Re-imaging - advice needed...

[jjd]

I plan on purchasing and renting a PC (desktop or laptop) to my tenants. Since I have no idea what they will be installing on it, or what junk they will be downloading I'm looking for a way to re-image the machine each time I get it back and before I rent it out to the next guy...

What's the best way to do this? Is there a software package that will allow me to make a clean image and store it on a network drive somewhere so I can quickly re-image and eradicate whatever was on there and get a fresh start?!

Or do I just purchase WinXP CDs full version and re-install windows each time?! I don't want to spend a lot of time on this though - efficiency is key here...

Ideally, I would wipe it clean and then re-image/re-install... Any suggestions?

Thanks,
James

[mairving]

Acronis or Ghost is what you need. An image is generally better because it not only installs Windows but all of the other stuff, Office, Acrobat Reader, Anti-virus, etc. The only thing that you will have to do after re-imaging is to install updates.