Give Windows a Clean Start - How To Reinstall Your OS the Right Way



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lol, now if only decrapifier would sift through all my gigs of porn that i rarely watch and save only the really good ones, that would be sweet! ROFL


he's pwning with a trackpad? oh really? oh reheheheeally?



what about all my porn?



Why is nLite completely ignored? It lets you slip-stream drivers, Service Packs and updates, and even programs to be installed by default. I think its a shame that nLite is ignored. Why put the service pack on a usb stick when with just a blank dvd you can upgrade you install disk to include any programs, drivers, and updates you want?



Page 2: final paragraph

"Now XP will make you wait another 10 or 15 minutes while it finishes. This stop and go can mostly be avoided by building an automated slipstream disc using nLite, but honestly, unless you install the OS a lot, it’s faster to just deal with the prompts."


As far as the USB key is concerned, since it is possible to install Vista from a USB key you'll end up saving a lot of time since most USB keys allow reads upwards of 25MB/s while DVD reads max out at about 22MB/s (slower towards the center of the disc). Those three megs per second end up yeilding about 5 minutes 30 seconds per gigabyte transferred. Especially since 64GB USB keys (that are far more versatile than DVD±R/DVD±RW/DVD±RAM) can be had for ~$100USD it's hard to beat. But you're right, nLite is awesome (as demonstrated by at least two how-tos); don't worry, it wasn't "completely ignored," just perhaps a little out of scope for this how-to.



I really want to do this and have been meaning to for some time. The article wasn't totally clear whether the hard drive was internal or external.  I want to know what you think is the better solution.  Option 1 - Should I get an external 1 TB hard drive, for disk imaging (weekly) and backups (every other day).  This external option would also be used for backing up tons of tv shows from my HTPC.  Option 2 - an internal hard drive of about 500 GB.  This might make sense cause it will match the size of internal hard drive on the computer I'm interested in backing up.

Anyone have an idea of which option is better?  Or what you are currently using.




Drive drawers are one of the most flexible ways to go and allow you to go internal or external. I started using drawers for my SCSI drives back in the day and still use an updated eSATA variation using Granite Digital's single bay external eSATA unit which is $70.00. Extra drawers allow you to add additional drives and are $20. The internal version mounts in a 5.25" drive bay and is $50.00 and uses the same drawers as the external. I've been dealing with Granite for more than 15yrs and they have yet to disappoint or waste my time.

This strategy makes it easy to secure your backup drive in a fire safe or move it offsite when you travel. Also, when you aren't using the external bay for backup you can use it for archiving other things. You mentioned TV shows. If your drive fills up you just add another.

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