Windows 7: Is this (clone) correct?

This is what I did:

control panel > back up and restore > create a system image > then C and D drives were copied successfully onto an external hard drive.

Now - few questions if I can!

1. Does that mean that with my burned system repair disk, can I now go ahead and re-isntall C and D exactly as they were?

2. C and D are inextricably linked - is that an issue or will a system re-install using this saved partitions recognise that?



3. If I re-install these saved partitions does it ask, "shall we place old C into new C and old D into new D?"

Thanks!!

Hello Lister,

Q1) Yes, you will be able to use your system repair disc to boot into the System Recovery Options screen to do a System Image Recovery with.

Q2) If you had C and D included in the system image backup, then they will both be restored exactly as they were.

Q3) No. Doing a System Image Recovery will delete what you currently have on the drives that were included in the system image backup, then restore the system image backup exactly how the included drives were when it was created.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

To gain more flexibility as to exactly where you can restore indivdual partitions saved in an Image backup, try free Macrium Reflect or Paragon 10 Backup and Recovery.

so basically even if i pulled out a machine - re-installed windows using system restore, those exact partitons would be cloned over? If so thats amazing.

You wouldn't be re-installing windows, you'd be restoring the backed up system image. Don't confuse "System Restore" with restoring a system image, they are two different things.
To answer your question, yes, if both drives were included in the making of the image, you could essentially rip out your hard drive, completely destroy it, install a new one, and be back up and running EXACTLY the way you were at the time the image was made. It is always a good idea to restore the latest files and settings backup after an image restore to get even closer to the state at which the system failed. You do regular backups, right?