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Will system image restore wipe my hidden OEM partition ? Help
Hi
I need some help. I have a DELL XPS15 L502x laptop with Pentium i7 processor and 8gb RAM running Windows 7 64bit.
I have created a System Image of my current system and software setup using windows backup/restore wizard and also backed up my data files.
On creating the system image, the applet showed that two partitions were being imaged i.e the C: System partition (which contains Windows and my data files) and a Recovery partition on the same drive (which i believe is Dells factory partition containing a factory image of the system). However, through the disk management, i notice there is in fact a third possibly hidden OEM partition which I believe contains Dells diagnostic tools. This partition does not show up as being imaged and i believe has therefore been omitted from the created image snapshot. Now I dont mind that this OEM partition is not backed up in my image as long as this partition will not be wiped when i go to restore the image. Anyone know what happens here ??? I wouldnt want this partition to be wiped even if it is not backed up in my system image. I just want to be able to restore my system partion and the recovery partition if i must, but still keeping this OEM partition intact.
I started up the System Recover applet (though I quit before finishing) and noticed that it had a check box that said "format and repartition disk" which was unchecked and greyed out. Now in an old tutorial on this forum (https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/675-system-image-recovery.html)
I found this as options for this check box, as quoted below...
"1) Grayed out and selected
You are forced to have the whole disk formatted and repartitioned to match the partition structure of the disk the image was made from. This can occur when restoring an image to a new disk or the original disk with a modified partition structure. Data on other partitions on the disk you are restoring to will be lost.
2) Grayed out and unselected
You are not given the option to format and repartition the disk. This will occur if you are restoring Windows from a partition on the same disk.
3) Not grayed out and unselected
Here you have the option to select format the whole disk and repartition or not. In this case the disk the image was taken from has a matching partition structure to the disk you are restoring the image to. By not selecting the format and repartition option your image will be restored and other partitions untouched such as valuable data partitions. "
So the question is, in my case, which is greyed out and unchecked (ie. option 2), does this mean that my OEM partition will not be wiped or does the greyed out checkbox just mean I dont have a choice but it will be wiped regardless. Anyone know through experience etc ??
Otherwise, i might have to consider Macrium Reflect as an alternative ?
Would appreciate your help in resolving this.
Thanks