What a n00b needs 2 know about the service partition!

[LasseFJ]

And that n00b would be me...

I just got into the forum, and i've got a load of questions for you, this is my second post...

What does the R&R backup utility backup? Is it the entire harddrive or just the preload (C) partition?

What'll happen if I delete all partitions except the secret partition?

Can i damage the secret partition by any means? I want to preserve that partition.

Is the secret partition dynamical? (eg. it changes size with the preload partition)

Regards
LasseFJ

[Ideasmiths]

And that n00b would be me...

I just got into the forum, and i've got a load of questions for you, this is my second post...

What does the R&R backup utility backup? Is it the entire harddrive or just the preload (C) partition?

What'll happen if I delete all partitions except the secret partition?

Can i damage the secret partition by any means? I want to preserve that partition.

Is the secret partition dynamical? (eg. it changes size with the preload partition)

Regards
LasseFJ

In reverse order (SP = Secret Partition)
a) The SP is not dynamical
b) I have delete the SP before, using utilities such as Partition magic. The SP is 'hidden' and 'inactive', changing the SP to 'active' would let you work on the folders and files inside. Normal windows stuff such as defragment, disk manager etc can't damage the SP (as far as I have tried before).
c) You can delete all the parititions, no problem.
a) The R&R backup let you choose where you want to backup stuff, it also lets you choose what you want to backup. For example if you have ONE harddisk and have C, D, E (and the hidden partion). You can choose E as the backup location, then you can choose either to backup only all the stuff in C, or even C & D. Individual files and folders are also options, but I guess most people just backup C:

[LasseFJ]

I just wiped everything.
I wanted to optimize a windows install, (install my programs, get my settings right), then back it up, and then uninstall all apps to prepare it for a clean vista install, (as clean as a forced preload upgrade can get), and backup the stripped windows, so i could switch over as soon as i got vista....

However when i uninstalled IBM's software, and my precious backup was deleted, and the pain is that i split up Preload, and backed it up to that drive.... But it still deleted it... maybe it got deleted while i made my rollback to my optimized windows install, i really don't know.

I may not have read everything thorougly enough, but i think i'll just install acronis trueimage for now...