Skip to main content

Sector-by-sector partition backup or partition backup via Boot Media - which is better for backup/restoring boot partition?

Thread solved

I have the latest build of ACP Home Office Essentials running on Windows 11 (latest build) and am currently making a sector-by-sector image backup of my boot partition. However I'm wondering if using the Boot Media to make an image is actually better, since it doesn't depend on being in Windows? Maybe I should make a partition backup in both environments? Thanks for any clarification. - Chris S.

 

0 Users found this helpful

Chris, welcome to these public User Forums.

There should be no real difference between creating backups from within Windows 11 and doing the same from bootable rescue media other than in terms of performance perhaps.  Acronis uses the Microsoft VSS snapshot service to capture locked data when within Windows.

Sector-by-sector mode isn't normally needed for regular backups unless required for forensic investigation or trying to recover data from a failing drive.  Using this mode will make the backup image much larger, especially if including unused sectors.

By boot partition - do you mean the very small EFI System partition that holds boot configuration data, or are you referring to the Windows 11 OS partition?

Hi Steve. Thanks. The sector-by-sector .tibx file I made turned out to be smaller than the partition size shown in Windows, which is just fine. I guess my concern regarding the type of backup has to do with drive recovery in case of OS boot failure, so I thought a SxS backup would be a better option. And to your question, I think it's the EFI system partition I wanted to be sure to make an image of as well as the OS partition.
 
Steve Smith wrote:

Chris, welcome to these public User Forums.

There should be no real difference between creating backups from within Windows 11 and doing the same from bootable rescue media other than in terms of performance perhaps.  Acronis uses the Microsoft VSS snapshot service to capture locked data when within Windows.

Sector-by-sector mode isn't normally needed for regular backups unless required for forensic investigation or trying to recover data from a failing drive.  Using this mode will make the backup image much larger, especially if including unused sectors.

By boot partition - do you mean the very small EFI System partition that holds boot configuration data, or are you referring to the Windows 11 OS partition?

Thanks Steve. My main concern was whether or not making an image of the partition from ACP in Windows would back-up the boot sector as well, the EFI system partition, which I suppose is necessary to restore if I had a drive failure.

Just to be extra cautious, I have also made another backup of the system partition using the latest MVP Assistant in the Windows PE environment.

Chris, by default Acronis will include all hidden / system partitions when selecting the Windows OS drive because these are very important for doing any full recovery, i.e. to a new empty drive if replacing a failed drive.