Question about dual boot

I have a pc whose hard disk has 3 partitions. In one there is the operative system windows xp, and in the other 2 there are data.
I created the image of just the system partition (disk C) and not of the full disk.
That means that if I will have a problem, I want to recover just that partition, since I don't want all the rest would be overwritten.

But now I decided to have a dual boot pc with Linux in one partition (disk E), leaving diskC and disk D to windows xp.
I read that when True Image created the image of the partition it is writing down the master boot record.
If I install Linux, I guess that the master boot record will change.

My question is the following. Suppose that in the future I will have problems/crash of windows and that I will want to have back disk C from the image I had created. That it will destroy the dual boot? If I had to guess I would say yes...

I imagine that the best thing (but I ask to be confirmed in this hypothesis) is that AFTER the installation of Linux, I will create a new image of the Windows partition.
Supposing that one day I shall reinstall Windows from this new image of disk C, am I sure that I will be able to boot Linux and make it work?
Thanks

I have True Image Home 9.0.

 

No one can help me?
If someone has a dual boot can answer to me?

 

Welcome to Wilders, gnappo.

In your specific case, I would argue that the best course for you would be to backup the ENTIRE physical disk, "Disk 1". This will preserve the MBR, the Windows, and the Linux partitions and their interrelationship completely. It will also preserve your D partition -- which will require more space -- hopefully that is not a problem.

Then, if you have to recover either partition, Windows or Linux, you can ALSO tell True Image to restore the MBR (and partition table) if that is screwed up.

ATI will NOT backup the MBR if you don't select the whole drive.

Also, if you haven't already, I recommend you create a bootable rescue CD (or other media) so that you can run ATI if the whole thing goes bad on you.

 

Hello gnappo,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Please note that croftt statement: "ATI will NOT backup the MBR if you don't select the whole drive." is true only for old builds (2337 and lower) of Acronis True Image 9.0 Home. Starting with the build 3567 Acronis True Image 9.0 Home includes the zero track with master boot record (MBR) into partition backup. You can download the latest build (3677) of Acronis True Image 9.0 Home on our web site. To get access to updates you should first register your software. You can find more information on how to use Acronis True Image 9.0 Home in the respective User's Guide.

Please also note that after the image is restored files are not placed to the exact same sectors they were residing on the original hard drive which "confuses" Linux loaders such as GRUB or Lilo. Therefore, you will need to re-activate Linux loader. Please have a look at this post about how to re-activate GRUB and this thread about re-activation of Lilo.

Thank you.
--
Aleksandr Isakov

 

My apologies to gnappo and thank you for correcting my error, Aleksandr. I discovered this recently and followed up in an other post with another user but overlooked following up here with gnappo.

 

Dear administrator,
unfortunatly I have an old versioni, which is I bought in a shop in Italy and it's an italian localization.
I succeded to register the copy in www.acronis.com e also accepted the key code I had, but I cannot download any update. For me it's not important to have an italian or an english version. Do you think could it be possible for me to download to last update and activate it with my code or not? (I asked also to the support form, but up to now I have not answer).

Anyhow if it is not possible, since, as I said in another topic, I cannot choose the option (during restoring) to restore MBR, both if I have the image of a partition and also if I have the image of the whole hard disk, I would like to ask if it's sure that the MBR is backed up in my version of True Image.
Also I would like to ask you if it is safe for me to use the iso file in the topic READ BEFORE YOU POST http://www.acronis.com/files/support...towrite_en.iso
and if it can be used to backup end aventually restore the MBR without the need of my copy of True Image.

Thanks in advance

 

Hi, gnappo
I realize you address your questions to Acronis Support but, while you wait for their response, I wanted to ask for specifics about why you cannot download any update in case it is only because of a lack of familiarity that you can't download an update:

Once you have successfully registered, you should be able to go to http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/my/ and log in, using the boxes on the right side of the page, where it says "Sign in here:". Then you should get a page that says in large grey letters: "About My Account" .

This page should contain links including "Registered Products" and "Product Updates", either of which normally lead to a page with links from which you can download updated FULL versions of the product you purchased and should function with the original serial number which you registered your product with.

Can you give more details on what obstacle you encounter when you follow this procedure ?

 

Hello all,

Just would like to inform that the localized (translated into other languages, except Russian and German) versions of Acronis software cannot be registered at the official Acronis web site. Thus, if you have purchased a localized version you should register this copy at the web site of the Acronis distributor you purchased the software from.

The list of Acronis international distributors can be found here.

In case you have experience any issues with registering your Acronis product or problems with downloading the updates please feel free to contact Acronis Support Team at support@acronis.com or send a Private Message. To send Private Message click on the "Acronis Support" in the head of my reply and choose "Send a private message to Acronis Support" item. We will investigate the problem and try to provide you with the solution.

Thank you.
--
Aleksandr Isakov