n00b question about disc images

Dudes, I just downloaded and installed Macrium Reflect free edition and now I have a n00b question :-o

After installing and running it, I chose the "Make disc image" option for my PC's C drive. Everything happened as advertised and now I have a 35 GB backup image file. I have saved it on an external drive.

I'm a bit confused about how and when to use this image file :confused I hope I never suffer a total systems crash :cry but in case that happens, do I:

A. Use this macrium disc image file directly to restore my Windows 7 PC? Or

B. Do I use the recovery media my PC vendor gave me to restore my PC to its Factory State first, and then use the macrium disc image file to restore my system further?

I would also like to know if the built-in disc image fauntion in Windows 7 (Control Panel\System and Security\Backup and Restore) offers similar functionality as Macrium Reflect. I ask this because I already have some disc images created using this built-in function :confused

Please advise, kind people :major

 

If you should ever need (or just want) to restore your computer you only have to use your image file. An image contains absolutely everything that was on the hard disk (or partition, depending on what you selected) at the time it was created, Windows, your installed apps, drivers, the lot, you have no need for anything else EXCEPT THE RESCUE CD!!! So just make sure you have created it and that it can boot your computer and that when booted it can see both the hard disk(s) and the external drive where your image is stored.

Win 7's imaging capability is very basic but it does cover the one essential requirement of being capable of restoring your computer to the date of the image. Personally I would never recommend it due to its very limited functionality.

It's a good plan to keep rolling images, say once a month, as restoring an old image and having to update and configure everything, is as time consuming as doing a fresh install. Also, restoring a recent image is the most effective way of removing every trace of any infection the machine might have encountered.

 

Thanks Earthling for your explanation. Much appreciated.

 

Have you made the Macrium Reflect bootable CD? You will want to do that so in case your OS crashes you will be able to boot from the CD to run the program and restore your Macrium image file.

There should be a icon for burning the disc in the main window of reflect.

 

sach2 I made a linux rescue disc

 

Good. I see I didn't fully read Earthling's post as he already mentioned it

I've used Macrium Reflect a couple of times and it worked well. Pretty straight forward. You should have no problem if you ever need to use it.