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Restore of Windows 7 from a hidden partition during the boot cycle

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I am looking for a product that will allow a restore from a hidden partition on the same hard drive as the one booted from. My Operating System is Windows 7 Home Premium. During the boot cycle, maybe I could hit the F11 key (or some other key) to get to a restore menu and overwrite a corrupted operating system.

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In fact, many big brand name computers (Dell, Lenovo, Sony, etc.) come with such a setup. They have a relatively small partition, perhaps 10 GB to 20 GB and often hidden from Windows, on the drive. That partition contains files to overwrite the drive back to factory condition. The problem is that such a restoration wipes out your data too, unless your data are on a different drive. There are repair options, which are meant to preserver your files, but don't bet your life on them.

It's always better to have backup images stored off your main drive. I backup to and restore from external USB hard drives.

Hello Sidk,

Welcome to your Forum, it's nice to have you with us. Thank you for your question,  I will be glad to address it.

We've got exactly what you need in Acronis True Image Home 2012: Acronis Start up Recovery Manager.

It's quite simple: you create Acronis Secure Zone on the drive (it's a hidden partition, which contains backup), and activate Start up Recovery Manager. Later on booting you can hit F11, get to the SRM menu and proceed with the recovery.

You can find the detailed description of Start Up Recovery Manager here in the online User Guide.

Should you need anything else or have any further questions - feel free to contact us at your earliest convenience, we will be happy to help you!

Thank you.