Which is better off for a clean windows xp, Image or format ?

[leo888]

Hi
I like some suggestion or advice on which is better off, between formating the drive or clone/image the drive whenever I wanted a clean start of windows XP. I bought this up because I do format a few times a year because my drive is too mess up for me to defrag, I think formatting it would be faster and better off with a clean start. But now I just got this software called Acronis true image from a friend and now I like to use it for a clean start of windows xp every time I wanted to format. So I like some advice or suggestion on which is better off for a clean windows xp OS ?

[johnnyis42]

if you do a clean install after formatting, then install all your service packs, patches and drivers, and configure all your settings the way you like them, and then make an image of your drive, you'll definitely shave like hours off bringing windows up from booting the cd up to being ready to roll. you can even install a few apps you always install on the C drive to save some time.

one thing... it always seemed to me that by default windows fragments itself as much as it can while installing. so, right after you get everything set up to your liking, defrag your drive, then make the image.

any time you add or change any hardware to your system, you might want to create a new image. somehting like changing the motherboard then re-imaging the drive with the old image will surely make the system unbootable. i have heard that putting the old image on a new hard drive in the same system will also have the same effect.

[Zenara25]

I have used Norton Ghost to image my drive to a much larger drive and then used the large drive with no problems.

So I haven't had any problems upgrading my hard drives using Ghost.

[leo888]

Has anyone use Acronis True Image cause I wanted a software that be burn to dvd. I like to know does norton ghost burn to cd or dvd ?

[johnnyis42]

check symantec's site. i'm willing to guess (since i'm too lazy to look) that it does.

typically ghost upgraded along with the times. when cd burners became popular, the next version of ghost supported cd burners. when home network devices became the norm, retail ghost brought support for TCP image transfers. so it is likely the latest version also supports dvd burners.

thing is, symantec bought powerquest's "drive image pro", so that's probably where you need to look, and not ghost.