Will system image restore wipe my hidden OEM partition ? Help

gjhomes said:

If on the other hand i were to use Macrium (and admitadly this is starting to sound really good), i could probably do an initial image of all partitions (including the hidden OEM partition), but then just do time to time updates of the System partition only ? Is this a good enough strategy ? I take it if i ever do need to do a full restore of all partitions, the fact that I am not doing concurrent images of the OEM and Recovery partitions concurrently with the System partition will not stuff things up ? Also, would Macrium be able to image the OEM partition (which Windows cant) ?

Sorry for bombarding you with questions. Trying to sort this out.
Thanks for you help

Macrium can image all partitions and I would make an image of all if it was my PC. Provided you don't make partition changes (size, type - I'm not talking contents of course) then imaging the OS partition alone should be fine. You can reimage to a new HDD if your current one bites the dust.
So in conclusion I'd:
1) Stick with Macrium and you'll be fine.
2) Have a look at WHS's tutorial on moving the bootmgr. He has 2 Dells which is 2 more than I have.

@WHS
I assume moving the bootmgr won't interfere with a factory restore?

gjhomes said:

whs said:

Sure, you will see it on the Macrium window. Have a look at this tutorial - I made it special for you, LOL: Imaging with free Macrium

Thanks. Thats great if it does. If i go this way with Macrium, I would first do images of all partitions and archive these. I would only then continually redo the image of the main windows system partition on a regular basis to reflect changes to my windows operating system and software etc. If my Windows files ever get corrupt, my intention is to restore just the windows system partition. However if the whole hard disk dies, then i have the option of restoring all partitions on a new disk. Does this sound like a good plan ?

That is an excellent plan. I assume by 'system partition' you are referring to the C partition. I mention that because usually the system partition is the little 100MB partition that contains your bootmgr. and C is referred to as the 'OS partition'.

@WHS
I assume moving the bootmgr won't interfere with a factory restore?

No, not at all. My little procedure makes only a copy of the bootmgr to C deactivates the partition from where the bootmgr came and activates C. The original bootmgr (either in the recovery partition or the system partition) stays in place.

You can always easily get back to the original state by deactivating C and activating the recovery or system partition (whatever the case). I use the bootable CD of Partition Wizard for that.

gjhomes said:

whs said:

gjhomes said:

Thanks. Thats great if it does. If i go this way with Macrium, I would first do images of all partitions and archive these. I would only then continually redo the image of the main windows system partition on a regular basis to reflect changes to my windows operating system and software etc. If my Windows files ever get corrupt, my intention is to restore just the windows system partition. However if the whole hard disk dies, then i have the option of restoring all partitions on a new disk. Does this sound like a good plan ?

That is an excellent plan. I assume by 'system partition' you are referring to the C partition. I mention that because usually the system partition is the little 100MB partition that contains your bootmgr. and C is referred to as the 'OS partition'.

You are absolutely correct. I meant the C partition or OS partition as it is called in the Disk Management applet. i.e the one the contains windows and my software plus data currently. I think i might not muck about with moving the boot file from the Recovery partition to be on the safe side. I will just do an initial image of all partitions and then just update the OS partition on an ongoing basis. I dont believe the files on the other two partitions change anyway. Thanks for all your help. You guys have all been great.

I understand - although there is really no risk copying the bootmgr (unless you make a mistake). But these things always look easy for us old battle horses but they may be intimidating for someone who has never done that.