go to settings and note the game install directory. you can just backup that folder whenever you want to reformat your pc and Origin will automatically detect the game is installed when you install origin in the same directory again. I also do this with steam but for steam i need to install the client, exit, copy back backup and run steam again. If i reinstall steam to the same folder with the backup already there it will delete it for some reason, something that origin won't do thankfully.

Also Origin has sales but mostly region specific. I got NFS Shift II for 5 euro 2 weeks ago

Actually what STEAM is doing is the same as you copying the whole folder and pasting it back, so "proper" is not really an apt way to describe it. And usually I don't even have to do copy and paste with Origin as I always install the game in a seperate disk, and just redirect Origin there whenever I reinstall Windows. Can't do that with Steam since it will delete all the files inside there.

This post has been edited by DrBlueBox: Feb 21 2012, 01:47 AM

The only way to get a full clean installation is to redownload the whole game and reinstall again without using the backup you make. Whatever it is, the backup is still the files that are originally in your computer, although the only stuffs that get "dirty" are your config files, which usually are situated elsewhere like in My Documents or Users folder. Unless you manage to muck up the installations with addons or mods, but IIRC whenever STEAM backups your file it will retain whatever you have changed (my so called STEAM "backup" of my F1 2010 folder still has a file that I modded) thus it's kinda moot

And yes, in computer term, backup and restore is copying your original file to another location and repasting it back when you need it, wether or not you are encrypting/compressing/splitting. Altho what I am doing is just telling Steam and Origin that "hey, I already have those files in my PC, just use them". Considering that STEAM is nearing 200GB and Origin is nearly 40GB I hardly want to install them in the same HDD as my Windows (a puny 60GB). But the fact still remains that you can still backup Origin, which is the point of my earlier post.

This post has been edited by DrBlueBox: Feb 21 2012, 02:34 AM