My gf bought a pc with oem vista home pre-installed, but no cd were given. If i need to re-format the pc, surely We'd need a cd like how we do it with XP rite? How do i go about making one, since the reseller insisted that they dont have the cd and tells us to make one ourselves.

pls check the manual...

the whole DVD image is probably in the hard disk itself...

some brands let u burn the image, while others need u to press a certain button on keyboard guring boot up to recover...

talking abt saving costs... lol

I think it's better off using Acronis to create image. And the image will consist of the OS plus whatever software you are using.

which brand is ur pc? for my toshiba laptop i had an option to burn the image stored in harddisk to a dvd, check if any such option is there? also if u press a button while startin it will automatically install the vista from the hard disk image, check ur manual bro....

Yep... Acronis TrueImage Home or Norton Ghost are able to backup your entire PC (or C drive if you insist). I prefer Acronis nowadays.

You could backup your C drive to be one big image file and use Acronis Boot CD (provided or you can make one from the software itself) to restore it later. You may store the image in DVD or external hard disk or even other partition.

Then, you can format C and install WinXP if you like.

Said, you would like to use the original xp which come from the manufacturer, simply put the Acronis boot CD, and restore the backup image you made before.

I use this method to avoid wasting so much time reinstalling OS, drivers, application, update etc.

This post has been edited by expertester: Nov 28 2008, 01:31 AM