but wiping an entire drive is not likely if you restore the partition as imaged and do not opt to change the size. The image made is of selected partition(s) and not drives. When you restore, the software will read the image and know the partition size. It will be able to delete the partition on the drive you restore to and leave the other intact. But, it will allow you to alter the size of it and this is where you could mess up other partitions if you have not preserved their contents. I must admit that I've not backed up a laptop this way but have used imaging software on desktops only. Usually all goes well.
On a brand new Laptop I'm thinking of creating a hard drive image by using Norton Ghost. I understand some pc have a hidden partition that is used when one needs to restore to.
Q1 - Can I create an image using Ghost onto a cds and not the desktop or harddrive.
Q2 - By using Ghost to copy back to the laptops harddrive (from a cd hopefully) will that completely format first and wipe out the hidden partition. or will i end up with 2 hidden partitions!

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