Preserving your computer's state

[lozina]

I just reformatted my drive and installed XP and all the necessary drivers. Before I start installing software and crap I'd like to preserve this state so that if something F's up I can just go abck to this nice clean state.

Is the only option to really do this to create a ghost or image of the drive? Windows backup or system restore is not nearly as thorough right? Of course they will leave all the residual files and stuff that you might accumulate over the years right?

 

[Megatomic]

Ghosting or a true back-up (tape, etc...) are the bestest ways I know of. 🙂

 

[Evander]

Never tried Windows backup, but i know sys restore does leave residual files. if you want some freeware options i made a couple posts in the freeware thread:
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...adid=997283&STARTPAGE=11&enterthread=y
i haven't tested those though, since i have acronis trueimage