A simple question re 'C Drive' vs 'System Reserved & C Drive' partition backups
Hi all,
I have read through many pages on here and have googled enough times for it to be very irritating.
I know that it is recommended to select the 'system reserved' partition with the 'C Drive' partition for Win 7 versions when wanting to restore a whole system from the live/bootable CD, fine no problem with that and this is what I usually do when creating backups, but I also do a second backup with ONLY 'C Drive' selected with a view to using this as a more elaborate "restore point" if the need arises as I have read many reports of Windows own restore point creation not being always reliable.
My question is, am I right in thinking that I could restore only my C Drive from within the Acronis program interface from within windows, for example, in the case of wanting to do a complete restore where windows is still fully bootable and NOT doing this from the bootable cd, without bothering with the 'system reserved partition'??
My system is
Win 7 Ultimate 64-bit
C Drive 125 gb for OS & apps only
D drive 800gb+ for all data
I don't use continuous backups or any other similar facility as I manually drag & drop all my data files (movies, docs, vids, pics etc)
The smaller system rserved hidden partition is the active partition, the one that gets the computer's attention when it starts to acces the disk during boot up. It contains the core kernel & boot manager that then instructs the machine which OS to use and where to find it (on what partition). Sometimes there is a third partitin that contains the original image info from the manufacturer-- If you boot up into the manufactuer's recovery, this is where the boot manager sends the machine.
If you're only using windows, you should be able to get by with just the C drive (system partitions) and the smaller hidden parition. IF you want to restore the Os, you'd do well to restore both. The little one takes only moments; they're usually only about 100MB to about 1.5GB.
If it was me, I'd backup both.
sh
icekool,
I highly recommend to do all system/OS restore from the recovery CD. ATI is supposed to work when you launch these restores from Windows, and many users just to that. Sill, I recommend you always use the CD.
Once this is established, the recommendation of Scott makes sense: why not restore the whole things anyway?
From my experience, I have seen cases where restoring only C:\ resulted in issues with some software (like Norton 360 activation). It would also result in issues if you are using BitLocker.
So backup both partitions, and restore them both from the CD. Technically and theoretically not required. Simpler. More peace of mind.
Thanks for your replies.
I will do as you both recommend and probably forget about C:\ only backups, but I can't help thinking that the system reserved partition (100mb) will never be changed over the course of usage, whereas C:\ is always changing so not sure why it should also be restored, but will happily take your words for it.
Oh, btw, the notification of replies by email doesn't seem to be working on this forum
icekool,
You are correct, the system reserved partion would not be changed, but it can become corrupted.
icekool,
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