Imaging with free Macrium

The mistake would be to ignore the warning WHS refers to. IE, if you have the 100 or 200 mb partition, "you must not mark the C partition as active nor must you check restore MBR during the restore phase. Rather mark the partition as primary and answer the MBR question with do not replace. Else, your restored system will become unbootable.
The same applies to a double booted system where the MBR resides on a different partition."

Isn't this logical that if you have a 100-200 meg partition you wouldn't restore your boot OS onto it, if I understood correctly?

You can do it with the paid version of Macrium, too. Like Acronis - it as an extra you have to pay for separately.

You can also do it with the paid versions of Paragon imaging programs - they were the first to develop Adaptive Restore - the others followed suit, of course.With Paragon, you don't need to pay extra - it is included.

What is Adaptive Restore called in Macrium ? Paragon Adaptive Restore from what I read from other users seems to work next to if not perfectly. You can backup Windows7, change motherboard then reinstall Windows7 with Adaptive Restore and it works perfectly. Over this one feature I'm deciding over Paragon or Macrium, as WHS mentioned the other programs like Paragon are a little more complex compared with Macrium, did he do a tutorial on this and I'd like to hear WHS honest opinion on Paragon ?

MBR is where all your partitions are stored and your primary OS drive correct? While your boot manager is just for what OS are installed !

JerometheGiraff said:

MBR is where all your partitions are stored and your primary OS drive correct? While your boot manager is just for what OS are installed !

See here for an explanation
reflect updates

Thanx WHS. Atleast I was almost on target. MjF, I read that thread already why I asked the question in this thread.

OK, what to do when I "need my image" (maybe)? Have a 20gb "C" partition and 160gb "Data" partition. My computer is booting up, but goes straight to a "SystemRestore" screen, saying I have about 9 drive errors (I'm not sure if this is a virus screen or not, it says I need to pay if I want the advanced errors fixed). I can open my Data partition, see all files (and move them to another drive-done). But I open "C" and nothing is there. Nothing shows up in any menus (like looking for an application). The computer will reboot like this everytime. Is the best approach to a problem like this just buying a new drive? (or a new computer since it's XP and 5 years old?) I do have images, but have not been updated in a year.

JerometheGiraff said:

Thanx WHS. Atleast I was almost on target. MjF, I read that thread already why I asked the question in this thread.

If you had read the thread I posted and understood it you wouldn't ask the question you raised (your post #132).
If there is anything unclear in my explanation please let me know. I believe it helped a number of seasoned users better understand the booting process.

what is the easiest and best all in one cloning, imaging and backup ( files) program?
I soon plan on getting a new computer with Windows 7 64 bit.

I am not familiar with cloning or disk imaging and would like something that combines all of the functions that is easy to use.

Please advise... thank you

Joe