Preservation of system settings

[Spartan]

I am about halfway through the new build and was wondering......when I am complete and have all of my devices installed, all of the software installed, all of the bios/drivers updated, and windows configured the way I want it then I will have a beautiful virgin PC just waiting to spoiled by my own carelessness and negligence.

Soooo.......is there a way to take a "snapshot" of it so that I can restore everything to that like new condition? Will system restore handle the driver/bios updates or is there a better way/program available?

-Spartan

[TwoRails]

System Restore is a great tool, but after use, the oldest restore point is trashed to make room for the newest. The best way is to make an image file using something like Ghost or Drive Image.

[Spartan]

Can you set a permenent restore point that you can always go to? Or do they always delete the oldest?

-Spartan

[TwoRails]

No way I've heard of. It would be nice if they included some sort of Restore Manager or the like to do just that.

[Panama Red]

Somewhere at MS Knowledge Base, I read something about Restore Points and how it works. Kind of a 90 day holding tank that runs on a FIFO basis. You can create points anytime you want to, but if the size of the restore points exceeds the reserved space or it's past the 90 day time slot, the oldest get dumped. Like TR says, Ghosting an image is the surest way to be able to return to "those thrilling days of yesteryear". Oops, that was a Lone Ranger flash back! I meant 'return to your original preferred setup'.

[bailey]

hey kemosoby:
mabe there is a way to back-up that one file (restore point) to a cd and replace it when needed.

but then a image of the drive would be best.