Nieuwsbrief

Imaging for Upgrade Hassile Protection

I want to install an upgrade to my system. But how do I get things back if it doesn't work?

This is not just a problem for major upgrades; it can occur if you upgrade your video driver, add new hardware or software, or even use Microsoft's own Windows Update utility.

When Microsoft released the Service Pack 2 (SP2) upgrade for Windows XP it broke a lot of applications. Many software upgrades, especially operating system patches, can cause things to quit working unexpectedly. A lot of the time you just want to put things back the way they were, at least temporarily, so you can continue working.

The easy way to protect yourself against upgrade or installation problems is to prepare before you make the installation. First, you should have up-to-date rescue disks so you can boot the computer no matter what happens. Your operating system's help file will give you instructions on preparing these emergency floppies or CDs.

The second step is to make an image of your drive. This gives a quick, reliable method of restoring your system to its pre-upgrade condition with a minimum of effort on your part. In the case of an operating system upgrade, at the very, least you want to make an image of your root partition (usually drive C:) and any other partitions that contain parts of the operating system. In the case of an application upgrade, make an image of the partition that contains the application and your root partition. Remember, most applications will change the registry file, one of Windows most critical files, and most dangerous to edit if you don't know what you're doing. It's best to have an image of this partition so that any changes that break your system can be repaired in minutes.