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Windows 7 OS and Data backup

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I am running Windows 7 64 bit OS.
I am updating the firmware on my boot drive( c:\\) which will wipe out all the data on the drive!
I am in the process of backing up the entire drive. I noticed that Win 7 created a 100 mb partition which I beleive is recovery partition? Basically I have two partitions on my main windows OS boot drive
I plan to to reinstall the entire drive after the firmware update so I set the program to backup both partitions.
Also your backup program has the option to backup the MBR.
Confused about whether I need to backup the MBR on this restore?. Your user manual says that I would not need to backup the MBR in this instance. Not sure if I agree??

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Alec:

I'm no expert but I'll tell you about my Win 7/64 "backup and restore" experiment.

My main Win drive has three partitions:
First is the 100 MB Win 7 "system" partition that Win disk manager calls "reserved".
Second is my C: partition (about 300 GB) that is called the "boot" partition by Win 7. I gave it an unique name just to make sure I don't restore the wrong partition.
Third is another large partition that is formatted but has no useful data on it now.

I booted a TI 2009 recovery CD and told TI to create backup images of the "reserved" and the "C:" partitions. These were created on an external USB connected hard drive. I verified them next. I did backup the MRB.

Next I shut down, removed my internal drive, put a blank drive in the same place, and then booted the TI recovery CD again.

Now I told TI to do a restore:
First I restored the 100 MB "reserved" partition. I had to tell TI that I wanted it to only be 100 MB (it wanted the entire drive). I also told it to make it "active" and to restore the MBR. The restore was fast.
Next I did a restore of the "C:" partition without the options of "active" etc.

At the end of this TI issues a warning about a reboot being required. I did and as the power came up, I ejected the CD and let it boot to the new internal drive. It booted and worked perfectly. Cool!

Perhaps I have forgotten something but you will probably figure it out when you come to it.

Fungus

Thanks for you helpful comments.
Why did you restore each partiiton seperatley?
Also why did you make the reserved partiton "active" or were you just making the drive itself active?

The 100mb part. is actually the boot partition for Win 7. However if you instal Win 7 on a formatted drive it doesn't create this partition. Everything it needs to boot is in the C partition like all the previous Win OSes.
It is only on a drive that is marked "unallocated" that a Win 7 install creates the 100mb part.