Restoring the MBR.

Hi everyone,
My question has to do with the MBR,when restoring from a Windows crash.
When one would not have to restore it?
Thank you!

 

When a good MBR already exists on the drive. I often make an image, test some software and then restore the image to wipe out all traces of the test. I never restore the MBR because it is already present. If you are restoring after a Windows crash, you probably wouldn't have to restore the MBR.

If you are restoring to a new drive then you have to restore the MBR.

 

I take the opposite view. My scheduled images are of the whole disk. My restores are of the whole disk, which always include the MBR. OK, most of the time there is no need to be so thorough but as the restore of the MBR only adds the odd milli-second to the restore time.....

This is just one example of the KISS principle.

Xpilot

 

I might consider the whole disk approach if I had anything worth keeping on the other partitions on the local disk. All my data files worth keeping are stored on a central PC and they are backed up via SyncBack in native format each night.

I certainly wouldn't say using network access is an example of KISS but it sure is convenient for multi-PC file access and after all, I do this as third hobby so I don't really care.

 

I don't do whole disks either. I guess it's about applying the best backup approach for each configuration. My partitions are organised such they are backup at different frequencies (e.g. data is done daily, system partition is done fortnightly etc), so would rarely consider making a full disk backup. It's about balancing conflicting objectives at the end of the day and I guess I if I had unlimited amounts of diskspace I could back my system and Mp3 partitions up ever 24 hours because my data partition needs backing up. I prefer not to, but I still consider my approach simple.

F.

 

Hi everyone,
Thanks for the answers!

 

Okay Seekforever...

I'll bite - what are hobbies one and two?

 

Woodturning and I play clarinet and sax in 2 community bands and a sax group.