Reinstall advice and how to minimize hassle

[TheBrooder]

I'm coming up to another windows install and tbqfh I'm getting sick of it.

I need a way to minimize this hassle for the future.

I'm thinking of partitioning my HD (yeh I probably should've done it years ago ...) from 10 - 60gb for windows and maybe putting mydocs and all games on the non-windows partition.

Is it advisable to ghost my setup once all drivers are installed and before I overclock and install non essential apps?

Is there anything I can do or should be doing to stop windows screwing up in the future?

 

[MarcLister]

You could download nLite and slipstream XP SP3 into XP as well as drivers using Driver Grabber to get all your current PC drivers into a folder so you can integrate them into XP.

Then create an ISO, burn that to CD and install XP. Then use Acronis TrueImage to "ghost" your perfect setup and keep that image safe.

 

[Dano]

Yes, put your 'My Documents' folder on a seperate partition and do as Marc said above. But I have to ask what are you doing to Windows to mess it up so badly you need to re-install it so often?

 

[TheBrooder]

Well it's not that often, maybe a year since I last did it but with 2 pc's and 2 laptops plus my mum's and father-in-laws it seems like I'm always trying to dig out my XP installation disk

My most recent install has slowed down quite a bit and there's a 'Service Control Manager" error in event viewer and my hard disks are both showing paging errors for some reason, and boot up takes ages and usually bsod's or freezes on first attempt ...

 

[1337z0r]

I partition my hard drives, I then organize all my Programs/Drivers on a separate partition so when ever I have to reinstall weather it be Vista or XP I can do so with ease. I've got a slipstreamed XP disk with my raid drivers on and I just use a USB key for the raid drivers in Vista.

I don't bother with the My documents/My Music ect, I organize everything my self on a separate partition like I do with my Programs and Drivers.

 

[bledd]

do what i do.

only install..

media player classic
ffdshow
winamp lite
o&o defrag
firefox

then make an acronis image

keep steam & games on D:\, easy to backup the firefox settings

if someone came and did 'format c:' to me, i'd be back up and running within about 5 mins