Hello,

I was wondering if it would be possible to put a full backup and bootable recovery environment on a partition so i can boot to the recovery environment without the use of a CD.

Thanks,
Seywar

Sure. That's what many backup programs do all the time. However, if the backup partition is on the same hard drive that you are backing up, and you have a hard drive failure, the backup is of little use and can only be of help if the boot partition becomes corrupt, and not physically damaged due to failure. Therefore, it is recommended you back up to a different drive, or to CD or DVDs.

Originally Posted by Digerati

Sure. That's what many backup programs do all the time. However, if the backup partition is on the same hard drive that you are backing up, and you have a hard drive failure, the backup is of little use and can only be of help if the boot partition becomes corrupt, and not physically damaged due to failure. Therefore, it is recommended you back up to a different drive, or to CD or DVDs.

Hi, i wanted to put it on the same hard drive just so if my pc gets cluttered then i can just press a button and back it goes, so is there any free options? I understand Ghost 14 does this but it costs quite a bit and rather than paying that much out id rather use the vista disk and install everything again manually ;-)
EDIT: I really dont want to back up to CD's or have the recovery environment on a CD as it will get lost or damaged.

Thanks for your help,

Seywar

i wanted to put it on the same hard drive just so if my pc gets cluttered then i can just press a button and back it goes

Cluttered? Cluttered is not a reason to restore back to an old image. Even if you are careful to save off all important email, documents, etc. before re-imaging, you will still lose potentially months (years?) of Windows Critical Updates, anti-malware program and signature/definition file updates, and any driver updates too.

Unless you frequent places where bad guys wallow and launch their latest bits of malicious code, including illegal porn, gambling and P2P sites that condone (and profit from) the illegal filesharing of copyrighted materials (music, videos, writings), it is easy to keep your system free of clutter, so no re-imaging is needed - at least not because of infestation of too much clutter, malicious or not.

That said, I do not want to talk anybody out doing backups. Believe it or not, Windows very own backup utility does a pretty decent job of it, and you already own it. XP Home users must install it from their CD - for some reason, it did not by default. But it did install by default for XP Pro users. Vista (all versions) users have a more advanced and very flexible backup program.

Never used this, but the price is right - Drive Backup Express - free for non-commercial use.

In the meantime, if you feel your system is cluttered, the first thing I recommend you do is purge your system of clutter using Windows (XP or Vista) Disk Cleanup, ATF Cleaner or CCleaner. If you use CCleaner, then during installation, uncheck the option to install the Yahoo toolbar and before first use, go to Options > Settings > Advanced and ensure Only delete files in Windows Temp folders older than 48 hours is unchecked.

Note: Ensure you know your site credentials (user name and password) for sites you frequent before cleaning; you may have to login again at next visit.

Then download, install, update, and run Malwarebytes's Anti-Malware (MBAM) to ensure your system is free of malware. Then do the same for all other computers on your network (everything on your side of the Internet gateway, typically a cable/DSL modem).