New
#1
Macrium Image Backup & Dual Boot Configurations.
Hi,
I am new to these forums but hopefully I’ve posted this in the correct spot.
I have set up a dual boot configuration containing two Windows 7 64-bit operating systems (OS) - one specifically geared for “Audio Use”, no internet, antivirus, etcetera, and the other for “General Use”, internet surfing and has antivirus protection enabled and all the other bloating programs and services running on it.
Each OS is installed on its own partition, on its own dedicated hard disk. When booted into each one, it sees itself as the C: drive and the other one as the D: drive. The three hard disks also contain other partitions dedicated for data storage (music, pictures, videos documents).
To clarify:
Disk 0 – System Reserved partition (100MB) created automatically after the dual boot was setup, and one created data / documents partition.
Disk 1 – Win 7 64 OS partition, and one documents partition.
Disk 2 – Win 7 64 OS partition, three other documents partitions.
See Disk Management Screengrab below.
I have spent a very long time getting everything customised the way I want (all working fine currently), and even longer searching for image backup software that is reliable for handling and restoring a dual boot system, without failing, ruining the MBR, boot order, etc.
I find it difficult to find the answers from searching this topic online because most people are dealing with one Win 7 OS or if they multiboot, its typically with an older Windows version such as XP, or Linux. The boot handling I believe is different in those scenarios.
I have almost settled on using Macrium Reflect, free or paid version (or maybe Paragon) and have extensively read the Macrium help forums, guides and your own dedicated pinned topic but they all deal with a simpler scenario of one operating system which seems straightforward and much less prone to boot problems upon restore.
How would one best go about backing up the type of dual boot configuration I have described?
I realise Macrium doesn’t support “cold-imaging” so the backup has to be performed from inside the operating system. Since this is dual boot, would it make significant differences which OS I make the backup from?
Would I be better selecting both OS partitions (and the system reserved and MBR) all together for backup, from inside one of these operating systems (e.g. my “General Use” Win7 OS), which one?, or should I back each operating system independently as a separate image, from inside its respective operating system, for example, taking backup of the “Audio” partition from inside the “Audio” Windows 7 OS?
I hope I have made that clear but if not I’ll try and describe it better. Does any of this make any difference to the success of a backup / restore in reality?
I am concerned with how to do this all correctly because there is a third “System reserved” partition on the other disk and I’m not sure how this fits into the proposed backup methods described above, especially if I opt for the independent OS backup method?
Again I have read thoroughly about the Macrium restore process with the free version and Linux Boot disc, or using the paid version with a Windows PE boot disc, but I am still unclear about how to specifically restore two operating systems to their corresponding partition spaces / disks, so that after restore and reboot, I am able to still select which OS to boot into, just as before.
Would I need to restore the first OS as the first step, then boot into this, then restore the second after that, or would I restore them both at the same time?
I’m convinced there is more complexity to all this and that one false step will render the whole backup prone to failure if I do not understand it correctly beforehand. What I am trying to avoid is a scenario where I try to restore the images after a catastrophic event but nothing then boots up, the MBR gets messed up and everything is a confused, in which case I’d likely have to reinstall everything (Win 7, updates, drivers) from scratch TWICE! (shudders ).
I apologise for the VERY long post but any help and clarification regarding all this - multiboot systems of the same OS and the image backup process would be appreciated a lot! Who knows, this topic may help alot of other multibooters with backing up their systems.
Thanks guys.
J.