User Profile backup

[Tracy]

Can anyone tell me the best way to back up user profiles? I like to
re-install Windows about every 6-8 months to keep it running fast. I have
tried copying just the user directories, but this doesn't seem to work. Is
there a way to retain ALL user info (passwords, OE and IE info) ? I have
used roaming profiles before and it works great so I know there has to be a
way. Any recommendations?

Thanks

Tracy

 

[Mike Mulligan]

Why not take an image of the system partition?

If you need to reinstall XP every 6 or 8 months to keep your system running
fast, you are not using your system properly. I have had Windows XP for
nearly 18 months, and my system runs as fast as the day I first turned it
on.

Tip: There is no reason to cross-post to so many groups. Doing so could get
your posts ignored.

Mike Mulligan

 

[Tracy]

Creating a partition image would defeat the whole purpose. Nothing runs
better than a fresh install. I do a lot of testing and duplication on my
machine and it gets cluttered up with unnecessary files that the "uninstall"
programs don't remove, not to mention the ever growing registry size. I can
just enable roaming profiles on my machine, but I was curious if there was
an easier way if you were not in a networked environment. I know that
crossposting is a no no, but I didn't think that three was "so many". Sorry

Tracy

 

[David Candy]

Most of the crap is in your profile. There's no point reinstalling if you keep your profile.

Type Copy Profile in help.

But files and settings transfwer wizard is a better (but still stupid) way.

Your goal is clean install. Coping your profile would mnake it dirty.

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

I have to agree with David and Mike on this. With regard to the image, I
believe what Mike meant was to create an image after a fresh install. I do
a lot of beta testing, I have an image of an XP Clean install inclusive of
SP1 with all my drivers installed, an image with XP, drivers and most of my
primary apps installed and an image of XP with drivers, apps and data that I
redo periodically as an supplement to my backup or I should say, my backup
is a supplement to that image.

As to the profile, David is correct, it's similar to doing a full backup,
then installing XP clean and then restoring your full backup. Any issues
you had are being reinstalled if restore the full backup.

Actually, you could do a clean install, create as many of your settings as
you can, or do the clean install, install your apps and set those settings
as well and all you'd have to do is restore your data.

When I'm working on an OS beta, I sometimes have to reload several times a
day and respond to requests for additional information or test scenarios. I
couldn't do it without an image at least not and be able to respond
efficiently and in as brief a time as possible.

 

[crobertson]

Do you really need to backup your profile? I create 3 partitions. OS, Data, Image
I install the OS in OS (of course) point the Documents to the Data partition, and backup my original image to the image backup partition. (This is for personal Settings)

You can also backup your Profile with datagrab https://sites.google.com/a/obxcompguy.com/foolish-it/vb6-projects/datagrab

You can restore whatever you want. Restore image like a fresh install, and point back at your documents. I only do this about 10 times a day.