The most advanced backup software/technology

Yes.

Drive Snapshot and Macrium won't make your second drive or partition bootable, although you can add a small bootable system to it that's selectable before Windows starts (I think one of my signature links refers to the method I used to accomplish that). Normally you'd use a recovery disk or you'd initiate the recovery from Windows.

BartPE is special free version of the Windows Pre-Install environment that became available with Windows XP. (VistaPE and Win7PE are also available now). If you have Macrium installed and choose to create or build a recovery disk, then one of the options is to create a 'BartPE plugin' (assuming you have pebuilder3110a, reatogo or similar WinPE system extracted or installed somewhere on your computer). Afterward create your BartPE or other WinPE recovery disk normally (i.e. run your WinPE builder exe) and it'll have a PE version Macrium included. If you created the plugin using the full version of Macrium (or trial of full version), it'll have all the features of the full version including the ability to make full and incremental backups from your BartPE recovery disk or partition.

Pay-version of Macrium is as easy to use as the Free version - it just has a few extra options. Both Macrium and DS GUIs are about as straightforward as it gets with these programs - I find them equally simple. Now when it comes to building a BartPE recovery disk with Macrium or DS plugin, that's a little more complicated but well worth the trial/error/frustration to learn. Now if you buy the full version of Macrium, you have the option to download pre-built WinPE recovery disk (iso) and you just have to burn it on a CD/DVD/USB. (If you want to put it on another separate bootable partition on your computer and add a boot menu for it, then that's another story).

DS GUI is super-simple. It's just that I pick the same options on it 95% of the time (backup C: to external drive T: using options ... ), so I prefer to have a batch file on my desktop I can just click to create a backup using those options. Also, sometimes I like to run Drive Snapshot at the end of a ScanDefrag and strong command-line support makes that possible (scandefrag is a program that runs cleanup, chkdsk, pagedefrag and mydefrag, and optionally shuts down the computer at the end of all that).

 

@pajenn- Many many thanks for your superb answers to my questions!!!

That's EXACTLY what I would like to do. I scanned through your sigs, but the links were totally over my head. Can you suggest something simple enough for a doofus? Please. . .

 

That's the way I run Macrium free - using a dual boot system: Seven and XP on two drives. A whole lot faster than on a single OS system. Would be well worth the time and effort to follow pajenn's method.