My own personal system had to have XP reinstalled once. Of the 500 or so I have at work, we reimage from a standard base as a last resort and is very infrequent.

Why is there no "twice a year" option? I used to reformat either once every month, or once every 3 months. Now, with my new, stable machine, I'm able to go about 6 months before I need to reclaim the TB of storage I have (in a RAID 0+1 config, which amounts to 465GB useable space).

In retrospect, I should have had a selection for twice per year, but initially, I didn't know which selections to choose.

I reload about every 6 months or so.

depends on the amount of crap i install

or windows has got a problem

but every 3 months or so

reload from a image

and every 7 to 9 months do a good clean install of windows

Lately for me it's been yearly, but I'm also not so obsessed with running XP that's been slimmed down with the latest nLite anymore.

Zxian recently got me fond of Acronis True Image. I don't reformat anymore, I just restore my HD with a 5 GB image file stored on my second harddrive. I can screw up all I want now. lol

If the image is crapped and you don't have a UA disc, you'll have to start from scratch.

I made a ghost bootable dvd and tried to include the image on it but the maximum size dvdrws I have are 4.7gb

What I do is make a base image - a fresh install. Then install my software then make another image. Then personalize with my accounts and make another image.

All of these images are < 1.6 GB. I keep them on a separate HDD rather than burn 'em on a CD. It takes minutes (< 5) to go back to whichever state I need to.

I did once burn the image to a DVD but with the updated versions (using RyanVM), I gave that up. I'll never use that DVD, so I just store it on HDD. DVD restore would also be slower!

Of course, you're HDD can fail, like my second HDD did - I lost everything. But again, you can alway reinstall.

I reinstalled XP Pro SP2 yesterday using a UA disc. Straight away, without even logging in, I made an image using Acronis True Image. This way I hope I will never reinstall Windows again on this computer, even though I kind of enjoy it [ ] if I am really bored and have nothing else to do / or if there is a significant hardware change. The main thing that stops me reinstalling / restoring images frequently is that the computer is shared between 7 people, so I don't like messing with or having to setup their accounts / settings etc. all the time. Afterwards, I made an image after all the Windows Updates had been applied, drivers installed and major programs which I hope to restore whenever something even slightly goes wrong. There will always be a use for re-installing Windows [apart from killing time and boredom] despite the obvious advantages of disk imaging.

between twice a month and once every 3 months, depends on how many new stable releases of programs i use have an update or when I find enough tweaks to redo it. otherwise I just reimage a few times a month, I like a very clean system.

• Install date: November 2004

• Operating system: Windows 98SE

• Planned reinstall: when HDD crashes

Hi my dear friends!

I Ghost my system whenever it is necessary. A clean install of XP takes toooo much time for me since I have to install about 3 GIGS of other software as well.

Take care and kind regards,

Paul van Bommel

every christmas

Reinstall only when my Windows dies

I Ghost my system whenever it is necessary. A clean install of XP takes toooo much time for me since I have to install about 3 GIGS of other software as well.

Take care and kind regards,

Paul van Bommel

The neat thing about Ghost 2003 (Ghost.exe) is that it will run from a DOS boot disk (floppy or CD) and it will burn its image file to a second partition, second hard drive or even to a CD or DVD. It will also span CD/DVD's if the file size exceeds the disk size.

I make quickie backups to my second partition on my SATA drive, at least two or three times a week. Then about once a week or so, I make the backup to DVD. Ghost installs itself on the DVD as the boot sector and thusly makes the DVD self booting.

Good drive maintenance keeps my backup Image file size down to what a DVD can handle (with max compression).

Running Ghost 2003 from a boot disk bypasses all the windows BS and gets the job done in the fastest possible. time. On my SATA drive that takes only four minutes. Burning to a DVD takes about a half hour or so.

No bid deal.

Now, for the worlds best defrag, do a Ghost backup followed immediately by a Ghost restore and all files are rewritten in perfect order with NO spaces and NO fragmentation.

Afterward, my HD looks like THIS, when viewed by Windows Defrag.

A reinstall of Windows is NEVER required if you have a Ghost image on a DVD of your system all set up the way you want it.

Of course if you're a total masochist and really into PAIN.....reload windows to your hearts content.

You have my blessing!

Andromeda43 B)

Wow. Once a year surpasses once a month. I think the gap between once a month and once a year has a lot to do with it. Maybe if there was once every 6 months, it would have looked a little different.