Well, well, well. You did a reinstall before, and you need to do it again, and what is better is you have an image of a clean system. How lucky! (If you don't have an image, go back to "Doing a Reinstall of a Computer".

Ok then. All we have to do is restore an image...this will be fast. A few things to note:

• In the step-by-step, I will mention OS. That is your operating system or OS,which would be Windows XP or whatever you might be running.
• I will occasionally mention to go to step 3C or what ever. The 3 would be what is in the bold, and the C is step that is under it. It's basically like a folder hierarchy.

Well, let the fun begin.

WARNING: READ EVERY THING! Make sure you know step by step what is going on.

Step 1. Grab What You Need

1. You will need quite a few physical things first:
1. Reinstall Disks
1. In this case, you want to get the Bart's PE disk you made...or you can make a new one.
2. You need the image files. Find what ever you put that onto and get it ready to go.
1. YOUR IMAGE FILE MUST BE ON A SECOND HARDDRIVE or cd/dvd if you have 2 cd/dvd drives,
2. Product key
1. YOU DON'T NEED ONE! YAY!
3. Backup Media
   1. You need some way of backing up the data on your computer. There are 4 big ways to do this:
      1. CDs/DVDs. Remember that they have a fixed size of 700MB or about 4 GB respectively, unless you have duel layer DVD, which would be about 8.5. The are cheap and last for a long time, you can make copies and store them somewhere else, and they fail. They did that to me once I was angry. Still have yet to recover my notes for Speech class.
      2. External Hard drives. At 60 dollars for a 80GB, you cannot go wrong with an external hard drive. You can save multiple copies of a backup on one drive and use it later. DO NOT just go for the cheapest thing... be willing to spend a little for a good drive. I would recommend a hard drive from Western Digital or Seagate. I have both and they are the best.
      3. Internal Hard drive. If you add a second (or third) hard drive to your computer, it will not get wiped when you do a reinstall. What I do on my system is keep the OS and all programs on the hard drive the system came with. Then I got a second, larger drive that I put my music and video on to. Remember: If you music and stuff is on the primary drive, it gets wiped on a reinstall, so you have to back that up too; for me, that's 180+ GBs of music, video, and pictures.
      4. Remote Storage. This is only feasible if you have a high speed connection. For somewhere about a penny a MB, you can store your data on a server online. Just remember that you have to upload all of it and upload is slow.
   2. You also need a way to back up your data. Windows has a backup program called "Backup". Windows XP also has another program called "Files and Settings Transfer Wizard". If either of those doesn't float your boat, there are a few online. You can also just Copy and Paste your files.
   3. Once you have storage for the backup and a way to do it, test them out...play with them so you know exactly how to use them.
4. Applications
   1. Find of the CDs that have applications that you can't live without...Office, the disk that has the install data so you can go online, etc.
   2. If there are any programs online that you have, get those now and put them somewhere, like your backup media.
   3. Get your programs like a Firewall, Anti-virus, and anti-Spy ware downloaded now so that you don't have to go online and get them insecurely.

Step 2. The Backup

1. This is the most important part...this is what can make or break a reinstall. The question is: what to back up?
   1. Personal Files
      1. If you still have it, load the selections and preform the backup, then go to step 2A2. You might want to verify your selection though.
      2. On Windows XP, there is a folder on C: that is called "Documents and Settings". You want to get that and everything under it, with a few exceptions. Here are the basic rules. You will want to go thru for each actual user, including All Users, but not Default.
         1. Do back up the "Documents" folder
         2. Do back up the "Desktop" folder
         3. Do back up the "Applications Data" folder and the "Local settings\Applications Data"
         4. Do not backup the "Start Menu" folder
         5. Do not backup any temp or temporary folders.
         6. Do backup any folder you created.
         7. Backup everything else you think you might need.
      3. On older OSs like Windows 98, you want to get "C:\My Documents" and "C:\WINDOWS\Desktop"
      4. Also go thru each of your folders in "C:\Program files" and find any files that you might want to keep for your programs later.
         1. For example, with my "Sim City" game, you will want to get the cities that I created, like Waukee, but I do not want to get the templates or the actual program.
      5. Click here to see what I would backup using Microsoft's Backup program.
      6. Most backup programs allow you to save your selection. I would recommend you do that so that you don't have to go thru every folder next time. Save the selections file into the same location as the actual backup.
   2. Drivers
      1. This is not required, but I do back up my drivers so that when I plug my hardware back in, I can use the drivers.
      2. The folders you want to back up are in the C:\Windows\system32\drivers and C:\Windows\inf
         1. You will only use this folder to restore drivers from, do not replace your new drivers folder with this one. There are many problems that could occur, including a little file that will open your computer to more viruses.
   3. Save your backup to which ever media you want to use.
      1. If you save to a CD, actually use a burner to do it. I never trusted Windows' built in burner, and Packet writing just does not do the trick.
      2. If you go for a hard drive to save the file, do not save it to the C: drive. Actually,unplug whatever drive you save your backup to.
   4. Verify your data. Microsoft's backup program can be set to auto verify your data. One of the best ways to verify is to restore all your data to a different location, then compare the results
      1. If you restore to a different location, I would recommend you use the Command Promote (DOS) and run Comp.

   Step 3. The Format and Install

   1. Yes,it's nuking time. For this part forward, please print this out or display it on a different computer. You might also want to get the pictures that follow or at least write down the jest of the images.
   2. Take Bart's PE disk and put it in your primary CD/DVD drive. When you got your computer and it only had one, use that one. Otherwise,use the drive that is first listed on my computer. This is usually D: or maybe F:. If all else fails, use trial and error.
   3. Reboot your computer.
      1. Have the CD in the primary drive when it reboots. If it does not boot to the disk, try the next drive. If you get it to work, go onto step 3D, otherwise, go to the next step.
      2. You might have to go into BIOS and set your computer to boot of the CD/DVD drive. To get into BIOS, you will need to hold down a key on your keyboard when your computer boots. It is usually the CTRL key,F2, F12, ESC, or the Delete key...again, more trial and error.
      3. Once you get into BIOS, it will be grey and blue. It should look a little like this. Navigate to the Boot Order menu. Arrange the list so that CD is first on the list. That should look something like this. Remember that all BIOS are different so it does take some work to find.
      4. Save your settings and go back to step 3C.
   4. Start the formatting
   1. After Bart PE comes completely up, Click on start, and find the Dixml. Run it and use it to restore your image off your second drive
   5. Wait for it to complete
   1. This usually takes about 30 minutes for me
   6. Ending the reinstall
   1. When it is done copying the data back, reboot your computer.
   2. Keep your image in case you need it again.

   Step 4. Welcome Back

   1. Umm...Nope, you are back to how your system was when you made the image.

   Step 5. The Backup (Encore)

   1. You already did this step.

   Step 6. The Final Restore

   1. Itis time to find your personal files and restore them. Each program is different, so I will not walk thru that.
      1. If you backed up by coping and pasting, do the same to get it back.
      2. If you use Microsoft Backup, when it asks to confirm the restore, click on advanced, and uncheck restore security. That way, you can skip to Step 6.
   2. If your files have security permissions, you will need to fix the permissions. This is a little hard to do but we willdo what we can. You will know youneed to do this if you cannot access your files.
      1. Reboot to safe mode. This means, that when the computer starts coming up, but before the Windows screen comes up, hold down the F8 key. It is a little tricky so you mighthave to do it a few times.
      2. Open your account and when a box comes up asking if you want to work in safe mode, click yes.
      3. Find the folder you are having trouble with, right click, properties, and click security.
      4. Click advanced, then select your name and check "inherit from parent..." this usually does the trick
         1. If you are not on the list, click on "Add", "Advanced", "Find Now", Select your name (or everyone),click OK, OK, Check the box "Full control" under the allow column,then OK the rest of the way out.
         2. If that does not work, you have something wrong that is harder to fix than what I can explain, sorry.
   3. Reboot and you are done. Now you can finish installing your files.

   Step 7. Prepare for the Worse

   1. Done and Done

   Step 8. The End Credits

   1. WOW! That was fast! Well, now we are done, so I want to thank a few people/companies that contributed ideas to this how-to
   1. First I would like to thank all the Spyware, virus, and evil hackers who make it nessesary to reinstall your OS every other day!
   2. To Microsoft, who gave us an OS.
   3. To runtime.org and to Bart of www.nu2.nu, who just proved that our lives can be easier.
   4. To hard drive makers, who allow us to save our files for later.
   5. And to my cousin, who needs to reinstall her system, and needs to know how I do it.
   
   From the guy with his eye on the sky: Travis