I would like backup my fresh windows xp restore with updates

[cm8647]

I have a older pc running windows xp. I have a bad habit of downloading and installing some off the wall programs and other stuff. Well sometimes I have got some bad bad things. In the passed I would have what I would need backed up to do a windows restore and do so and start fresh. This last time I did a restore, what a pain it was to get the updates installed. Im looking for a solution to this update thing, should i clone my windows dir or my c: drive to a drive and keep as backup?

What would be the best way to back up my current install so i can restore it if I need to.

I am using Norton but I dont trust there backup, I have had it identify and remove stuff I wanted.

I do have a few old internal hard around that I could install and dedicate to backup my install

 

[USAFRet]

CloneZilla, DriveImageXML, Easus. Any of those will do what you need.

 

[Hawkeye22]

Yes, after a clean install and driver updates, clone the OS drive and put the backup in a safe place. If the OS drive is partitioned, then you only need to clone the partition that contains the OS, even then, cloning the whole drive won't hurt as that will clone the boot partition too assuming it's on the same drive as the OS.

 

[lon0]

+1 for Easus as USAFRet said.

However not a direct answer to your question but for all the programs I test I use bufferzone, it puts it into a sandbox and if you find out its rubbish then you clear your sandbox and you're all good, it removes it all. This way you're keeping your OS clean, you can always move the program you want outside of the sandbox and run it as usual once you have made sure that it is clean.

It's free too, you can read about it and download it here:
http://www.trustware.com/BufferZone-Pro/