does a Macrium Restore overwrite every sector?

IOW, if I Restore the drive to an earlier state, will any part of the SSD be untouched by the Restoring?

I ask because an mrimg gets bigger as the free space on the drive gets smaller. Or that might be because the mrimg is compressed in that if there are a thousand 'empty' sectors in a row, then the mrimg just says something like "empty x 1000" ?

Thanks.

Bob1212 said:

IOW, if I Restore the drive to an earlier state, will any part of the SSD be untouched by the Restoring?

I ask because an mrimg gets bigger as the free space on the drive gets smaller. Or that might be because the mrimg is compressed in that if there are a thousand 'empty' sectors in a row, then the mrimg just says something like "empty x 1000" ?

Thanks.

Click to expand...

If you choose the option that says: Create an image of the partitions required to backup and restore Windows... it'll backup the C:\ drive and the EFI partition.
The image will be about 1/2 the size of the data on the C:\ drive, at the default compression.

When you restore from a backup (made that way), it completely overwrites the EFI partition and the C:\ drive.

In short, whatever partitions you backed up, will be put back (by overwriting), when you restore.

I don't have a recovery partition, so when I choose the option on the left, it backs up C:\ and the Fat32 EFI partition.



The default compression is "medium" which is a good balance of speed and size of the image.



You can do tons of different things with Macrium.
But this picture guide shows how to make an image of the partitions required to BOOT Windows successfully,
and how to restore that image.


The two pics at the top with the orange background, explain how to backup and restore.

The third pic explains how to restore from the bootable Rescue Media (white on black).




All the answers you want are in the User Guide which is linked in that topic.
But it's a BIG user guide. So I made the Quickie Picture Guide to get people started.
After you get familiar with just making full backups and then restoring them... then worry about all the other things Macrium can do.
The important part is to have a full backup in case of disaster.

Ghot said:

If you choose the option that says: Create an image of the partitions required to backup and restore Windows... it'll backup the C:\ drive and the EFI partition.
The image will be about 1/2 the size of the data on the C:\ drive, at the default compression.

When you restore from a backup (made that way), it completely overwrites the EFI partition and the C:\ drive.

Click to expand...

That is what I did, right before I shipped my Dell back to them for a refund. So thanks, that sets my mind at ease.

Bob1212 said:

That is what I did, right before I shipped my Dell back to them for a refund. So thanks, that sets my mind at ease.

Click to expand...

That's what most people do in that situation. make a full backup for themselves, then erase the Windows installation or do a DELL factory restore...then return it. That way, there's no personal info on the computer.

There are other ways to do the same thing. IF you made a backup, the day you bought the computer...
you could just restore that as well.
That will overwrite whatever state the computer is in currently.

Backups are like a time machine. They'll take the computer "back" to the way it was when the backup was made.

Ghot said:

a DELL factory restore

There are other ways to do the same thing. IF you made a backup, the day you bought the computer...

Click to expand...

Dell's approach has you making a rescue media, then doing the multi-gigabyte download, AFAIK - so I avoided that.

I did in fact fortuitously make a Reflect image within the first hour after receiving the laptop. So that came in real handy.

(If anybody reading this plans on returing a Dell, be careful about what advice you get from phine reps. Some are excellent, but others give incorrect advice.)