Backing up fresh windows install

[Dermen]

I have read about people doing this before. Creating a fresh install with drivers and a few apps and everything and then backing it up. That way if they have to reinstall they can use the backup and everything will be just like before. The only question I have is how do you do it? Does anybody have a link to a guide or do I just need some software?

[Karbon]

Well, the 2 most popular apps AFAIK are norton ghost and acronis true image. I've used acronis true image, and it works well for me. it's pretty much straight forward, have your windows partition however you want, and just make an image of it (it's really simple).

[Redstone]

this thread should shed some light. I have a link at home to a "how to" use Ghost website that I will look for tonight.

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=384257

[nahmus]

Acronis works REALLY well. Lets you image the drive while windows is still running. It also lets you load the image you created as a drive and lets you pull files out of it without doing a full restore.

I have a default image for my main machine and one for my test. so much easier then installing everything again and again.