New
#41
This may help to explain the difference between cloning and imaging. (Or not. )
clone or image.? - Malwarebytes Forum
But I'm confused about your use of "MSE-D". In your first post (#14 in this thread) you stated, "... I helped my wife put in place MS defender Essentials couple of years ago." Just so we're talking about the same thing, Windows Defender is included in Windows 7. It is primarily an anti-spyware module and NOT a full anti-virus suite. Microsoft Security Essentials is a full anti-virus suite and is a separate download. If you install MSE it should automatically disable Windows Defender. (To add to the confusion, Windows Defender is also provided in Windows 8, but it is the same as MSE in Windows 7.)
Windows Defender - Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Security Essentials - Microsoft Windows
Avast and MSE both provide real-time scanning/monitoring. Most "authorities" say that running two real-time anti-virus programs at the same time is bad. (This does not apply to Malwarebytes because it's not a traditional anti-virus.) A pretty good explanation of why two real-time AV programs should not be run at the same time is here:
is it bad to run multiple antivirus programs? - BleepingComputer.com
If you have real-time scanning enabled in both Avast and MSE, I think it would be to your benefit to choose one and turn off real-time scanning in the other. But if you're using Avast and Windows Defender, you may find that Avast has also disabled Windows Defender as being redundant. It's perfectly OK to have other AV programs available in your malware arsenal but run them as on-demand scanners, not real-time scanners.
And if I've completely misunderstood everything, my sincerest apologies.