Taking a disk image has many advantages over the regular backup. In a regular backup, the data has to be saved onto the appropriate partition manually. If you use the regular backup, the drives have to be manually partitioned and formatted, and the operating system installed and configured. Then, the programs have to be reinstalled and reconfigured, followed by restoration of data files from backups. A disk image can take care of all of these time-consuming steps with a single, easy command. Disk images can also be used in recovering lost data from hard drives.

You can obtain a disk image using a good disk imaging software. REMO Recover (Windows) Pro Edition software lets you take the disk image of a given drive, and later helps you in recovering lost data from the created disk image. The software also lets you recover data from lost/deleted partitions with ease.

Reloading Windows means that you have reformatted your hard drive and thus marked all the spaces those files occupy as empty. Luckily the actual file data is still present. A deep search of a reformatted drive will return well over 90% of the file information on that drive. This data can then be re-saved and reloaded onto the reformatted drive.