Reinstalling Windows

[paulfr]

Reinstalling Windows is not too bad a process.

But then having to install the 8-20 programs you use is

a huge time consuming process.

How do you restore your image ?

I wonder if saving a System Restore Point off line and

using it after reinstalling would work ?

I have heard of Ghost by Norton.

Anything else work well ?

Thanks

[Tywais]

I just built a new system and installed XP with all SPs and security updates and added my key programs (those I always use). Then used Norton Ghost to create a mirror of it on an external USB drive. If you need to restore, just boot from the Ghost CD and restore the image back to the drive.

[ballbreaker]

I just built a new system and installed XP with all SPs and security updates and added my key programs (those I always use). Then used Norton Ghost to create a mirror of it on an external USB drive. If you need to restore, just boot from the Ghost CD and restore the image back to the drive.

I do pretty much the same. The one difference is I create a bootable DVD with image of HDD that restores drive to state of image.

[naka]

Reinstalling Windows is not too bad a process.

But then having to install the 8-20 programs you use is

a huge time consuming process.

How do you restore your image ?

I wonder if saving a System Restore Point off line and

using it after reinstalling would work ?

I have heard of Ghost by Norton.

Anything else work well ?

Thanks

Acronis True Image does a good job.

Naka.

[Guest Reimar]

NTI Drive Backup produce a CD/DVD Recovery set of medias, even on RW's. They are bootable.

I do this with all of my system disk's!

[MikeWill]

I assume that this works in case that the Windows and Programs are on the same drive/partition.

What if Windows is on drive C: and Programs are on D: ?

[BelfastMike]

Norton (or is it Symantec now?) Ghost will definately let you backup an entire disk to an image regardless of how many partitions you have.

You will need an external hard disk or DVD/CD writer to use as the target though.

[chingching]

Question: By making one of these images, tho, wouldn't you be recreating the problem in Windows, that forced a Windows re-install in the first place. Windows keeps track of all the installled programs in the register. The fact that a program is on the disk is meaningless unless in the registry also.

If you haven't made an image copy, while everything is good, then the windows os messes up, I think just a back up of the registry would be best.

[BelfastMike]

Question: By making one of these images, tho, wouldn't you be recreating the problem in Windows, that forced a Windows re-install in the first place. Windows keeps track of all the installled programs in the register. The fact that a program is on the disk is meaningless unless in the registry also.

If you haven't made an image copy, while everything is good, then the windows os messes up, I think just a back up of the registry would be best.

Yes, if you take an image now it's too late.

As Tywais said earlier. Best to do a fresh install of Windows, install all your drivers, updates/patches and applications. Then make a Ghost image of the system in its "clean" state onto an external Hard Drive. You'll then have a restore point that takes less than 20 mins to revert back to.

[nikster]

I just built a new system and installed XP with all SPs and security updates and added my key programs (those I always use). Then used Norton Ghost to create a mirror of it on an external USB drive. If you need to restore, just boot from the Ghost CD and restore the image back to the drive.

I do pretty much the same. The one difference is I create a bootable DVD with image of HDD that restores drive to state of image.

That's a great tip. Will do that next time I have to re-install Windows.

Problem with DVDs is they don't hold enough data, would have to be on an external HDD for me. 100GB ==> 20+ DVDs. Ugh.

Last time I used Ghost it was extremely slow though. Took forever to recover something like 20 or 30GB of data. 8 hours or more. I am looking for alternatives. Not complaining too much though since Ghost saved me from a fried hard disk - twice!