Possible to Create XP Image to Copy During Reformat?

Hopefully that title wasn't too confusing but i'll break it down for you.

Ok here's the deal. Everyone knows that it can be a pain in the A it can be to reformat. You've got to reinstall windows, install all your programs, and customize all your settings. It's not like it happens very often, but when it does come time to reformat, it's be nice to make the process as short as possible.

So anyways, I'm wondering if there's a way to create an XP Pro image that can incorporate all the programs you want to install so you only have to install the XP Image, and you've got everything already installed. I doubt this is possible, but it would be pretty sweet. Maybe it's possible to just copy over the image you want to make onto the drive you want to used for your system drive?

Lemme know what you guys think.

Even an autorun cd with all your apps on it would be nice. Anyone been successful making one?

How complicated(advanced) do you want this to be?

nLite gives the ability to add slipstreamed programs into XP, but I'm pretty sure they have to be MSI apps - I've not gone that route with it.

Yes this is very easy to do . After your fresh install and every thing is setup how you want install Ghost make a image of your system and burn it to a dvd ( or a few if it is 2 big ) then when it is time to reformat all you have to do is load that iso image and you are all done .

you just mean norton ghost?

Yea

DriveImageXML (free) or Acronis True Image are better than the recent versions of Ghost from the reviews I've read.

I use true image on all my rigs and I used to use, still own ghost. Acronas works great for me. I back up a solid base image to DVD and with large image files I have backed up to a separate drive via USB. Always flawless. It even partially restores although I have yet to use that option.

i've had acronis sitting around and totally forgot about it. i'll check it out later tonight. thx guys. still down for other suggestions too so keep posting.

As said, driveimage xml and acronis are the best out there. I prefer driveimage myself... the only bummer with drive image is you can not reimage to a smaller partition.

I have True Image Acronis version 10. I made a 55 Gb image of my Sata drive to my back-up IDE hard drive. I use the clone feature and it works. I have made 4 reloads to my sata drive and none has failed. The best part is NO WIN XP ACTIVATION!