Revert Windows XP to "fresh install"?

[nomoney]

My neighbor has a kid who always messes up there computer installing random things. I have seem to become their IT guy (yay). So anyway, I just reinstalled XP Pro with all of the updates (inc SP2), AVG, and some spyware removal tools. I gave one of their kids who knows a little about comps and doesnt mess them up an admin account and everyone else limited access.

Now the question. Are there any free (so not Ghost) and easy tools to create a partition on their HD that is a clone of what is on their now and just revert to it when it gets messed up again (which it will)? Obviously the goal is to not have to reinstall everything again so any other suggestions are welcome.

[Fas-ligand]

FDISK is a free partitioning program in DOS, although I've never used it in Windows XP.

The hard drive that is in the computer probably has free software that can do that. I know that Maxtor and Western Digital both have that software. If you're picky and want to use the program that came with the drive, those can be downloaded from their respective web sites for free, however I personally like Maxtors MaxBlast. I have used it on many different hard drive brands and it works fine.

Here's a link to MaxBlast (http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/maxtor/?epi_menuItemID=3c67e325e0a6b1f6294198b091346068&epi_menuID=976d37cd478c5826433f226075b46068&epi_baseMenuID=976d37cd478c5826433f226075b46068&channelpath=/en_us/Support/Software%20Downloads/ATA%20Hard%20Drives&downloadID=57)

[nomoney]

Ya, but after I repartition, I want to be able to copy everything onto the new partition so that when XP needs a reinstall, I can just "restore" the previous version. FDISK creates the partition but doesnt take care of the backup. I would actually prefer to do this "backup" onto a set of bootable CD's. Ideas?

[DarkFury]

My qestion is... why the apprehension to Ghost? You actually can find deals where you could get it for FREE after rebate... so is money the issue here? (Probably is considering your screen name is "No Money" :eek: )

Besides, if you have a CD burner, you can create a "restore disk" with all the startup files included so that they just pop in the disk, follow the prompts and have restore capability that way...

But I guess some folks like re-inventing the wheel... :shrug:

BTW... FDisk doesn't work on Windows XP, so I don't think that is going to be an option.

Why not just create a "restore point" using your Windows System tools and then go back to that point in time if your system gets FUBARed... Honestly, if something was out there for free that worked better than Ghost, then we'd all be on it. :D

[zippyjuan]

Frys/Outpost.com still has the Norton SystemWorks Pro which includes antivirus (but not firewall) and Ghost for $9.99 after rebates.