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System Reserved & Recovery partitions need backing up?

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If I expand the Backup Source to 'Full Partition List' I see the System Reserved & Recovery partitions, do these need to be backed up and possibly restored.

 

Thank you

 

Petert

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The System Reserved partition holds the boot files for Windows so it must be included in a backup so that a restored disk will boot.

Recovery partitions should be backed up if you use Windows System Restore points for example as those are stored here.  Win 10 major version upgrades will also create these recovery partitions so that a restore of an earlier version can be used if needed.

OEM also create recovery partitions and may hold tools to assist in returning a system to factory default for example.

Recovery partitions are not mandatory include in a backup candidates but you may wish to do so anyway depending on your needs.

Thank you Enchantek, I shall include them in my images but when restoring do I need to restore them if Windows is functioning normally? In fact, when would I ever need to restore them?

Let's say you have a complete OS disk failure and need to return your system to as it was prior to that failure then you would need to restore all partitions. 

If Windows is working normally then you likely only need to restore things like user files which can be done without regard to what partitions are present. 

You create disk level backups to protect complete disks.  You create folder/file level backups for user folder/files to protect personal data.

That has explained it perfectly Enchantech, thank you so much for your time.

Regards,

Peter