I want to reformat my system, but want to keep files?!

Okay I have tons of pictures, schools papers, etc. on my computer, and I want to keep the files, but reformat my system aka get it back to factory condition.

What are my best options? Anything goes, except I dont have an external harddrive which Is what i would like to do. I do have dvds, and cds, and 4gb flash drive, and 4gb and 1gb sd cards...

Maybe partition my hardrive or something...

I don't know I'm asking the experts!

so tell me what I should do. Please and thank you!

Backup the data with vista backup utility (check all boxes) to dvd's, then re-format to factory image. The backup intially will be around 20GB or so.

If you are planning to restore from a factory disk/recovery partition image you cannot make the drive volume smaller than what it was initially. (i.e., partitioning it will make it smaller, and most likely the re-imaging will fail, or it will simply recreate the partitions and overwrite your data).

rive0108 said:

Backup the data with vista backup utility (check all boxes) to dvd's, then re-format to factory image. The backup intially will be around 20GB or so.

If you are planning to restore from a factory disk image you cannot make the drive volume smaller than what it was initially. (i.e., partitioning it will make it smaller, and most likely the re-imaging will fail, or it will simply recreate the partitions and overwrite your data).

Click to expand...

if i do this it wont have anything i have installed on it will it?

adeang said:

rive0108 said:

Backup the data with vista backup utility (check all boxes) to dvd's, then re-format to factory image. The backup intially will be around 20GB or so.

If you are planning to restore from a factory disk image you cannot make the drive volume smaller than what it was initially. (i.e., partitioning it will make it smaller, and most likely the re-imaging will fail, or it will simply recreate the partitions and overwrite your data).

Click to expand...

if i do this it wont have anything i have installed on it will it?

Click to expand...

All programs/updates will need to be installed that werent part of the original image.

rive0108 said:

adeang said:

rive0108 said:

Backup the data with vista backup utility (check all boxes) to dvd's, then re-format to factory image. The backup intially will be around 20GB or so.

If you are planning to restore from a factory disk image you cannot make the drive volume smaller than what it was initially. (i.e., partitioning it will make it smaller, and most likely the re-imaging will fail, or it will simply recreate the partitions and overwrite your data).

Click to expand...

if i do this it wont have anything i have installed on it will it?

Click to expand...

All programs/updates will need to be installed that werent part of the original image.

Click to expand...

so this is how I see it...
It basically copies everything to dvd, and then when I insert the discs later I can just choose the files off the disc i want right, because basically i want to back up everything, but really want to go through it later.

adeang said:

rive0108 said:

adeang said:

if i do this it wont have anything i have installed on it will it?

Click to expand...

All programs/updates will need to be installed that werent part of the original image.

Click to expand...

so this is how I see it...
It basically copies everything to dvd, and then when I insert the discs later I can just choose the files off the disc i want right, because basically i want to back up everything, but really want to go through it later.

Click to expand...

It will only backup your User data (files/folders/videos/music/pictures/emails, etc), It will not backup Programs, or Windows. It can all be restored at one time, or as individual files/folders, documents, etc. (be sure to number the disks, as the last one will contain the file/backup data info, and this disk upon a restore should be the first one you put in the drive).