Backup image for windows XP? Reapply automatically?

[karling07]

Hey everyone, I have a computer at my house that my whole family uses, and unfortunately no matter what i do, they manage to somehow put some viruses and spyware on it.

I'm back from college right now, and I just had to redo everything for the 3rd time (reinstall windows, office, AIM, firefox, skype, transfer all music and documents again...)

Is there any way to just have a backup image of my current windows (a fresh install with all of these programs already installed + the documents) so that whenever something goes wrong, i can just run the image and it will redo everything according to the backup image, and leave the documents alone (since there are no viruses in there), so they dont have to be copied/transferred again?

Thanks!

 

[blackjack]

GO and get NORTON GHOST OR ACRONIS TRUE IMAGE, I personally use ghost and it will do just that, then put the image onto a disc or partition

 

[drumthrasher]

http://www.nliteos.com/

I think thats what you should use.

That puts the install files from programs with the XP/Vista install so it does it automatically...but an image should be nice also.

 

[dude_se]

...or put all documents on another partition. as for programs you might have to re install them (some cause problems if you dony). or just use ghost