Software Restore

[setme31]

Has anyone created a restore disk of all of the major software on their machine. Everytime I format my hard drive, it seems to take me forever to install all of the software. Plus, I often forget to load some of the software.

I was thinking about burning a disk with all of my software on it. Then I would write some sort of script that would install the software (one after another). I would still have to sit there and answer all of the questions, but this way I wouldn't forget to install anything.

[doctorgonzo]

Use Norton Ghost. It can make an image of your system (OS, apps, and data) which you can use later to restore everything to a pristine state. Nobody who seriously uses PCs should be without it, IMO.

[Tuf]

I ghost the drives on my important machines once a month. I back up every file I create once a week and email everyday. My finished is always on at least two different drives at anytime and they both get backed up.

It only took me once to learn what you can lose if a drive fails and you don't have everything backed up. I can recover from anything now in thirty minutes or less. The most possible damage I be hit with is what I've done since the last save, about 15 minutes worst case scenario.

[setme31]

What happens if you get hit with a virus, and you aren't aware of it? Then when you ghost your hard drive, you are backing up your virus too.

I backup my data weekly, so I'm not worried about data loss. I just wanted a quick way of installing all of my programs.

One of the main reasons I format my hard drive is to get rid of clutter. That would be worthless if I ghosted the drive, formatted the hdd, and loaded everything back on.

[doctorgonzo]

If you want to remove clutter, here's what I would do:

Format the drive
Install the OS
Install the programs you want
Immediately ghost the drive

At that point, your setup will be as uncluttered as it can get. If you ever want to get back to that uncluttered state, you can simply use that image. In addition, because you are Ghosting a clean system before you do anything else with it, you will not be backing up any virii. If you do get infected, you can again use that image to get back to your pristine base system state.

That would be the quickest way of installing your programs after a format. After you do it the hard way once, you will have a ghosted image that you can simply use in the future. It would be no different in its effect than some script.

[Tuf]

That's true if you had a virus you would be backing it up also. For me that risk is minor enough compared to what I stand to lose if I don't back up it's a risk I'll take anyday.

Besides my work machines aren't connect to anything they aren't likely to get a virus. They have no internet access or email on them. Files are never shared directly off of them with anyone. Anything I share is on my file server. After the OS and applications are installed it is rare for them to see an executable file. I don't even unzip on them. Everything I work on that comes from somewhere else is scanned first.