mickd

thanks, but if I reformat & reinstall XP Pro, then restore the ghost image, won't it also restore the suspect operating system as well ? Thanks

probably a dumb question but when Nortons Ghost or Windows XP backup is used, does it back up the Operating System as well OR just programs installed, I want to reformat my system drive & replace a possibly dicky XP Pro but don't want the hassle of having to reinstall all my programs again. thanks

Well Done !!!!!!!!!!...works now, thanks heaps !

ALLUSERSPROFILE=C:\Documents and Settings\All Users.WINDOWS APPDATA=C:\Documents and Settings\Michael DJula\Application Data CLIENTNAME=Console CommonProgramFiles=C:\Program Files\Common Files COMPUTERNAME=DEFAULT-NARMQEO ComSpec=C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe FP_NO_HOST_CHECK=NO HOMEDRIVE=C: HOMEPATH=\Documents and Settings\Michael DJula LOGONSERVER=\\DEFAULT-NARMQEO NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS=1 OS=Windows_NT Path=C:\Program Files\Common Files\Roxio Shared\DLLShared;C:\Program Files\Ulead Systems\Ulead DVD MovieFactory 3.5 Suite Deluxe;C:\Program Files\Common Files\Ulead Systems\MPEG;"F:\Norton SystemWorks\Norton Ghost\";"C:\Program Files\Norton SystemWorks\Norton Ghost\";C:\Program Files\ATI Technologies\ATI Control Panel PATHEXT=.COM;.EXE;.BAT;.CMD;.VBS;.VBE;.JS;.JSE;.WSF;.WSH PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE=x86 PROCESSOR_IDENTIFIER=x86 Family 6 Model 10 Stepping 0, AuthenticAMD PROCESSOR_LEVEL=6 PROCESSOR_REVISION=0a00 ProgramFiles=C:\Program Files PROMPT=$P$G PS5ROOT=E:\Easy CD Creator 6\PhotoSuite\ SESSIONNAME=Console SystemDrive=C: SystemRoot=C:\WINDOWS TEMP=C:\DOCUME~1\MICHAE~2\LOCALS~1\Temp TMP=C:\DOCUME~1\MICHAE~2\LOCALS~1\Temp USERDOMAIN=DEFAULT-NARMQEO USERNAME=Michael DJula USERPROFILE=C:\Documents and Settings\Michael DJula windir=C:\WINDOWS Thanks, this is it.............CMD works ok, I just can't do things like 'ipconfig', 'ping' etc

thats the thing....I dont know what to put in replace of what is mentioned in 'environment variables', don't generally mess in this area.

yeah but how do I change them ?

When I do the above in order to ping my router or enter 'ipconfig' I get the response ping/ipconfig etc "is not recognised as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file" Can anybody advise me please ?