OldGuy said:
Looking for your best recommendations rather than googling and getting
confused.
I manage to crash Win XP Pro too often and really hate reinstalling my
apps since it take too much interaction and time.
So this time I want to do a clean install on my laptop and then make
something that I can use to put it all back in one click. That's part one.
Please either give me specific steps or links to approved methods to do
a restore.
My laptop supports DVD Write so 4.7G space.
Part two is to suggest what NOT to install, like IE V? or whatever.
Right now the latest version of IE has problems loading web pages when
PaleMoon or Chrome works just fine.
Laptops don't usually come with a "real" WinXP installer CD.
Instead, they have a restoration partition on the hard drive.
That establishes a factory baseline for the machine. And
that's not an "install", as much as it just copies an
install image from the restoration partition, to a freshly erased C:.
So in a way, that is your backup copy.
It's not clean either, because it has the cruft-ware that the
laptop maker puts into the OS. Trialware, bogus backup software,
AV software you didn't really want, and so on. So it's not
exactly a bonus or anything.
You can use Macrium Reflect Free, if you want to image C:
and store it somewhere. If, after installing your apps, and
you are happy with it, you could make a snapshot with Macrium.
With Macrium, you burn a boot CD, using the image provided, and
that's how you can do a "cold metal restore" later. If you
store your image from Macrium on an external hard drive, then
if the laptop drive dies, you have something to restore with.
Otherwise, the loss of the hard drive, also loses the
recovery partition.
At the same time, you can image the parts of the laptop drive,
that you'd want to have in an emergency. You should always
have backed up, those things on the laptop hard drive
for which no media currently exists. When I got my laptop,
one of the first things I did, is start copying *everything*
from the new laptop, to an external drive. That is compressed,
and takes about 40GB of space on one of my backup drives. If
I even need to replace the laptop hard drive, I decompress
that image, and just copy it back. You should always be
ready for a "rainy day".
But in terms of copying some intermediate version of C:,
you could do that with Macrium Reflect Free. Chances are,
you already own some other backup software, that works
as well as that one. Macrium uses VSS, so the OS does not
need to be shut down to make a backup. It can be backed up "hot".
http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volume_Shadow_Copy_Service
Note - always be suspicious of download sites. I always
inspect the downloads carefully for toolbars and baggage.
The download site needs to make money somehow. When you
get that software, if doing an install, check for the
presence of "toolbar tick boxes", just in case. I can't
download this crap over and over again, to check this
for you. Check for yourself... I've never received a
toolbar I didn't wanted here, but if you watched how much
work I put into avoiding them, you'd see there is a
"price to eternal vigilance"
It's a lot of work
checking for that stuff. Even reputable companies
stuff toolbars they get $1 for, into their downloads.
That pays for their download bandwidth.
Paul
