  "if I loose my laptop I could restore everything just as I had it?" Yes   " Will the 'disk backup' function backup all partitions/the whole of the hard drive" It should allow you to pick the partitions you want to back up, so yes. "One of the partitions is a format that windows can't read, so it is not even viewable in Windows explorer. " Most likely it will not back it up, you would need to use a 3rd party backup software like Acronis to backup all partitions.   "Secondly, if I ever did need to restore my system, would the authentication key for win 7 still work " Yes   "so if I ever wanted to upgrade win 7 professional 32 bit to 64 bit can I do that - will the authentication key still work for 64 bit?" You would need to purchase a 64bit key   .  
Ok after almost having my computer not start the other day, I reailsed that I really need to back up my pc! :)  So for the last few weeks, I have been using the windows 7 backup utility to store backups of several folders on a networked location. However, I have a lot of big audio/video files I have recorded and really do not want to loose, along with programs etc.  I noticed there is a 'backup whole disk' or something like that option in win 7 backup, so that if I loose my laptop I could restore everything just as I had it? I am just not sure how well it will work: Firstly, I have three operating systems installed on 2 different partitions and a seperate boot partition. Will the 'disk backup' function backup all partitions/the whole of the hard drive, or will it just backup the windows partition? One of the partitions is a format that windows can't read, so it is not even viewable in winodws explorer.  Secondly, if I ever did need to restore my system, would the authentication key for win 7 still work - would it not work on a different pc but it would work if I restored it to the same laptop? Also I didn't realise my pc was 64 bit capable (It was advertised as 32 bit and came with 32 bit vista!!) so if I ever wanted to upgrade win 7 proffesional 32 bit to 64 bit can I do that - will the authentication key still work for 64 bit? Thanks
Windows 7 Backup