Reinstalling Vista - when to create image file?

[Urban Reflex]

Yo folks. Gonna be reinstalling Vista in the next couple of days and then taking an image file with Acronis True Image 11 (Ordered 1:42pm, shipping email 3:38pm: OCUK rule!).

What I want to know is when is the best time to make the image file? At the moment my plan is to install in the following order:

Windows Vista
Motherboard driver
Graphics driver
Monitor driver
Sound card driver
Capture card driver
Office 2007

then run Windows Update, then create the image file. Is this the right way to go about it? Anything else I need to install / run before imaging?

 

[Breach]

I'd get all the Vista updates, inc. SP1.
Then do the image.

Better before drivers, so you always have the option of installing updated drivers from scratch when you restore the image.

Saying that, i dont think a OS reinstall is as necessary as often today as it was a couple of years ago.

 

[bledd]

isntall using an SP1 disc, it's cleaner.

i tend to do this.. install windows, disable system restore, install network driver. take image (so you've got 1x really clean image)

then install rest of drivers, firefox, 7zip, winamp lite take image (this is my working system anyway)

 

[Urban Reflex]

Aye, my Vista disc is Home Premium SP1 OEM. Doing an image after installing Windows sounds like a good idea. I might install Office aswell, just so I don't have to mess around reactivating that too. As for a second image, that's also a good idea. Time to have a think about what I really want from an image file I guess.

 

[Phil2008]

I also take a image of my windows drive ever 2weeks or so,, then If I screw windows up at all, I can restore it to my last backup image without loosing much stuff.