Drive Image--OT

[Harry Binswanger hb@xxxxxxxx]

Re backing up: I may have misinterpreted something Robert said a few weeks ago:

> Another thing: if you think that, by thoroughly backing up your data to an
> image or to another machine, you'll be able to reinstall a Windows operating
> system on a replacement drive or another machine, think again. It won't work

What about using the drive image of the drive in my laptop (C:) to restore
itself? That is, if I make a drive image on an external (different)
firewire drive, then totally re-format C:, boot from the factory CD, can I
(somehow) copy the old image back onto C: and be ready to go? I think there
are two issues here: 1) can I read the external firewire drive from what is
on the factory CD functioning as a boot disk, 2) if so, will I be able to
put everything back from the image to C: in a way that restores C: to the
state it was in when I made the image? The external drive is physically
different from the laptop drive.
 
Bottom line: is there any point at all in making a drive image on an
external, firewire drive, rather than just backing up data files onto it?
 
Thanks.

Harry Binswanger
hb@xxxxxxxx