Creating a backup image of XPS M1530

Hi,

I have an XPS M1530 for 6 months now, and its getting slow now. Time for reinstalling Vista.

What I want to do now is do a clean reinstall and create a backup image on my NAS drive that I can just put back on my XPS if it messes up.

I read that this might be possible with Acronis Image software.
I also read that, because of the Dell Mediadirect and/or recovery partitions it might not be possible.

Which is true? Is it possible and how?

Thanks for your help.

 

hmm I never faced any issue with them mate just the select the correct partition while imaging

 

I thought I had done that with Acronis (which I really like, btw/fwiw), but when I went to use the recovery partition on the disk I'd created the image on, the whole thing went south. The result is that without intending to I wound up doing a clean install and I skipped MediaDirect.

 

Ive got acronis i think you can back up all partions.

 

I have done that on my M1330 using both Acronis and Ghost, it works with both but I like Ghost more. Still have to use the Media Direct DVD to create the partitions, then use the recovery software to re-image the drive (assuming that you have saved the image on external HD).

 

I use Acronis, create and image store it away, creat bootable Cd store it away.

Boot from cd, point at image file and off you go, 45 mins and I'm back to day one with fresh install etc

 

Sounds like the right solution...will try this. Thanks!