Cool Tool. The Coolest Tool :D

For almost two years I've been using something that you may find extremely useful... but I forgot to tell you about it. Here it is:
the PING (Partimage Is Not Ghost).

If you use a Windows operating system, I bet you know what a waste of time reinstalling your Windows is. So here's the sollution: make an ISO partition image of your windows' installation partition by using the PING.

How?

1. an ISO containing the PING software from here.

2. Burn the ISO that you just downloaded to a CD or DVD .

3. Go to bios and set your computer to boot from CD/DVD.

4. Insert the the CD/DVD containing PING. If you don't have a second partition on which to make the backup on your HDD then connect an external HDD to a USB port. Restart system.

5. The computer boots from the CD/DVD and you wait until you're asked to type "enter" or "x". Type "enter" and then hit Enter.

6. From this point further the user interface will guide you.

You may also check the PING documentation. You'll find it on the page with the download link for the software.

The result: you'll have an ISO image of your actual backed-up partition. Whenever something goes terribly wrong, you'll be able to put in your PING CD/DVD, boot from it and restore the entire partition.

I have a Windows XP Professional and together with all the installed programs that I need it's 12GB. I recover all this in half an hour. Otherwise it would take more than one and a half days.

grass, step, ground, sand, drops, water, wind, ...

eyes cracked... for a dual boot configuration

7 hours of tests and quests. If you ever want to make a dual boot configuration avoid doing what I did as much as possible... that is installing Windows XP after Windows Vista was installed. It might be better to install first the XP and Vista after. I didn't try that.
After I installed XP my computer couldn't boot Vista anymore. After I got Vista back to life the XP was dead.
Anyway if you ever do my mistake(which wasn't realy a mistake because I bought my laptop with Vista... but now I want to be able to use an application that requires XP) here is a solution:
Open a command prompt and write these commands there (but before you write them put your Vista DVD in):
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E:\boot\Bootsect.exe /NT60 All <--- E is the DVD drive from my laptop, you should replace it with yours if it ain't the same

C:\Windows\system32\Bcdedit /create {ntldr} /d "WINDOWS XP" <--- C is the drive where my Vista was installed. Replace it with yours. You can write whatever you want instead of WINDOWS XP

C:\Windows\system32\Bcdedit /set {ntldr} device partition=D: <------D is the drive where my Windows XP was installed. Replace it with yours.

C:\Windows\system32\Bcdedit /set {ntldr} path \ntldr
C:\Windows\system32\Bcdedit /displayorder {ntldr} /addlast
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Now, the source where I found this solution said that it shoul work after this. If both OS work then you don't have to read further. In my case one didn't work. I don't know what happened. When I restarted the computer I was able to chose and load Vista. I restarted again to check on XP. I chose an"earlier version of windows" and got an error concearning NTLDR . It said that the file was missing or corrupt, and I couldn't load XP anymore. Later I found the solution to this:
In Windows Vista run the command prompt as an administrator.
Type:
bcdedit /enum active
and press Enter. You should see "Windows Legacy OS Loader" somewhere at the end of the lyst
there's an identifier called {ntldr} ... it's the one taht you've been working with earlier. Now under the identifier is the device... if what is written next to the device (on the same line cause it is more like a property) is anything else but "boot" then you should make it "boot". You do that like this:
bcdedit /set {ntldr} device boot

you should check if everything is the way you want it by writing again the command
bcdedit /enum active

now you should be able to run both OS... if you're not... sorry... that's all I know;
else, you're welcome!