Win7 'Pristine' Re-Install

[BeeJ]

I have a Laptop with Win7 Pro, 4GRam, DVD RW and 400GBytes free on the
C: drive with one partition. Win7 plus my apps uses about 80GBytes.

I am sure this has been discussed before but hoping for the benefit of
more experience from those who have done this more recently.

I need to keep my current Win7 setup, call it the pristine
installation, make a full backup (registry, the works) and be able to
install this pristine installation in order of preference:
Quickly
From internal store (backup file or another partition)
From the laptop itself (rather than putting in a Linux CD or other)
i.e. one click restore

Creating a 100G partition on the C: to make a D: is acceptable since
that leave me with 300G free but other methods are OK if fast.

I only have USB2 ports, Ethernet connector, WIFI and the DVD for I/O.

Preferably using free backup/restore software.

No virtual Window is allowed.

 

[Dave-UK]

I have a Laptop with Win7 Pro, 4GRam, DVD RW and 400GBytes free on the
C: drive with one partition. Win7 plus my apps uses about 80GBytes.

I am sure this has been discussed before but hoping for the benefit of
more experience from those who have done this more recently.

I need to keep my current Win7 setup, call it the pristine
installation, make a full backup (registry, the works) and be able to
install this pristine installation in order of preference:
Quickly
From internal store (backup file or another partition)
From the laptop itself (rather than putting in a Linux CD or other)
i.e. one click restore

Creating a 100G partition on the C: to make a D: is acceptable since
that leave me with 300G free but other methods are OK if fast.

I only have USB2 ports, Ethernet connector, WIFI and the DVD for I/O.

Preferably using free backup/restore software.

No virtual Window is allowed.

You can't restore a saved image to a booted drive, so you'll have to boot from a cd
to restore an image to the C: drive.
The safest way is to buy an external usb drive and use Windows to save a system
image to it. At the same time create a repair cd to boot from when you want to
restore your image.

 

[DennyCrane]

I have a Laptop with Win7 Pro, 4GRam, DVD RW and 400GBytes free on the
C: drive with one partition. Win7 plus my apps uses about 80GBytes.

I am sure this has been discussed before but hoping for the benefit of
more experience from those who have done this more recently.

I need to keep my current Win7 setup, call it the pristine
installation, make a full backup (registry, the works) and be able to
install this pristine installation in order of preference:
Quickly
From internal store (backup file or another partition)
From the laptop itself (rather than putting in a Linux CD or other)
i.e. one click restore

Creating a 100G partition on the C: to make a D: is acceptable since
that leave me with 300G free but other methods are OK if fast.

I only have USB2 ports, Ethernet connector, WIFI and the DVD for I/O.

Preferably using free backup/restore software.

No virtual Window is allowed.

I have questions about just what you are trying to do, but let's skip
to the most obvious (to me ) way to get started.

Create a repair disk (DVD). You can use it to restore a system image.

Create a system image of C: on an external hard drive or on several
DVDs.

Look for these via Start Search or Google it for details.

DC

 

[Dave Cohen]

I have a Laptop with Win7 Pro, 4GRam, DVD RW and 400GBytes free on the
C: drive with one partition. Win7 plus my apps uses about 80GBytes.

I am sure this has been discussed before but hoping for the benefit of
more experience from those who have done this more recently.

I need to keep my current Win7 setup, call it the pristine installation,
make a full backup (registry, the works) and be able to install this
pristine installation in order of preference:
Quickly
From internal store (backup file or another partition) From the
laptop itself (rather than putting in a Linux CD or other)
i.e. one click restore

Creating a 100G partition on the C: to make a D: is acceptable since
that leave me with 300G free but other methods are OK if fast.

I only have USB2 ports, Ethernet connector, WIFI and the DVD for I/O.

Preferably using free backup/restore software.

No virtual Window is allowed.

The built in backup progam in win7 is pretty good. You can backup to DVD,
External HD (usb) or to a partition on your HD.
The latter is fine as long as you duplicate to somewhere else, a hd
failure doesn't care much about partitioning.
You always restore using a restore cd you create the first time you backup.

I keep win7 and program files on the c drive, all user data on d. The win7
backup is an image and you don't need to do this very often. One should
keep a current backup of the data partition. I use winmerge and an
external hd. HD's are so cheap these days I don't bother with compression,
just a file to file copy/update. Winnerge is freeware.

 

[BeeJ]

Thanks all.

What am I doing?

I need to get back to my "pristine" Win7 state sometime after I install
and run some new software. The additional software is not a single
install but multiple installs that will write many entries in the
registry. I am sure that uninstalling will not clean it all out so I
just want to do something as close to "one-click" to restore the
"pristine" state. Remember that the "prostine" state is NOT a Win7
pristine install but a Win7 install with a bunch of applications I am
installing that I then call my "pristine" state.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

Thanks all.

What am I doing?

I need to get back to my "pristine" Win7 state sometime after I install
and run some new software. The additional software is not a single
install but multiple installs that will write many entries in the
registry. I am sure that uninstalling will not clean it all out so I
just want to do something as close to "one-click" to restore the
"pristine" state. Remember that the "prostine" state is NOT a Win7
pristine install but a Win7 install with a bunch of applications I am
installing that I then call my "pristine" state.

Two options come to mend.

1. Do an image or clone backup before installing the software so you can
return to that image after.

2. Use one of the programs that will snapshot the registry before an
installation and take another snapshot afterwards. The difference
between the snapshots reflects the changes made by the installer.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

mend

mind

 

[Char Jackson]

Two options come to mind.

1. Do an image or clone backup before installing the software so you can
return to that image after.

2. Use one of the programs that will snapshot the registry before an
installation and take another snapshot afterwards. The difference
between the snapshots reflects the changes made by the installer.

+1

 

[Zaidy036]

I have a Laptop with Win7 Pro, 4GRam, DVD RW and 400GBytes free on the
C: drive with one partition. Win7 plus my apps uses about 80GBytes.

I am sure this has been discussed before but hoping for the benefit of
more experience from those who have done this more recently.

I need to keep my current Win7 setup, call it the pristine installation,
make a full backup (registry, the works) and be able to install this
pristine installation in order of preference:
Quickly
From internal store (backup file or another partition)
From the laptop itself (rather than putting in a Linux CD or other)
i.e. one click restore

Creating a 100G partition on the C: to make a D: is acceptable since
that leave me with 300G free but other methods are OK if fast.

I only have USB2 ports, Ethernet connector, WIFI and the DVD for I/O.

Preferably using free backup/restore software.

No virtual Window is allowed.

Look a the free ERUNT and NTREGOPT to save and reinstall the registry only:
http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/