Windows 7: Windows backup - Will it destroy the Dell recovery partition?

I have backed up to a USB drive with a system image of windows using the backup and restore of 7. Now my XPS 15 comes with a recovery partition. I am concerned that if I ever used the recovery from windows system image, it would destroy the recovery partition?

So can I safely use the windows image?

Providing you only backed up the Windows partition and not the recovery partition then a system restore from your backed-up image, will leave the Dell recovery partition untouched, as far as I'm aware.

If I'm wrong, you can rest assured the cavalry will be along to put me right!

Best to backup the System Reserved & Recovery Partition aswell, all the boot files are in System Reserved.

You can also make Dell Recovery Disks.
How to use Dell Recovery Partition,make Recovery Disks & how to order Recovery Disks.
Dell - Support

It did not give me a choice and backed up every partition on C drive?

I have just ordered a 16gb usb stick to make a backup of my recovery partition. As stated above, it copied everything from what I can tell.

If everything was backed up, then everything should be restored. You can always do another full system image, just in case.

With Dell Computers they seem to make the Recovery partition also the (System, Active) which contains normal boot files as well as all the GBs of recovery data.
Windows needs these files to boot so will include the Partition that contains these critical boot files. That's why Windows native imaging will want to include this large partition which virtually never changes.

You are better using a program like free Macrium Reflect. Make a couple of copies of images of your Recovery/system, active partition. Then more routinely just image your main Windows operating system partition (Boot,...). This is the one you normally need to reimage most of the time.

You should be safe. I just did this with my brothers Lenovo Laptop. I just created a backup and image using Windows 7 created an image restore disc and then swapped to bigger, faster hdd and reimaged successfully. No issues.

The point is you don't want to routinely backup 15GB+ of non changing (recovery) data when you're not changing HDDs.

Right, subsequent backups are incremental.

Wrong, Windows imaging is not incremental. It employs a differencing VHD approach using shadow storage copy. This is risky using Windows imaging for a number of reasons. Single imaging is fine.

If you want incremental or differential imaging use other software.
OR use the single partition imaging software I suggested above.