[Billthedrill]

Restoring a PC with its MBR deleted involves reinstalling Windows, which could mean important data is lost.

No, it doesn't.

[dayglored]

>> Restoring a PC with its MBR deleted involves reinstalling Windows, which could mean important data is lost.

> No, it doesn't.

If all that's overwritten is the MBR itself, that can be reconstructed. Hell even old FDISK/MBR might do it.

But if the partition table got overwritten and it was anything other than trivial, the average user will be outta luck.

[doomtrooper99]

public void alwaysDo()
{
User user = new User();

user.keepOriginalSoftware();
user.knowHowToInstallOriginalSoftware();
user.backupYourData(USB_DRIVE);

// for good cloud backup goto http:www.crashplan.com
user.backupYourData(CLOUD);
}

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

No, it doesn't.

It is far simpler to have an image backup done once per week...keeping several past images on hand...and on a separate HD.

If Rombertik hoses the drive, wipe the drive and re-image the drive from a clean copy.

This is what I do with Macrium Reflect and it has saved my bacon numerous times.