Backing up c:\users directory with USMT

[kiscokid]

I need to re-image my Vista Business laptop with the manufacturer provided
"reload to factory" image from the system recovery partition. As this will
completely reformat my hard drive I need to preserve the data in the
c:\users\username directory or I will lose a lot of work.

Can I use the User State Migration Tool (USMT) to save all this data before
the re-image and the restore it afterward?

Is there another tool to do this?

Simply copying the c:\users directory doesn't seem to work because many of
these files are "in use" and cannot be copied.

 

[Richard G. Harper [MVP]]

You need Windows Easy Transfer for this ... no XP tool will work to gather
or restore Vista settings.