Whats the best way to restore a system?

[Karl The Gimp]

Whats the best way to restore a system? My friends PC went wrong the other day, the registry was screwed, he managed to salvage his files ok, but windows wouldnt reconise any programs so he said he was going save his files to his external HDD and then format his C: drive and reinstall everything from scratch. As you all know this takes ages, surely there is a faster and easier way around this?
What programs are good for creating a restore disc/file/image to restore windows XP Pro? Is the built in program the Ntbackup.exe any good?
Would having 2 HDD in Raid 1 be any good?

[Blastuk]

preparation is the key here, just install windows again from cd then before you do anything.. image the drive with something like acronis then save that image on a different drive or an external drive.. keep it safe. next time you wanna format just restore that image in about 5 mins and you've got a fresh install.

there are other programs available which cost nothing that will do a similar job which i'm sure someone will mention.
i have acronis to do weekly backups of my windows drive so i can revert back to a working state if something happens, it keeps about 4-5 weeks worth of changes the overwrites the older ones.

raid 1 wouldn't help, as the name implies; it just mirrors. it won't help if something bad gets written to the drive, for example a virus, as both drives will now be affected.

[CaptainCrash]

Acronis True Image is probably the best app for this - loads of options and very easy to use (not free though).

If you just want a single, restorable image of a system partition, check out the free version of Macrium Reflect - it doesn't have many of Acronis's useful features, such as incremental backups, but it's also simple to use and will probably do what you want.

[smargh]

I use Casper (http://www.fssdev.com/products/casper/) to clone to an external hard drive and then keep it in a safe place. If the main HDD dies, then I just whip out the clone and off we go.

[vinnyT]

DriveImage XML V2.02 will do the job, and for non-commercial use, it's free. It's not quite as user friendly as Acronis, but it does the job.

http://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm

[speardane]

I like and use Acronis, I'd echo the comment that preparation is the key.

I find that typically with Windows the underlying problem is installing an app or an upgrade that causes a problem. And often it isn't the last one but an earlier one. So from time to time a complete reinstall is the only option...

my comment about preparation and planning is twofold
a) separate the programs and data (my documents) onto two different partitions
- and backup data seprately from programs and more frequently
b) get a baseline build of your preferred install - mine might be Windows + Office + Zonealarm and then image this!
- I recommend meaningful names - unless your memory is better than mine!
- take additional images after new installs
- don't rely on Windows system restore
- be prepared to go back more than one image

[watercooled]

I'd recommend Paragon Drive Backup Express. It's free from here http://www.paragon-software.com/home/db-express/
It's also easy to use.