I've only been backing up & recovering the C: partition (OS) on a Win8 GPT Disk. Does it matter?
Apologies in advance, but i'm not that clued up with hard disk drives.
I bought a Windows 8 PC when the OS first came out (and im pretty sure its a UEFI GPT setup). Its now Windows 8.1. I used Acronis True Image 2013 for backup and recovery purposes for the first year (as the 2014 version hadnt been released yet). When using True Image 2013 it always suggested as default backing up only the C: partition (where the operating system sat). I was quite happy just backing up and recovering just that partition when needed.
However, when i bought True Image 2014, by default it started asking me to back up both the C: OS partition and also another partition called the FAT32 system which is about 360mb.
What i'm worried about is that backing up and recovering only the C: OS partiton with the 2013 version of True Image wasnt the correct way to do things and may have been a mistake.
My suspicion is that backing up and recovering just the C: OS partition of a Windows 8 machine is OK, as long as the disk doesnt fail and i dont need to restore a backup onto a new disk. Is that correct, or is it just plain wrong to only backup and recover just the C: OS partion of a Windows 8 machine?
Many thanks for any advice. Will be nice if my new found unease with the procedure i was using turns out to be ok, as long as i start doing things correctly from now on with the 2014 version.


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Thanks for the reply Enchantech.
I intend to do a full disk backup from now on using True Image 2014. Can i just confirm though, because i havent had to replace the orginal disk drive (as yet), has it been ok to just back up and recover the C: OS partition?
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Paul,
As MVP Enchantech stated
" Only backing up the C: partition will not produce a working bootable disk when restored. " so the answer to your question depends upon the situation. If you want to restore your C to what it was a few days ago, then Yes, your backup of C only will suffice.
But, if your disk fails, then NO, your backup of C only will not produce a bootable replacement and you will have a non-working computer and may have to do a fresh install of Windows before you can update with a prior backup.
Or, if you get a virus, then mostly likely, NO, your backup of C only may or may not enable your existing disk to boot.
Creating a full disk backup is easy. Why take the chance. Review first picture of signature link 2 below. The picture illustrates using the "select disk mode" option so the resulting backup will be a disk image of all partitions.
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Great, thanks for the replies guys.
I just needed that confirmed by someone that knows what they're talking about.
Much appreciated.
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