http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_cloningWinston wrote:What does it mean to image your drive? Vista hasn't given me any problems before, until now with this virus attack or whatever. But the viruses seem to have stopped after disabling system restore.
Is deleting system restore points the same thing as deleting system restore files and folders?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_di ... g_software
1. Reformat and build a CLEAN windows install
2. Install only the critical applications and updates you need
3. Create a disk image of your HDD and store it on CDROM, DVDROM, USB memory stick, external HDD, etc.
Whenever you need to reload the OS, just load the disk image. This is what we do in corporate environment. There's only 6-8 hours in a work day and we cannot waste time cleaning viruses. If your computer has a problem, we'd simply re-image your hard disk in under 1 hour and off you go. If that doesn't fix the problem we'd just give the user a replacement workstation and junk the old one (usually out of warranty by then).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_Restore
Yes, deleting system restore points is same as deleting system restore backup files. Instead of system restore, try VMWare instead. Use virtual machine sessions for your online work, then exit the VM without saving session changes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware
==========================================
If you're having trouble getting things done, you shouldn't be wasting time trying to fix PC problems. Get into a habit of wiping your hard drive once a year and only reinstall what you use. Same with old cloths in the closet. Having a 500 GB HDD in your laptop doesn't mean filling your C drive with 450 GBs of crap. The less you install to a boot drive or boot partition, the better.