Creating system image with 2HDD's Dual Boot?

[stephens]

I have XP on my 1st HDD and Win7 on my 2nd HDD, Dual Boot. If I use "Create a system image" it will only copy both drives as there systems on both.

If I use this facility and need to restore the system image backup, does it work OK or will there be problems with the dual boot afterwards?

I understand that both OS's would be restored to an earlier condition, even if there is only a problem with one OS, but I would still like to use this facility if it is safe to do so.

Many thanks for any replies.

 

[Jonathan_King]

Hello,

When you restore the system image, it should restore your boot loader too.

If you have problems with the dual boot, let us know, and we will help you repair it.

 

[stephens]

Thanks for the info Jonathan_King, I will give it a try if I need to.

 

[Zorglub]

Is it possible to restore only one os from the dual boot image?

 

[Jonathan_King]

Is it possible to restore only one os from the dual boot image?

Yes, that is possible.

In the recovery environment, you can choose which drives to restore.

 

[whs]

Your problem is the double booting where you have only one MBR which sits (most likely) on the XP drive/partition. Since you have 2 drives, you could make independent installations. All you have to do is unplug one drive when you install on the other. Then you switch between the drives with the BIOS boot sequence. That way one system does not know about the other (but you will still see the disks/partitions of all in each OS). After that, the images would be completely independent. One for XP, one for Win7.
You could even create an independent data partition and share it between the 2 systems (that's what I do). Then your data is always synchronized. If you create it on the XP side, then you can easily include the folders into the Win7 libraries. That data partition you can also image independently, depending on the frequency of change. That way you end up with 3 smaller images rather than one giant image. And I always recommend to make full images - differentials have their risks. It may take a bit more disk space, but that is cheap nowadays.
PS: Here is what I use (with great success): http://www.sevenforums.com/software/43219-image-your-system-free-macrium.html