need ghost help

[blackwatch]

i was thinking about doing a drive image and then wiping the drive. then i can start over with a fresh windows install, save my image and not lose any files. is this right? or am i totally missing the concept of a disk image?

tia

[Mntsnow]

That would be one of the many reasons behind doing an image :)

I do a ghost image of all the systems I build for people after doing all the updates and service packs before delivering it. Then when they hose the system we just toss the "restore" disk(s) in and off to the races. (they lose whatever they hadn't backed up) but they get back a system that was proven to be rock solid and then they can go kill it again :)

[blackwatch]

so i can do an image...save it to cd-r or dvd-r then reformat windows, and then use the image to restore my programs, files etc?

[Xaotic]

Exactly, but any new data will need to be backed up separately. You can also use it to change HDDs in systems. Be careful if you are using XP, since some of the earlier versions do not support some of the file system changes. Also, make sure that you revert to basic disks in either 2K or XP before imaging, since DOS and dynamic disks do not play nicely.