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going to reinstall XP
God have mercy on my soul
Friday, October 7, 2005 by werewolf | Discussion: WinCustomize Talk
One of these boards had a reference to a software app nLite. Basically it makes a slipstream install disk. But it lets you set a lot of options that you would normally use tweakui for and lets you make an unattended install disk if you wish.
I made an unattended disk and an attended disk because I want to be able to format the boot partition and I don't know if the unattended will do that. You can also slipstream all your main drivers (awesome if it works). The process was a piece of cake. Hope the install goes as well. This program seems like an awesome little app and it's free.
nLite: http://www.nliteos.com/
I have looked through my start menu, my program files directories, /application data/ directories and I think I've copied all my links, firefox/thunderbird profiles, fonts, etc. Copied all the other users documents. Written down all the serial numbers and license keys. Downloaded the installers for all the main apps (can't find that darn color pad installer, but a link for it is around somewhere in the message boards.)
God, I pray I haven't forgotten anything and I'm very anxious, which is probably why I'm writing this. I've got 2 partitions setup for a Ubuntu linux install, just in case things go horribly wrong.
hmm, there's an old lady going through our recycling bin (not the computer
), getting cans I suppose.OK, one more check through. Pray.
chickenwolf
Reply #2 Friday, October 7, 2005 9:48 AM
) of formating and fresh installation.Did that last weekend. Im stil installing programs
Reply #5 Friday, October 7, 2005 1:45 PM
Worked like a charm. Running that slipstreamed install worked great. This machine is so much faster (haven't installed any programs yet LOL, other than the software to connect to my media player.)
There was an animated bootscreen that I've never seen before. This is just awesome. Now if I only had an drive imaging program
, I'd refresh the installation every year...or 6 months.Thank you Starkers, The Adept, and Sleeping Dragon for your luck. I'm sure that's what made everything go smoothly.
Reply #7 Saturday, October 8, 2005 12:28 AM
thanks for the idea starkers
Reply #8 Saturday, October 8, 2005 12:39 AM
nLite is fun......particularly when 'excluding' bits of XP that you don't want to install/use.....I did it on Terry's machine ages ago....worked just fine....
On my machine I have Drive Image doing an auto image once a week.....[does it natively in Windows]....and the only thing to keep an eye on is 'space usage'....each image is around 6 gig....[20 gig OS partition].....but you just delete various older/unwanted images.
It's a bit like having rather 'extensive' system restores. Then all you need is a second physical HD...with same size OS part...and Image to that drive....put both in caddies and you have an instant OS backup that need not be any 'older' than a week....time to switch?....the time it takes to shutdown, swap, and reboot.
Works a charm...
Reply #9 Saturday, October 8, 2005 2:03 AM
| put both in caddies |
What does that mean? Like a RAID?
Reply #10 Saturday, October 8, 2005 2:31 AM
Reply #11 Saturday, October 8, 2005 3:54 AM
I do mine slightly different, though still with Drive Image. I have 2 250Gb backup drives, one is used for monthly images, the other for weekly. Takes about 20 mins to restore. I now make a point of taking an image right before installing a new prog or doing an update - saves so much grief.
The only thing to watch is stuff which updates frequently, like Outlook data files. You can use something like SyncBack to create back-up files for those. The only thing to be wary of is SyncBack can't back-up files which are in use. I lost a couple of days e-mails in a recent restore because of that. The data file back-up hadn't been updated for a couple of days...plus it had in it 300+ e-mails I'd just deleted, groan...
Reply #12 Saturday, October 8, 2005 4:02 AM
I should add since then I've set one of my SyncBack Outlook back-ups to run in the background every 30mins and not to alert me if there's an error (Outlook in use). It does only copy if there's a change to the Outlook data file, so running in the background won't impact any other running program as it goes by changes to the file date which will be the last time Outlook updated.
Now, to clear out all those unwanted e-mails - see you in a couple of hours...
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Reply #1 Friday, October 7, 2005 9:28 AM