Re-imaging a Windows machine.

[richedie]

Hi all,

I am about to re-build my Windows XP Home Edition machine. Can someone tell me the best way/utility to clean and wipe the hard drive prior to imaging?

I want to be able to wipe the drive - then be able to run the Windows disk and image. Anything else I need to know? Will I need a start up disk to format and partition the drive?

Also, anyone know how to back up email from Outlook Express???? We have a lot of saved email I hate to lose. Is there an Outlook Express backup utility?

Thanks,

Rich

[andsome]

I am still trying to work out exactly what you mean. You want to wipe the drive clean and than image it. Surely there will be nothing to image.

Second part of the question. If you run the Windows disk from boot up, you can than format and partition the C drive, followed by installing Windows.

Third part. The others may know another method of saving thing in Outlook Express. I am just about to have a new computer, and have dragged everything that I want to save into various folder son a plug in external hard drive. :D

[Seshomaru Samma]

If you mean you want to clone your windows on a new hard drive, this is what I would do:

1. Get a Norton Ghost live CD -it's a CD you can boot from. I have one which a friend gave me, I'm not sure if they are for sale or you need to make them your self.

2. Boot from CD and create a backup of your C drive somewhere. It can be on another partition, a DVD, a CD a USB anything,

3. Put your new disc in, boot from the CD and restore the image partition into your new disc. My Ghost CD also includes an fdisk utility that partitions the disc, If you don't have one google for something called Gparted-live CD it's a great free partitioning disc.

4. It is possible to make your image bootable (having both Ghost and the disc image on the same media, in effect creating a customized windows install media) but that is quite advanced and you would either need to trim it down or use a DVD. I would not recommend it. You can find online tutorials if you are interested

If you don't have Norton Ghost ,you can achieve the same results with Partimage which is free. You can find it on the SystemRescueCD. Lifehacker has a good tutorial for it- here

For backing up Outlook Express I can only offer this . I use Thunderbird.

[y2khardtop]

unless you think you have a boot virus, there is no reason to "wipe" the machine. Just let windows do a quick reformat, and it will then install windows on a blank drive.

For outlook express, there is a hidden set of database files. If you go into outlook express settings and look for the storage folder, you can copy the entire set of dbf files to a backup drive, then re-import them back into outlook express after re-installing.

It does have a export/import utility, but I've found simply copying the dbf files and then putting them back into the new storage directy works, whereas the export/import utility never has for me.

I now fine that Gmail is better.........

And finally, I just did a clean XP install. I created an UBCD4Win (bootable windows CD) and used one of the utilities (Drive Image XML I think) to make backup images of the clean install, as well as the clean install with all of my programs installed). Should be very handy next time I need to reinstall (I do it pretty often).

[Dencandy]

Further to the above, to find your e-mail store in Outlook Express/Live Mail select Tools > Options, then click the Maintenance tab. Click the Store Folder button which should lead you to where it is. Most e-mail providers now offer such vast memory space that I now simply leave everything on the server. No back-ups required & can be accessed anytime from any machine.

[richedie]

Thanks everyone! Yes, to clarify - we have a PC that is about 5 years old. About 2-3 years ago I re-installed Windows XP. The computer has been running slower over time regardless of my periodic maintenance. I wanted to start fresh, essentially backing up everything and re-installing XP. That is why I mentioned wiping the drive and partitioning/formatting, installing XP to give me a clean slate. I haven't done it in a while so I wanted to make sure I could do it all from the XP Home edition disk or if I needed a utility to before inserting the XP disk.

On the Outlook XP. I like GMail, but still find it easier to just open Outlook Express and pulling in our Comcast email. We used to log onto Comcast and get our mail that way, so we would never lose anything but it seems so much slower, and not as well layed out. Maybe we should reconsider because our current method, we lose everything once downloaded from the server. I was hoping I could back up some of the important email but if I look in that folder store location, it is empty. My folders/files are unhidden but all I see is an empty folder - C:\Documents and Settings\User\Application Data\Identities\{CFD3C4C0-B74A-49C3-AFD6-171A76272BA0}

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

You mention both Outlook and Outlook Express. Outlook stores all data in PST files; Outlook Express uses DBX files. Do a backup of all these files (while Outlook and Outlook Express are closed), then restore these after you reinstalled Windows.

I would also make a backup of all your device drivers; http://www.drivermax.com/ can help you with that.