Optimal partitioning for quick restore

Hello,

We all know that XP turns to crap after a year due to new programs, orphaned dll's and registry entries (etc etc). I'm just now doing a fresh format and wondering what you all think is the best way to partition a drive to allow for the quickest restore.

That is, I don't want to have to backup all the important bits on my drive every single time I want to reinstall XP. Is there some way to organize things so I can restore an image of the OS? I don't even really quite get how images work, I just read elsewhere that someone did this and had a fresh system in 10-15 minutes without having to back things up.

From what I understand I'd just have a C: with all the windows stuff and D: would have everything else? And then when I format I could just format the C: and reinstall there again? Wouldn't that cause problems with programs (ie, /Program Files) that were installed on the D:?

Or would it be a matter of setting up my system on the C:, programs included, somehow saving that entire drive to an image file, and then just restoring from that? Is that possible? I'm not quite sure what that entails.

Could anyone enlighten?

Thank you

 

This little tool will do that for you
http://www.majorgeeks.com/CPM_Cute_Partition_Manager_d5369.html
Usually one extra drive is used for docunments- if you go to start, run, and type in sendto, you can send items from the C: partition to the D: partition, by adding a shortcut there.Once you get to grips with it, its quite easy. You can also direct downloads to the D: partition, save documents , exe programs etc: It is best to keep installed programs on the C: partition - save everything to the D: partition.
There are several clone tools available at majorgeeks downloads, most are free.
http://majorgeeks.com/downloads8.html

I use Hyperos 2007VE, but its not free - one click is very good.
http://www.hyperossystems.co.uk/
With hyperos I can drag a copy of the whole partition, and have 4gb or more of everything, on a partition backed up in minutes, and format and reinstall everything from a cloned backup in minutes- 2007VE even clones Vista .