How do you back up your operating system and not all the pre-installed junk?
I'm currently using an HP Pavillion DV 2000 Entertainment Note Book. I have created back up discs and have used them to re-installed the operating system which is Windows Vista Home Premium, the problem is, it also re-installed all the pre-installed junk that comes with Windows.

This is what I'm asking. Is there a way to back up only your operating system when creating back up discs? How do I get this accomplished?

Thanks very much for any info/tutorial.

AI

Hi
I believe Vista Ultimate is the only version to give you total control in this respect.
However some 'third parties' like Acronis. Will allow the features you require.

I assume your back-up discs are actually Restore discs? You can use Acronis to back up a particular partition but all of your apps will still be there. There are also free versions of Acronis if your have a Seagate or Maxtor HDD.

Vista, possibly the safest OS yet...even virus' have incompatibility issues.

I think the best strategy is to setup a fresh hard drive with just the stuff you want as a starting point and then back it up to a spare hard drive or DVDs. I would recommend Acronis for this purpose. If anything ever goes terrible wrong, you can just reformat and transfer the backup back in to place.

I'd backup my data separately, and often. You can use Acronis for this too, or Nero, Roxio, or other CD/DVD creating software to copy it as standard formatted data discs.

Optical drives currently in use:
[E] TSSTcorp CD/DVDRW SH-202G
[F] HL-DT-ST DVD-RAM GH22NP20
[G] HL-DT-ST BDDVDRW GGC-H20L
[H] ASUS DVD-E818A3T
[i] TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-S223Q
Current HDD capacity for movies: 19.5TB

Greetings,

I just read your post regarding making a backup of your OS. My OS is WinXP Home. I recently installed it on a new hard drive. The only program's that I now have on the new drive are the ones that I always use.

If I make a backup of my hard drive, as it now is, would I have to activate WinXP again when I make an install of the backup?

No, activation would not be required when restoring from backup.

Vista, possibly the safest OS yet...even virus' have incompatibility issues.

Thanks for that information OldJoe. I normally make a new install of WinXP once every year and sometimes twice if need be. Although thats legal I sometimes worry that Microsoft will see that as suspicious activity.

I just made a clean install the other day, loading only WinXP and some very basic programs that I always use. Now, after hearing what you said about a backup not needing activation, I will just backup my new install and reinstall it when needed. The registry is still clean.

This will make reinstallations much easier and faster. I wish that I had known about it earlier because the size of the used space on my hard drive is now 8,35GB. That's a bit too much to make an install from a DVD.

Any suggestions how I could make a reinstall of WinXP and these basic programs that I use, using a backup made on my external hard drive?

You need a third party software (i.e. Acronis).

Vista, possibly the safest OS yet...even virus' have incompatibility issues.

I have pondered over this question for a long time. I also would like to know how to have a backup of my OS as each time I have had to re-format my hard drive, usually because some Italian virus has managed to get into my system. The problem is I have almost had to beg Microsoft to let me re-install my genuine copy of XP Home. I now have an external hard drive with my own idea of what pieces of the operating system I want on it. I almost keep this Ext Hard drive under 24 hour surveilence, It is a Toshiba that actally has an ON/OFF switch so it is only switched on when required. I admire the skill of these hackers but I would gladly open the trap door if they had a noose around a delicate part. (not the neck, I dont dislike them that much)
Incidentally since I have installed two wonderfull freebees namely Avast and Comodo I have not been troubled by any sort of viral or hacker invasion.

If its an Italian Virus you have to get a new hdd. A United States Virus can be deleted.

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