I have a Dell 790 desktop with Windows 10 on it. The drive is divided into 3 NTFS partitions: a 100 MB System partition at the beginning, a 600 MB partition at the end (for recovery?) and the rest of the drive in the middle partition. As to boot the Dell 790 offers both a Legacy option (which is checked) and also an UEFI option which is unchecked. What I want to do experiment with Linux/Windows virtualization, so this will involve re-partitioning, reformatting, etc. So I want to be able to is: 1. backup my Windows system and restore it exactly as is (original Windows OS, Data, Partitions and Boot) after using Linux and 2. backup my Linux system and restore it exactly as is (original Linux OS, Data, Partitions and Boot) after using Windows. There is also the question of whether I should keep the 2 small Windows partitions or if it matters. PS. No, I don't have any interest in a dual boot system. Currently I am using Macrium Reflect Free as my backup software--so am interested if I can do it with that or need to switch. Thanks for any advice.
@PastTense - what you are describing is not "virtualization." Virtualization may be accomplished under either Windows or Linux with a virtualization mgr. It sounds like you want to use the System in both a REAL Linux & Windows environment. The easiest way for you to do this is to image the entire disk using Relect either LIVE or through the Recovery Media, then blow the whole disk away using your friendliest Partition Manager (lots of FREE ones), then build your chosen Linux System, then image its entire disk. When you use the Macrium Recovery Media to switch back and forth, just select the whole disk image to be restored. Make sure you keep those images up to date (Diff/INC or new FULLs) as you make your way through the Systems.
PastTense, Did you buy this computer from Dell with Win10 installed? Or was Win10 installed after purchasing? I ask because your partitions are atypical for a Legacy boot Win10.
As described, this is a risky proposition. Every time you wipe your drive you'll only have one copy of either system. If anything goes wrong with an image you'll be sunk. Indeed virtualization -- with VirtualBox, say -- would be the safe way to go. Your processor is fast enough, but if you have just 4GB of RAM it'll be pokey. If you're intent on wiping and restoring images, I would suggest at least creating a second image of each system using a different program, perhaps Aomei for Windows and Clonezilla for Linux. (Aomei says it supports ext2/3 but doesn't mention ext4.)
Obviously I included some unnecessary comments. To clarify: I just bought this used 5 year old Dell via eBay. The previous owner had upgraded it from Windows 7 to Windows 10. It has much better specs (Intel Core i7-2600K @ 3.40GHz, 8 GB memory, 250 GB SSD) than my current 8 year old daily driver running Windows 7. What I would like to do is to transition to virtualization using Virtualbox or KVM or VMware or whatever switching between Windows and Linux. This may or may not work out (either I can't get it working or I don't like it...)--I am not particularly optimistic. So I may quit after a couple weeks and go back to my original Windows system--and a month later try Linux again. The problem I am asking about is because Windows and Linux use different loaders and have different partition tables with different formats--and I am not clear about backup programs saving and restoring these. Thanks.
...and I already run Windows within Linux MINT via VirtualBox. This is my transition strategy as I leave Windows behind once and for all.
