Backup question

I want to do a clean intall and I don't have the anytime upgrade cd, but I do have an old xp pro cd so I figured I'd just install that for now. I got my t61 with vista business 64 and I'd like to be able to put it back on later, once I can do a clean install. So I guess my question is, how do I do this? Do I just burn the partition that has the OS and factory settings onto a DVD, and then later when I want to reinstall it I use that? Thanks

 

Vista business has Complete PC Backup which will make an image of your disk including the hidden partition. (Make sure you turn the Turbo memory off for this.) You can run the backup from the backup and Restore Center onto Dual Layered DVs. The image of your system will be well kept until you need them.

 

There might be more than one way to do this... but the way I would do it is:

1. use ABR to back-up the activation files on Vista (and save for future use)
2. Install Windows XP Pro
3. When you are ready to re-install Vista follow my guide and use ABR to restore activation.

 

I think the only way you can do it that way is if you are dual booting. If he gets rid of Vista all together and goes with XP, Complete PC will only restore to a system that already has Vista installed.

 

I have installed Vista first, and then installed XP for dual booting. I used Boot manager to edit the bcd booting system.

Btw about two weeks ago, my lenovo 3000 downloaded two Microsoft updates and upon rebooting, the system was suddebly deactivated late on a friday night. Lenovo support said I would have to wait until Monday and call MS to have the system reactivated.

Instead, I ran my latest backup from complete PC backup and was up in the hour it took to do the restore and the system was activated. So Complete PC back will maintain the activation state and fully recover the system. Since I keep my data on other partitions, not one byte was lost.

 

No argument from me. I'm a big fan of Complete PC. I have made use of it many times. The only point I was trying to make was to the OP. He wants XP for now. If he wants to run XP exclusively then my method will work and Complete PC will not because Complete PC will only work on a system that has Vista. (You have Vista because you dual boot)

However, if he wants to dual boot then he doesn't even need to back up. He just needs a separate partition for XP.

BTW, I have never turned off Turbo Memory prior to backing-up or restoring from Complete PC. Do you have a source for that information?

 

"BTW, I have never turned off Turbo Memory prior to backing-up or restoring from Complete PC. Do you have a source for that information?"

Personal experience. I have a brand new t61p that i was backing up using complete PC. I could not start a backup to save my life and was getting the strangest error mesage. it was something like, "Backup not started because all information on the system is not available." I looked all over the net for the message and found people who were having the problem but it was never answered.

I didn't know what the message was telling me until I realized that it may be seeing the Turbo-memory, so I turned it off with it's wizard and rebooted and it ran absolutely fine after I turn the turbo memory off. That's the only thing i changed.