Sounds like a news service...
you have running in the background - a lot of software - including security software, will pop up like an IM message to tell you the latest news pertaining to the product or other software from the company. Your experience does sound concerning though. Have you tried Macrium Reflect - that is another one you don't have to buy, although I liked it so well I purchased it anyway. It was completely unnecessary to do so, though.
With Macrium, it will prompt you do burn a Linux rescue CD, and I highly recommend that, because it is necessary to do an image restore, to find the XML file that automatically restores the image. I must admit though, that I never used it for partitioning. In fact, I can't remember if it can do that. I usually just use the built in Windows disc manager for that.
