Default for Restoring Whole Disk to Orig Drive: First Track

[boomer3200]

I'm using version 2.71.

[TeraByte Support]

Hello,

For a full drive restore you typically don't need to force anything, it's
done for you. In your dell system with XP, just use the defaults and you
should be good.


"boomer3200" wrote in message news:[email protected]...

Hi,

I normally use Image for Windows in WinPE to restore a whole disk image of a
Dell system with Windows XP to the same original drive. I restore using the
normal option and would like to ask about the best settings to use in that
scenario. Specifically, I'm wondering most about when to force recovery of
theFirst Track and the Disk Signature.

My understanding is that the default is not to restore the First Track in
IfW (in case someone wants to recover a partition only). However, I've also
seen people say on the forum that if you select a whole drive to restore (C
as the target in this case), then the first track would be recovered with
the AUTO option by default. Is that correct?

I understand that the First Track restore includes the MBR/EMBR, disk
signature, and boot code. Does AUTO restore that information only if it
sees a difference between the image and the actual drive? Or rather does it
write the whole First Track apart from the partition table if it sees any
data in the image file? In the first case of only restoring when there are
differences, you would only need or want to explicitly select "restore first
track" to change the AUTO setting to a specific sector count if you have an
unusual third-party tool occupying part of that area (I do not). Otherwise,
you might want to always restore the First Track as an option.

Ultimately, I'm wondering if I should normally still restore from the known
good image of the First Track even in cases where I think the current state
of the drive's First Track is okay. I assume the Disk Signature would
almost never change unless I altered the drive letter, but it's harder to
know about the rest apart from simply seeing if the system boots.

[TeraByte Support(PP)]

boomer3200 wrote:
> I'm using version 2.71.

That makes more sense. The options have changed quite a bit since then.