MBR

Hello

Below is an extract i took from Gizmo for my imaging program, Aomei.

Would this imply that it would be better dong a disc image rather than a system image in order to deal with the MBR issue he refers to?

I don't understand what he implies as a fix.

There are only; system, disc, partition and file images or backups.

>>"there are no options pertaining to reinstating the MBR that could cause some major problems in a multi boot environment but this can be overcome by selecting not to do a system restore and just restore the actual partition that contains Windows itself."

i really doubt "mbr" will be anything you have to worry or concern yourself about peter but i'll try and explain things as best i can.

first you need to know "mbr" is "master boot record" of a hard drive and is only used on drives formatted in the old dos style partitioning system of hard drives, today from windows 8 on up they don't use the mbr partitioning filesystem any more and use gpt partitioning of hard drives.

the mbr was/is the first few bytes of data on a hard drive that hold the info on the partitioning and which to boot first.

a disc image is exactly that, it will image everything on the hard drive from the first bit of data to the last bit of data.

a system image is exactly the same thing if you only have a single operating system on the hard drive, it will create an image of everything needed to restore that "system"

now the problem your worried about is when you have more than 1 "system" on your pc.

lets say 1 "system" is a windows 7 system and the 2nd "system" is an opensuse system on a separate partition, the bootloader to choose which os to boot to is on the opensuse partition so the mbr holds the data that points to the 2nd partition to boot first, that way when you start the the pc up you are met with options to boot either os.

now from the sounds of it never having used aomei when you restore a "system" image it writes data to the mbr to point to the partition it restored the "system" onto to boot first (windows 7 on first partition in this case.), so in my example you'd lose the option of booting to the opensuse system because the mbr now points to the first windows 7 partition to boot first and not the second where the boatloader with the options to choose which os to boot into is held.

this is overcome by either just imaging and restoring the windows partition alone where the mbr is never touched or doing a full disc image so the original data in the mbr is kept pointing to the 2nd partition.

now in your case i'm pretty sure you use gpt partitions where things work differently so won't run into a boot or mbr problem even if you have multiple os to boot to on a single drive.

more info on mbr vs gpt here :- http://www.howtogeek.com/193669/whats-the-difference-between-gpt-and-mbr-when-partitioning-a-drive/

hope that explains things for you, if not and you have more questions just ask away and i'll try to answer them as best i can.

That is easy for you to say 

I did see where Aomei has a program that changes the MBR to GPT.  I guess when one has to.

So whether I have BIOS or UEFI, if I make a system image with Aomei,  I will be able to recover the image with the USB stick the program created. That's good to know. I wish macrium which I used for years was still free because I was used to it. It is too expensive but well worth it for those who can do it.

Thanks terry

your welcome.

should add though, bios or uefi are really different things/subjects and it doesn't matter which your pc uses when creating and restoring backups, and yes your usb stick will work just fine to restore the images you've created.

TY  

Peter. Just seen your comment here:

I wish macrium which I used for years was still free because I was used to it.

 

Macrium Reflect free v6 is still available, its not as fully featured as the "paid for" versions ( naturally) but it's still an excellent way to protect your system…

I use it on one of my personal computers (not one used for business) and it works just fine.

 More information available from here:

http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

Regards

paws

terry

I remember you commented about my deletion of macrium. I too was sad over the lose The link you sent, I think, when you go to install - at that point, it offers free/trial and tells you you have 30 days. MG did have a free one but i think it was ver 5 and one should not run outdated software. I would download free updated in a minute if at the install point it did not say trial.

TY

Peter

paws made the last reply, peter.

you sure the free trial for 30 days isn't just for the full version before it reverts back to the free version with it's lesser options and no support but still works just fine?

must admit it's been years since i've used macrium but honestly i can't see the free version only being good for 30 days, but it may well be as you say.

I apologize as I made a big error. I was sent the very ink fro the macrium site and it works for free. One just has to omit any request to register or enter any information - next, next, next.

I am getting do I don't trust myself.

No problem Peter.

Regards

paws

No problem Peter.

Regards

paws