Creating an Image

[meppwc]

I have a homemade desktop XP machine. If i ever have to completely format and restore the system to basic, there is a tremendous amount involved because WIFI, etc..............so i am hoping that the next time I have to go through this that there is a way to create an image of that reinstallation to make it much easier to restore the machine in the future.

I envy those who have computers that with a few keystrokes can do a restoration from a clean image stored on a partitioned drive (HP, DELL)

I there a solution to what I am looking for? LIke for example, being able to plug in a DVD to boot from that wipes out my existing hard drive and from the DVD restores that perfect clean image that is stored on the DVD or partition or external drive

[Karlsweldt]

Several ways of doing a complete backup. One common way is with a RAID setup, but requires two or more identical hard drives. Some RAID systems are self-healing and self-restoring, if one drive fails. Put in a new drive, and back to 100%.
Another way is with a cloning or 'migration' program, which duplicates exactly the data from the working hard drive to another of equal or larger size. But an update has to be done monthly or weekly, to stay current with program updates and changes.
Then there is the resident backup program in the OS. That can copy to another hard drive, or to an optical disk. Only problem with using a disk, it has to be re-writable, and may become more corrupt than a hard drive, with re-writes.
Another way is with a network server or NAS, which can back up several systems, and also be for additional storage.
With any form of backup or archive, longevity is a critical factor. Optical disks may not endure a good image as long as a hard drive, yet are immune to magnetic fields which can destroy data on hard drives. The solid-state drives are more secure, and possibly have a longer good retention of data.

[meppwc]

Is Norton Ghost a type of cloning application that will make an image? BTW, when I say image, I mean OS and everything else that I have installed before I create an image?

[evasive]

Yes. Norton Ghost will do fine, depending on how old the version is you have.