Restoring image on Windows XP

No.

I use PQDI Powerquest Drive Image Pro. Have Norton ghost, but it is too convoluted and not user friendly to the novice.

PQDI has a better compression ratio and everything goes as planned. Just ensure to setup the pc the way you want it, then use microsoft's sysprep to shut it down. Then make your images onto bootable cd's and there you go.

jschein,

Thank you for your response. We are using PQDI as well. A tech here stated that microsoft's sysprep does the same thing as PQDI so we didn't use it. Are you saying sysprep should be used along with PQDI?

Can you direct me to the installation instructions for sysprep?

Earlier versions of Norton Ghost will NOT work with XP NTFS partitions. They will seem to ghost OK but will not restore. You need Ghost 2003 or later.

I hae encountered similar problems with Drive Image - you need the latest version to handle XP NTFS partitions.

I also use PQDI. The only problems I have had with imaging XP stem from using OEM version of XP that came with the hardware. The OEM version is limited to being Sysprep-ed 3 times and then it will not reset the activation timer. This makes the OEM version useless for any business use with multiple images or if you want to "upgrade" your images down the road. To get around this, you must have a MS Volume License key.