Yeah! that's my question. Why don't we install windows, required drivers and blah.. blah.. blah.. and then just zip (or rar or jar or whatever). Lets use a compression utility with command line option. Then boot the system using FreeDos or bootable win98 bootup disk. Unzip ((or unrar or unjar or unwhatever) to thier original locations. I suppose it should work. as all the files would be available wherever they need to be. that leaves us to only bother about the MBR and the kind. Hmmm.. once again, i dont think anything would be required to change or alter, unless, the reason for fresh install is a corrupt boot sector. Probably, we would need to boot the system with some non-Windows OS for zipping. Coz, possibly the Windows will not let you touch few files for zipping if you tried it from within windows. So, for the most, this method should work??