Disk Image

Also called a disk clone, an exact copy of a computer s hard drive. The copy includes all the partition information, boot sectors, the file allocation table, operating system installation and application software. Disk images are used to transfer a hard drive s contents during a hardware upgrade, to restore a hard drive s contents during disaster recovery or when a hard drive is erased, and to transfer the contents of a hard drive from one computer to another.

The process of creating a disk image is called disk imagine or disk cloning. Typically, special disk imaging software is required to copy the hard drive data.