Clean Install of windows

Hi, I have had a laptop for about three years running mcafee. I want to do a clean install of windows XP (have the CD and all). I have backed up all my data files, so I am good so far. My questions are thus: 1) is there anyway I could save a clean version of the windows XP somewhere on the hard drive so in the event of some infection, i can always revert to the saved version of windows XP without having to save data files and reinstalling other applications, such as microsoft office, etc. 2) what combo do you recommend for antivirus, firewall? Money isn't an issue. I am currently using mcafee and it's a memory hogger. I want something that is effective (i am nuts about security) but wont hog the system. I was thinking kaspersky anti virus with comodo firewall? does anyone have a better idea?

Now is a great time to implement a good backup strategy that will protect you from a hardware or software failure in the future.

I'd recommend getting an external USB 2.0 drive enclosure, with fan and at least a 250GB hard drive (IDE). Then you can buy Acronis True Image or Norton Ghost or go the free route and use DriveImage XML.

If you go the DIXML route then you will want to also get and build Ultimate Boot CD For Windows (UBCD4WIN). It is a bootable CD that you create on your computer using your own copy of Windows XP. One of it's included tools is DIXML so in the event of a hard drive failure you just replace the drive, boot the UBCD4WIN CD and restore from your external USB drive.

Keep the backup current.

I use Acronis and keep two full backups and replace the oldest. I do this usually once every two months unless I've made some significant changes to my system in which case I do it immediately. I also have the Acronis Secure Zone setup and automatically backup just my boot drive every night at 9:30PM. I do a full backup on Sunday night then incremental backups the rest of the week. That way Acronis can manage the SecureZone space so I don't have to manually manage it.

Alternatively, buy a 2nd hard drive to install in your computer as a slave then back up to it instead of an external drive.

As for AV and Firewall, there lots of possibilities, but I'll recommend what i use:

Comodo Internet Security is a suite, like McAfee or Symantec but is not as much of a resource hog as they are. I run it on my Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop and like it very much. Make sure you pick the Free version.

On my HP 750c desktop, I run Avira Antivir for AV and Comodo Internet Security (only the firewall, not the AV, selectable during install) since the AV will not work on this system for some reason I've not been able to figure out yet.

I used to use AVG Free but it's become as resource heavy as McAfee and Symantec so I no longer use it.

Hi, Once you have reinstalled Windows, your applications and set up your email, internet and everthing is running fast and sweet with all updates installed, junk files removed and drives defragged, so that you have a "perfect system" then take a disc image using software such as Ghost, Drive Image, Paragon, Acronis or similar and keep the disc image in two places one in a hidden partition on your hard drive and the other on removable media….a USB external hard drive is useful for this;at the same time create a bootable CD using the wizards present in some of the above… Then in the event of serious trouble that cannot be resolved, in a timely or cost effective way by the usual methods then you can re-image your boot drive in less time than it takes to walk the dog…….. A useful refinement is to consider partitioning your hard drive so that (for example) your c drive contains all your Applications and WIndows itself with your data kept separate on a different partition. There are many different anti virus and firewalls that are good and for further details have a look at some of the resolved topics over in the malware removal forum, the final "all clear" and "clean up" posts from the malware experts often provides detailed information and links to download….. The important thing is to make sure that when at home or where you regularly operate from you are behind a hardware firewall such as are found in most gateway/routers/wireless access points and it's wise to also have a bi directional software firewall in place in addition to protect you when you may not be operating behind a hardware firewall. Your anti virus should be regularly updated (at least every day) and realtime protections for other malware, spyware etc is a good idea (but don't have two anti virus applications active and running in memory at the same time (conflict between them is likely) Lastly the most important thing for Internet safety is the operator and operator training to avoid dubious activity is vital…….its often the operator that can be the weakest linki in the chain…… Post back if you require further information Regards paws EDIT…I see that Rich has beaten me to it…again…I must try and learn to type a bit quicker!

Hello. I'm not technical so I cannot answer the first question but the second is easy I would suggest that for the firewall you use PC tools firewall just go on line and download it as for antivirus you can go to filehippo and get avg free. I can give you a link for that.
http://www.filehippo.com/
Good Luck.