Dell recovery

When I want to image my system, I have three boxes to check;0ne is the C: drive, the second is FAT, and the third is recovery. I check C: but not FAT. I am unsure about the third as I do not want to omit something important yet do not wish to add the extra time, ? 25 min, to the backup. I do not know what "recover" means or does so do not know if I should tic it. Thank you P.S. I think I touched on this issue before but cannot locate it so, apologies for the redundancy.

If your question is in regards to backing up your system using a third party imaging software then the most important partition to backup is the C: drive. This will contain all your operating system, programs, and data. The second partition is most likely a diagnostic partition, or other type of system partition, and the recovery partition is the built in partition the manufacturer has provided for you to recover your machine to like new state if software becomes corrupt or unusable. Neither of those two partitions are required to get your system back up and running if you have a valid image of your C: drive. The recovery partition can be useful if you want to restore to like new condition. If the hard drive goes bad, you will need that partition, or the discs the manufacturer may have provided in order to recover to like new condition. Otherwise, you can just replace the hard drive and restore your C: partition that you have a backup of.

Your reply is clear and concise; moreso than my question, I may add. Dell allowed me to make 2 dvd's for recovery and I guess that is the recovery partition I see. I am told by their techs that I can also tap F8 and accomplish the same goal. Anyway, it appears that the extra time is a good thing to do so I can use that recovery partition i refer to with the F8 key- just in case. There never used to be backups but now there are multiple ways to recover; 1-dvd's created when purchased the pc 2-the F8 key 3-Dell local data safe 4-the operating system cd 5-Win 7 backup and recovery program 6-third party programs( I have a license for Acronis TIHome 2010), I also utilize Macrium Reflect for another pc.. It is getting difficult to become unprotected from disasters. Oddly, when I recover with Win 7 backup and recovery, I still get the Dell recovery partition. That is what prompted me to ask about the need for backing up the recovery partition.