will appear.
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Runtime imaging

Select the necessary parameters of multi-pass imaging and select the OK button.

> R-Studio will complete the creation of the runtime image.

If the runtime image has not been completed, you may resume it next time you start runtime imaging.

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Runtime imaging

 

Creating runtime image for individual files

You may create a runtime image containing only individual files rather than all data on the disk.

1 Establish a runtime imaging for the disk with the files, open the disk, mark the files, and click the Save marked to runtime image button.

or control-click on the right pane, and select Save Marked to Runtime Image on the contextual menu.

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Runtime imaging

> The Complete Runtime Imaging dialog box will appear.
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Runtime imaging

Select the necessary parameters of multi-pass imaging and select the OK button.

> R-Studio will complete the creation of the runtime image.

You may open such images as regular ones.

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Runtime imaging

Such image contains information about the entire file system, but if a non-imaged file is opened, it'll contain only zeros.