cannie

Taking into account the words of the members who have posted before into this thread, and trying to accomodate in a better way the title of this thread to its content, I have changed it for a better understanding. Thank you all! HTH

Thanks for your appreciations, willjackson and maria! As maria says, there is a lot of software for data recovery and to get a clone of the HD. The need of it is so basic that they exist since the first days of computing. But the purpose of this tutorial is not exactly that: 1.- It tries to configure your HD in the optimal way to keep safe and apart your personal files, while "repeating" your Windows 7 into two primary units of the same disk which are also optimized just for this OS. 2.- The purpose of this tutorial is just to take profit of the grub-mode facility which appears under Windows 7 to have two copies of your OS totally operative into two different primary partitions of the same HD, choosing at boot one or the other. AFAIK ordinary clones from Windows 7 can only be used to rebuild the original drive. 3.- When your Windows 7 freezes or stops working for any motive you feel really happy if you can switch inmediately to an exact copy of the same software, shortcuts and apps, not only to go on working without delay in the same usual way but also to delete the damaged drive unit and rebuild it from scratch on the background from a logical unit, external HD or DVD in less than 15 minutes. No problem of drivers and no need to remember but a single install scheme. 4.- The saved clone is totally transparent: it allows you to examine at any moment any of the elements of the OS, even the hidden ones (preferably using Total Commander in this case). This option is very useful in many occasions.

Totally correct, if having Linux is better for your needs. As I commented to dencorso at post no. 3 the hidden active primary partition 1 which Windows 7 installs by default into a not partitioned space behaves in a similar way as grub's partition 0. This tutorial takes profit from this grub-like approach of Windows 7 to run optionally any of two totally identical Windows 7 primary partitions after an easy and fast cloning procedure of the originally installed one. cannie

The whole text has been corrected and modified for an easier understanding. Hope it helps. cannie

Yours is a perfectly valid option. Why all the rest? Apart from explaining the procedure for easy cloning at number 7, which closes the tutorial, in the previous numbers I've tried to explain how to restructure before it the complete HD in order to preserve only a sufficient and similar disk space for each of both Windows 7 primary partitions while saving all the rest of the whole HD totally prepared for films, fotos, music etc. Being an original first exposition of a personal experience of mine, maybe it is not so clear as it should be. I'll read it all again by heart and try to explain everything in an easier way, in a short term. Thanks for your contribution! Best wishes cannie

But I do have a question... Grub? Does Win 7 install grub? Or did you forget to add grub to the list of needed tools? Hi dencorso! I was really surprised when I first noticed it. By simply installing Windows 7 in a free space (never if you install it into an existing primary partition), it creates a hidden active primary partition 0 which behaves just as grub did, and it is thanks to it that, using partition 1 or 2 you can format the other one and rebuild it by a simple copy/paste procedure, using a file manager which allows you to see and copy hidden and system files. No need at all to rebuild the PBR!

WINDOWS 7 AND 7PE, WINDOWS 10 AND LINUX TOGETHER - QUICK RESTORE AND OPTIMIZE Being now 512 kB the maximum total size allowed for any post into this forum, this tutorial has been transformed into a .doc downloadable file. (it can only be downloaded by previously identified users) HTH Best wishes Cannie Windows 7 and 10 together.doc