Full BackUp & System Reserved partition?

eDOC · 27 Feb 2011

Hi there,

Have a old version of ATI Home i.e 2009. I use it's bootable CD which works good with XP & Vista to create & restore images.

When booted with it on machine running W7 got a slightly different option while creating a full back up........i.e an extra Partition, Primary Active size 100 MB, System reserved & the next Partition Primary too having W7 & MS off size size 14.3 GB. I checked both & gave the image path to the 3rd Partition. Image was verified after completion & size is 6.4 GB, only 1 tib file, are the system reserved & W7 merged in this back up file?

I than restored this image. While restoring it gave an option of MBR which I did not check? The restored image is exactly 14.3 GB but the System Reserved Partition which was Total 100 MB has decreased to 94 MB.

The Drive has 3 partitions created while W7 Clean install. Systen Reserved ( System , Active, Primary), C (Boot, Page File Primary) & D (Primary data).

What could be the reason for System active reserve to decrease from total 100 MB to now total 94 MB.......is that I checked/selected both System reserved & C partitions while taking a full back up??

The occupied space in System active reserved partition is only 29.6 MB of the total now 94 MB.

Do I need to clean install W7 again & than take complete back ups of only Primary NTFS C containg W7 Boot, Page File & not both?

My questions are:

1. Did I do the correct thing to check the 100 MB System Reserved Partition or there isn't any need to back that up, simply the partition having W7 etc is good enough?

2. What is System reserved partition......do I need to check this too while creating/ restoring a back up created by ATI Home 2009?

Hoping to hear from you,

mjf · 27 Feb 2011

I suggest you upgrade your imaging software.
There are many options free & paid (including Acronis).
Free options include:
1) Windows 7 inbuilt imaging (I use all the time)
2) Macrium Reflect (I use as a second safeguard imaging tool)

Neither have changed the size of the 100MB system reserved and they shouldn't!
Both imaging applications have been totally reliable for me after many images and restores.

Your last questions.
The 100 MB system reserved partition contains vital boot information
seeBooting Description Post#24
Windows Imaging always backs it up. I always select it when using Macrium (it's tiny!). It often doesn't change from image to image but is required when damaged or imaging to a new HDD.