I have a couple machines that are original installs of XP, from about 6 months after it came out. (All my other XPs are original installs too.) Both have had the HDs cloned to larger drives MANY TIMES, (which is the same as restoring a back-up, except to a different larger HD in the same machine). Even my one machine with WinME is an original install... (I never knew what all the fuss was about that one...)
Acronis True Image has worked flawlessly for me for years. Before that, Ghost ver5.x... I guess I live right, use good software + drivers, (not too much free or shareware) and they don't get beat up too bad... I do not remember EVER formatting to get rid of a problem. (Luck? or talent?...) Rick Glazier From: "Bino Gopal"
Yeah clean installs are such a pain that I have a IBM T42 laptop that I got in 2005 that REALLY needs a clean install...since it's running the same copy of WinXP as when I got it!
