formatting hard drive but need to keep windows?

[eyeswithoutaface]

right i want to format the drive on this machine but i need to keep the current installation of windows, as i dont have the original disk that came with it anymore :(

i have brand new copies of Norton Save and Restore and Go Back to install, was just wondering if anyone here knew the best way i should go about all this as its a first for me, i can find my way around a studio but im buggered if i know how to format a disk drive haha

any help appreciated

[benzene]

My answer would be to

1/ take an image of your current installation, using Ghost or DriveImage XML (free, works well for me) or maybe the stuff you mentioned will do it.

2/ test the image!! by restoring it to an empty partition on your existing disk.

3/ Now you are sure the image is OK, format the partition windows was on, then restore it from the image you took in step 1

There's a bit more to doing this properly than I can mention here, might be worth reading through some online guides on how to backup / restore drive partitions via an image.

In fact it's a good idea to take regular images of your hard drive as backups, it's nice to go back to an ultra-clean install of windows and all your programs in one fell swoop.

I'm sure there was a post here a while back about this, splitting your disk up into partitions and backing them up. In a nutshell:

- Partition 1: Windows and music software
- Partition 2: Samples
- Partition 3: Other data

Then the idea is that you install everything on partition 1, image it, and restore to the clean image if/when the installation starts running like a dog. Also, you never need to reinstall the individual programs or enter licence keys again :)

*** Careful with restoring to disk images though, as you can seriously lose data! ***

[stjohn]

this is assuming that you have windoes on a partition already, i think

[eyeswithoutaface]

yeah i dont have partitions on here, ive never known how to do them and never wanted to start fiddling with this machine as it does the bulk of my audio work, but now i want to format it but keep the installation of windows like i said

seeming trickier than i thought :(

[eyeswithoutaface]

the thing is, i dont mind losing alot of the applications and software on here already, i just need to keep windows and a few things, so im not worried about losing data as everything i need off here for audio is either already at the mastering peeps or has already been sent for release/is released. I have another machine too for audio, i just want to use this one for the internet now and managing all my paperwork, and doing the odd beat or 2 on seeing how its still got a nice soundcard and stuff on it

[eyeswithoutaface]

sorry should of added, can i not just take an image of what i want to keep i.e windows then format, THEN create 2 partitions?