🚀 Release Notes — NTFS Partition Image Support (VHD Mode)
Added
- Support for NTFS partition imaging with VHD restoration
- You can now create NTFS partition images and restore them directly as VHD files, mountable from Windows.
Usage Example
To back up your C: drive (or any NTFS partition):
zpaqfranz a z:\backup.zpaq C: -image -vhdJust add -vhd to the usual -image command (* no vss for now, next release...)
The process stores a special backward-compatible format, split into two files:
image_C.fhd
image_C.header
Restoration
To extract and restore as a mountable VHD file:
zpaqfranz x z:\backup.zpaq -vhd
This will generate
image_C.vhd
Notes on Storage and Efficiency
- The resulting .vhd file is not as compact as the zpaqfranz's NTFS-specific image format (-image -ntfs).
- However, it does not require double the disk space for restoration (unlike the ntfs command).
- The output file size corresponds roughly to the actual used space on the original partition.
Example:
A 256 GB NTFS partition with 100 GB of used data will produce a .vhd file of about 100 GB.
Mounting and Extraction
The generated .vhd can be mounted or opened using:
- Windows Disk Management
- FTK Imager
- OSFMount
- Or directly opened with 7-Zip to extract files.
Experimental Feature
This feature is still experimental — a large on-screen warning will appear.
It has not been fully tested yet.
Future versions will include auto-mount support and further refinements.
Integrity Check
To verify that two directories (e.g., G:\data and C:\data) are identical —
for instance, after mounting your .vhd as G: — run:
zpaqfranz sum g:\data -xxh3 -ssd -summary
zpaqfranz sum c:\data -xxh3 -ssd -summary
Tip: Use the -ssd flag only for solid-state drives.
Avoid it on traditional spinning disks.