Yesterday saw me try a Graphical Boot Manager (GAG) on my Windows 7 home premium PC and following the installation procedure all that was left was to reboot. Well my world CRASHED.....MBR missing!!!!!! would not boot obviously.
Bloody hell it's Sunday here in Tasmania Australia, time to relax. Ah well, another re-build. Better cancel the BBQ with the Wife and the neighbours.
NO...wait, I took the advice / recommendation from Hazelnut (many thanks) and installed Macrium Reflect (ver 4.2 Free Edition 32-bit) and scheduled a "weekly" drive C image backup to another physical USB hard drive. I also remembered to create the "rescue disc" (surprise surprise). Well, now lets see if this little puppy works the way it's supposed to work. (I have been accused of being very cynical at times.......they're probably correct).
Loaded the rescue CD, booted the PC, followed the prompts and......................it all worked as it was supposed too. Replaced the MBR (which was not there anyway, but it was a tick box available during the rescue procedure) only took about 3 cups of coffee and about 47 minutes (I like coffee at stressful times) to see an invitation to "reboot".
And there you have it, all back to "square one" as we say in the penal settlement. Because I followed Hazelnut's suggestions of regular backup's, I only had to perform one SW update, data was OK as it is stored on a separate physical HD, all OK.
So, Hazelnut................many.......many.......many thanks for your original post / comments re Macrium Reflect, both of you saved the day.
FREE software (like Piriform suite) that delivers what it promises.....Thank you.
PS: I then proceeded to light the BBQ with beer in hand.