Clean Install Vista on Partition

I'm probably going to do a clean install of Vista in an attempt to get my webcam backing working (acer drivers don't work anymore) and I plan to partition the hard drive so that if this happens in the future. I do have a question though, if I install programs on the 2nd partition, what steps should I take to make sure they still work if I have to do another install of windows? I imagine the start menu needs to be backed up, but what about the registery and other info that the programs (anti virus, games, etc) may install into Vista?

Thanks.

 

Multiple partitions setups can be very useful when associated with a partition image kind of backup.
Install Vista on C:, customize it, install the programs on D: (I will also have at least one more partition for documents and data) and, once you've tweaked the system to your tastes, backup the C and D partitions.

If something happens to C and you want to "reformat", just copy back the image of your C drive. You won't have to reinstall, you won't have to reactivate (I guess), everything would work without reinstalling anything.

In case you absolutely have to reinstall Windows on C, you will have to reinstall the programs. Because during the installation of a complex application several things happens: the registry is modified, dlls are added, more crap is usually added to C, software components are registered, script may be written on the fly... This is the Microsoft way.

There is another possibility: if you reinstalled a new copy of windows on C: and your D: disk with programs is untouched, you could change the name of the folder into which you installed your program, install it in the same position as before and then delete the fresh install and restore the original folder. This will give you back all the customizations that were saved in the program's folder. But not those saved in the registry. Yet the program will function beacuse the registry has been correctly written by the latest install.

 

Great response, thanks. I hadn't thought of that. What program do you suggest for making the image? I'm not sure if Nero or Vista has that capability (at work at the moment so no way to check.)

 

Have a look at DriveImageXML
You will also have to create a bootcd to restore the C partition (you need a working environment to run the program). Instructions and tutorials, even in video, can be found on DIXML's website and on the wikipedia page.

Otherwise you might want to use linux: either a multiboot on the same PC (it will die in case of hard disk failure), or a linux liveCd from where to run linux partitioning and restoring utilities.
But a BartPE boot CD + DriveImageXML are fine.


PS
If you have a seagate drive you could also use the free (and limited) version of acronis Drive Image, downloadable from seagate's website.
This will create a bootable CD from where to run the program and reinstall the images. I've used this so far but I am going to move to DriveImageXML because it seems 'freer'.

 

Thanks, I'll look into DriveImageXML. I'm not that familiar with Linux so I'm going to stay away from that route and just backup important files to an external hard drive in case of a catastrophic hard drive crash.