Chapter 7. Restart and Restore

What You’ll Learn

In this chapter, I’ll show you:

• What to do after Vista is reinstalled

• How to tweak your security settings

• Security applications you need to install

• How to restore your Internet connection

• How to restore your backed-up data

• How to restore your applications

• How to install driver updates

What to Do After Vista Is Installed

After all that sweat, Vista should now be reinstalled and metaphorically smelling as fresh as a newly showered geek. Nevertheless, you still have a bit of work to do.

I have divided these chores into two sections: “Must do immediately” and “Do when you have time.”

There is one exception to this two-pronged task list. If you used the Windows Easy Transfer Wizard to back up your personal data and user settings, as I outlined in Chapter 5, “Preparation and Backup,” restore that data first. The Easy Transfer Wizard will install all your personal data, Windows and application settings, and your Internet connections on your system.

Here’s how to do this:

1. Close all running programs including the Vista Welcome Center (which tends to run all by itself at startup) and anything else that is obviously running. Click the Windows button, and then type Easy Transfer in the Search box. Or navigate to the program via the menus. You’ll find it in All Programs, Accessories, System Tools.

2. If you created the Easy Transfer backup data as I outlined in Chapter 5, choose Continue a Transfer in Progress and click No, I’ve Already Saved My Files to CD, DVD, or Removable Storage. Microsoft has changed a lot of its wizards in Vista to make it seem like you are having a conversation with the machine for some reason.

3. Next, choose the location of the Easy Transfer data. It will be a file called SaveData.MIG (see Figure 7.1). Because I used an external hard drive in the example in Chapter 5, I’ll use that source to restore in this step-by-step. However, if you used Windows Easy Transfer to back up to some other medium, pick that from the list and follow along with the wizard to restore it. For now, I am going to choose On an External Disk or Network Location, because I backed up my data and settings to an external hard drive.

Figure 7.1. Locate your Easy Transfer backup file on your backup hard drive, USB flash drive, or CD/DVD.

4. If you created a password to protect the backup, enter the password in the field provided and then click Next. The wizard will first restore your user accounts and attempt to match them up to any accounts you have already created (see Figure 7.2), such as the admin account you generated during the reinstallation.

Figure 7.2. Windows Easy Transfer will match up your old user accounts with any new ones you have created.

5. Now browse the list of settings and data to see what will be restored. When you are ready, click Transfer. My restoration file was 27GB, and yours could be as big or bigger, so go bake a cake, or better yet, lock yourself upstairs with your spouse and tell the kids you’ll be practicing lifting heavy objects. The restoration process will take a while, depending on how fast your system is. My 27GB file took about 90 minutes.

After the restoration is complete, all you have left to do is the following:

• Run Windows Update.

• Update Windows Defender.

• Install your antivirus and antispyware software.

• Update drivers.

• Install any software you might want to restore.

Make your own “to do” list and follow the instructions on how to complete each one with the step-by-step procedures outlined later in this chapter.

“Must Do” Versus “Do When You Have Time”

If you didn’t use the Windows Easy Transfer Wizard, I have divided your system restore tasks into two lists.

“Must do’s” are mission critical and get you reconnected to the Internet and defended against potential security threats. They include these tasks:

• Tweak your security settings—Make changes to your system so it is safe to connect to the Internet.

• Reconnect to the Internet—Because you’ll need to do this before you do anything else.

• Run Windows Update—To patch and fix Windows.

• Update security applications—Windows Defender, other antispyware applications, and your antivirus program.

The rest of the items are prioritized as “Do when you have time.” They are not so mission critical, but should be done to get your computer back to its old self again.

You can handle these “do later” items when you have time. They include the following:

• Restore your personal data—You probably want to do this sooner rather than later. (Don’t delete your backup until you’re sure that everything is restored properly.)

• Update drivers—Even if devices or system components are working, it will help improve performance if you use drivers from the device’s manufacturer over the default Windows drivers.

• Reinstall programs—You can do this as you need them; however, it’s a good idea to install security programs as soon as you can.

There’s a lot to do, so let’s get to work.

Tweak Your Security Settings

Before you connect to the Internet, you’ll want to ensure that Windows Vista is tweaked enough to prevent any sneaky worm or other malware from creeping into your computer.

So, here are some security items to check before you connect to the Internet.

User Account Control (UAC)

User Account Control is a new feature that asks you to confirm each change you make to the system. It is on by default, and it will block most viruses, worms, and spyware. Although it can be irritating, UAC does offer a level of security not previously available in Windows XP.

The frequency of its dialog boxes, however, makes it seem like a nervous aunt. “Are you sure you want to change the time, dear?”

As you’ll see in Chapter 12, “Security Troubles,” as annoying as it is, I recommend that you leave Auntie UAC enabled because it gives your system a high level of defense against malware.

Nevertheless, I do worry that Vista users will suffer from dialog fatigue and get so fed up with the alerts that they will blindly approve any UAC box that pops up whether they initiated a change to the system or not. So I am going to be your auntie here and remind you to be cautious if an alert pops open and you haven’t done anything to the system to initiate it.

That said, under certain circumstances, UAC can be turned off. If you follow my “Be free of UAC” rules, you can leave it off permanently. More on that can be found in Chapter 12.

Firewall

Double-check to make sure your Windows-based firewall is turned on. You can do that by clicking the Windows button and typing Security Center. Locate the Firewall setting and turn it on (see Figure 7.3). It should be on by default; however, it is worth double-checking. If you connect to the Internet via a home network router, you have a firewall built into your network; still, it doesn’t hurt to turn on the Windows Firewall as well.

Figure 7.3. It’s easy to check the status of the Windows Firewall and other security settings in the Vista Security Center.

Internet Settings

I have and will continue to recommend that you use Mozilla Firefox (available from www.getfirefox.com) instead of the built-in Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) that comes with Vista. However, you can’t escape IE7 on some websites.

Some sites insist on Microsoft’s ActiveX technology for functionality. Unfortunately ActiveX is used by web-originating malware to target Windows XP, and because it was so successful, malware writers will try to leverage it in Vista, even though the security screws in IE7 have been tightened by Microsoft.

Let’s tighten up IE7 even further. By all accounts, it appears that Microsoft has done a good job of improving security in IE7. That said, I am not about to hand over my gerbils to the cats.

Until there’s time to evaluate it in the open Internet, and until hackers have had a chance to pick away at its security mechanisms for year or so, I wouldn’t trust IE7.

In the meantime, your best bet would be to change IE7’s built-in security settings to medium-high and turn on the new Protected mode, as follows:

1. Click the Windows button, type Internet Explorer, and click it when it comes up in the list (or click its icon if you find it elsewhere).

2. In IE7, click Tools, Internet Options, and then click the Security tab.

3. Move the slider up to medium-high and also turn on Enable Protected Mode (see Figure 7.4). This demotes the browser’s privileges on your system. The idea is that IE7 and its processes should not enjoy the same permissions as an administrator. This makes a lot of sense.

Figure 7.4. Switch security settings to medium-high in IE7 and turn on Protected mode.

Restore Your Internet Connection

After your security settings have been tweaked, the first thing you’ll need to do is connect to the Internet and download the latest security fixes for Vista as well as updates for your antivirus and antispyware programs.

The plan here is to restore your connection to the way it was before the reinstall.

If you know how to do that, go do it now. For everyone who is a little foggy about the process, let’s go through each connection method.

Broadband

If you have a high-speed Internet connection, you’ll likely have one of the following three scenarios. Let’s look at each type.

Cable Internet

If you have a cable modem from your cable TV provider, and it connects to a home network router, which in turn connects to your computer, then go to the section, “Cable or DSL Through a Home Router,” later in the chapter.

If you connect your computer directly to the cable modem, you’re in the right place, and you’re in luck because this is the easiest connection to reestablish, as follows:

1. Open Internet Explorer. You should be connected to the Internet already—it is usually that easy.

2. If you’re not, check the hardware connections. Ensure that the network cable from the cable modem to your computer’s network port is connected. Make sure the modem is powered on and that the cable TV wire is connected to the modem.

3. If your connection still doesn’t work, see Chapter 10, “Internet Disconnect.”

Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)

If your Internet connection comes through a high-speed modem connected to your phone line, but still allows you to make or receive phone calls when you are surfing the Internet, you have a DSL or digital subscriber line.

If your DSL modem connects to a home network router, which in turn connects to your computer, flip forward in this chapter to p. 184 and look for the section “Cable or DSL Through a Home Router.”

If you have one computer, your system is most likely connected directly to your DSL modem, so you’ll need to set up your DSL ISP dialer configuration details using the PPPoE connection interface. Sounds nasty, but it’s not that hard. Simply follow these steps:

1. First, perform some hardware checks:

• Make sure the network cable, a wire with a big fat connector that looks like a chubby phone connector (in North America), is plugged from your DSL modem into the network port on the back of your PC.

• Also, make sure the DSL modem is powered up and your phone line is plugged into the correct jack on the modem.

2. Now, let’s check your DSL settings:

• On your desktop, click the Windows button and select Connect To.

• When the Connect to a Network window appears, choose the Set Up a Connection or Network link at the bottom (see Figure 7.5).

Figure 7.5. The screen is poorly designed, but to get your DSL connection working, click the Set Up a Connection or Network link near the bottom.

• When the new window appears, click Connect to the Internet, and then click Next.

• The How Do You Want to Connect? window appears. Choose the Broadband (PPPoE) button as the connection type (see Figure 7.6).

Figure 7.6. Choose the PPPoE option from the Connect to the Internet dialog box.

3. Next, fill out the username and password. This info is available from your DSL provider, if you don’t already have it. Be sure to label your connection with a name that makes sense in the Connection Name field. Naming it “Thingie” is not helpful. Try the practical “DSL connection” or simply “DSL dialer.” This label shows up under the icon in your Network Center. It will differentiate it from other connection methods, such as a wireless connection, if you have one, or a dial-up connection.

4. You can also select the option to Allow Other People to Use This Connection (see Figure 7.7). If you have more than one user who has his own Vista account on your computer—such as your kids or your spouse—this setting will allow him to access the Internet using the DSL connection on the computer when he logs in. Heads up that the UAC will kick in when you do this, so you’ll have to click Allow once again.

Figure 7.7. Besides your DSL user ID and password, be sure to check the Allow Other People to Use This Connection option so that other people who have accounts on the computer can use the connection.

5. After you have filled in the required field, choose Connect. The computer then tests the network connection and lets you know whether you connect successfully. If all goes well, your computer should be connected to the Internet.

If this doesn’t work, check out how to troubleshoot a DSL connection in Chapter 10.

Cable or DSL Through a Home Router

If you have multiple computers in your home, you might have opted to connect your broadband Internet connection to a home network router first so you can share the connection with multiple computers, including some that are wireless.

To reinitiate your computer’s connection to your home network connection after the Vista reinstall, ensure the computer is attached to your home network router with a network cable. The cable should be in one of the LAN ports on the back and not the WAN port, which usually sits slightly separate from the other ports on the router.

If you haven’t touched this cabling from before the reinstall, there is nothing to do. Your computer should automatically connect. When this connection is good, a light next to the jack at the computer end of the network should light up or flicker to indicate that a good connection is present. In the best of circumstances, this should be all that is necessary to get a good Internet connection via your home network. So, open the Internet Explorer web browser in Vista and see whether you can surf the Web.

If you get an error, check to make sure you can connect to the Internet from another computer on your network. If not, you’ll have to troubleshoot the network.

Wi-Fi Connection

If your computer is a laptop and uses a Wi-Fi connection, or if it is a desktop with either a wireless USB adapter or a Wi-Fi PCI card, be sure to follow the procedures outlined in the next section before reconnecting.

External USB Wireless Adapter

If you have an external network adapter that connects via USB, plug it into one of the available USB ports on your computer. The install new hardware protocol will initialize and attempt to install the device.

You might need to use the software installation CD that came with the adapter to install the drivers for the adapter.

If no Vista driver is available, note that an XP driver might work, but it’s not ideal, and sometimes it won’t work.

Internal Wireless Adapter

Double-check that your internal wireless adapter has a working driver installed. Here’s how:

1. Click the Windows button, type Device Manager in the Search box, and click it when it appears in the list in the Start menu.

2. Click Continue when the UAC dialog opens.

3. Look for the Network Adapters item in the list of hardware. If there is a problem with your wireless adapter, you will see a yellow triangle with an exclamation mark in it next to it. If it’s not there, it may show as PCI Modem under Other Devices or as a broken item in PCMCIA devices (if your Wi-Fi card is one of these credit-card-sized PC Card devices that slots into the side of a laptop).

4. Locate the driver from the device maker’s website or from the support area at your computer manufacturer’s website and save it in a folder on your desktop. I always download these to a folder called Drivers on the desktop (which I create).

5. If setup.exe file is included, you can double-click this and have the driver self install. If it’s just a bundle of driver files, you need to locate the files ending with an .INF extension, such as winxpdriver.INF, and be prepared to install the driver yourself.

6. To do this, right-click on the adapter and choose Update Driver.

7. A dialog box with two options will appear. Click Browse My Computer for Driver Software and then, using the Browse field in the next dialog box, browse to the location of the driver (the INF file or the folder it is in) on your computer and click Next.

On successful installation, you will see a new icon in your System Tray on the bottom-right side flashing on your screen next to the time (see Figure 7.8).

Figure 7.8. When a wireless hardware is present, a Wi-Fi icon will appear in the System Tray on the bottom-right side of your screen.

After the Wi-Fi hardware is in place and working, you’ll need to connect to your wireless network. Here’s how:

1. Left-click on the Wi-Fi icon in the System Tray to access the Connect or Disconnect dialog box for the Network Center.

2. Choose Connect or Disconnect and you’ll see a Connect to a Network window. Your wireless network’s name (called an SSID) should show up in the list of available networks (see Figure 7.9).

Figure 7.9. Available wireless networks will be listed. Choose your wireless network to connect.

3. Click once to highlight your router’s name; then click the Connect button.

4. If you have enabled your Wi-Fi network with encryption (so that network snoops can’t get on the wireless connection), you will be prompted to enter the WEP key or WPA passphrase you set up. If you have difficulty or need to understand this better, learn more about connecting to a wireless network in Chapter 10.

5. If you are connecting to an unsecured network, you will be prompted to connect anyway.

6. Now when you hover over the taskbar tray icon for your Wi-Fi connection, it will show that you are connected. The signal strength of that wireless connection is also displayed.

Dial-Up

A dial-up connection is an old-fashioned way of connecting to the Internet over phone lines. If you have one of these, you plug a phone line into the back of your computer, and you may hear the phone dial and a rush of static when you connect.

You can set up your dial-up settings as follows:

1. Click the Windows button; then click Connect To.

2. When the Connect to a Network window appears, choose Create a New Connection.

3. Then, when the Create a New Connection Wizard appears, click Set Up a Connection or Network and then choose Set Up a Dial-Up Connection and click Next.

4. Fill in the information required by your ISP (Internet service provider), including the dial-up phone number, username, and password (see Figure 7.10).

Figure 7.10. Fill in the connection info that you got from your Internet provider.

5. Choose a name for your dial-up connection; then select the option to Allow Other People to Use This Connection if you have more than one user account on your computer and want to give other users permission to use it. This will allow other people who use the computer (your spouse, kids, or mother-in-law) to access the Internet through this connection.

6. Click the Connect button. This will launch the Testing Your Internet Connection Window. If all goes well, your computer should be able to connect to the Internet through your Internet service provider.

7. However, if it doesn’t, refrain from saying rude things out loud or punishing the computer or furniture. Simply launch the Diagnose Internet Connection Wizard; this will help determine whether your Windows Firewall, for example, is blocking your Internet connection attempt, which, let’s face it, is really cool.

Run Windows Update

Now that you have a network connection, run Microsoft Update to check for new fixes and high-priority updates. To do this:

1. Click the Windows button (the button formerly known as Start!), type update, and click on the Windows Update link that appears in the Start menu.

2. In the Windows Update dialog box, click the Check for Updates link in the top-left corner and let the system check the Microsoft service for fixes and software updates.

3. You might be prompted to update Windows Update. If that’s the case, go ahead and click Install now and click Allow on the UAC dialog.

4. Then go back to the Windows Update (see Figure 7.11) if it closes after the previous download and check for updates again. Click Install Updates if any are found. Once again, click Allow on the UAC window. Updates will be downloaded and installed by the system. After they are installed, you may need to restart the system for the fixes to take effect.

Figure 7.11. Run Windows Update to download and install the latest Vista fixes.

Restore Your Backup

If you made a backup of your system using Windows Backup before you did your reinstall and reformat, it’s time to restore your files, as follows:

1. Click the Windows button, type Backup, and click the link to the Backup and Restore Center in the list that appears.

2. In the Backup and Restore Center choose Advanced Restore (see Figure 7.12) to locate a backup stored on either another computer, your DVD or CD drive, or an external hard drive. The Restore Files option is used to restore a backup located on one of the hard drives installed in your computer.

Figure 7.12. Restore your backup using the Advanced Restore option.

3. Approve the UAC dialog and then when you see the question, What Do You Want to Restore?, select the location of the files you want to restore. For a backup set on an external hard drive or DVD drive choose Files from a Backup Made on a Different Computer.

4. Click Next and then select the location of the files (see Figure 7.13) and select it and click Next again.

Figure 7.13. Select the backup set to restore from.

5. On the screen that follows, you can be selective about which files to restore or check the item Restore Everything in This Backup.

6. Click Next, and on the subsequent screen, choose to restore the files to their original location by clicking the radio button next to In the Original Location. Alternately, you can restore the files to a different location that you specify.

As the backup restores, you might be asked to resolve a conflict where a file in the backup is named the same as one on the new clean system. Because your system should be in a virgin state, I wouldn’t let it overwrite anything unless you’re certain it needs to. If in doubt, use the Keep Both option.

Oddly, the system may try to restore Temporary Internet Files. This is where you’ll likely have some odd behavior. This data is not mission critical, so don’t worry about it.

Install and Update Security Applications

Next, be sure to reinstall your security software, including your anti-virus program and at least one extra antispyware application. These will harden Vista’s defenses against malware.

Antivirus

After your personal data is restored, install a Vista-compliant antivirus program as soon as possible. Installing an older antivirus program that predates Vista may not be a good idea. You will likely run into incompatibilities, or it may refuse to install. Vista’s new security architecture is very different from XP and its predecessors, so a new Vista-compliant antivirus product will be required.

Figure 7.14. If you want the free version of Grisoft’s AVG, make sure you get it from the URL http://free.grisoft.com.

Then run an update to get the latest virus signatures. And as a precaution, run a scan to make sure it is working properly and to ensure that your data restoration didn’t introduce any malware into your freshly scrubbed system.

Antispyware

Even though Vista comes with the built-in Windows Defender (see Figure 7.15) antispyware application, be sure to also install one or more antispyware applications.

Figure 7.15. Vista comes with Windows Defender, a built-in antispyware scanner.

I recommend these two free Vista-compatible applications:

• Spybot Search & Destroy from www.safer-networking.net

• Ad-Aware SE Personal from www.lavasoftusa.com

Be sure to run updates on both applications after they are installed.

Finally, note that no one antispyware application will catch all spyware infections. That’s why more than one antispyware scanner is necessary to ensure that your system is spyware-free.

I am also a big fan of PC Tools Spyware Doctor (www.pctools.com). You have to pay for it, but its detection and removal rates are higher than the freebies, including Windows Defender. So, I recommend you spend a few dollars for the added antispyware protection security.

Update Drivers

After Vista is up and running, it’s worth taking a closer look to see how successful Vista has been at installing drivers for all system components.

1. Click the Windows button, and type Device Manager in the Search box.

2. Then, click Device Manager when it appears in the Start menu. When challenged by UAC, click Continue.

3. In the Device Manger, you’ll see a list of all the categories of hardware attached to your computer, and if you click the [+] sign next to each category (see Figure 7.16), it will expand to show you the devices of that type in your system.

Figure 7.16. Click the plus sign in the Device Manager to expand each category.

4. If you see a yellow triangle with an exclamation mark next to a category, this means there is a problem with a device of that type. This cryptic punctuation is a visual way of showing that this device is not operating properly.

5. To resolve this, you should right-click the item, choose Properties, and look for the Device status box. This will give you an indication of what is wrong with the device.

6. If the device is not installed properly, it reports that the “Drivers for this device are not installed (Code 28).” To fix this, click the Reinstall Driver button.

7. An Update Driver Software box appears.

8. If you either have the driver on disk or have downloaded it from the manufacturer’s website, choose Browse My Computer for Driver Software and locate the folder the driver is in on your disk or hard drive.

9. If you don’t have the driver or can’t find it on the manufacturer’s website, choose Search Automatically for Update Driver Software and let Vista attempt to locate a compatible driver. If you’re lucky, it will find something handy. If not, you’ll have to resort to the previous step.

Post-Reinstall Driver Woes

It’s worth noting here that you might want to spend some time resolving driver issues after the reinstall. Here are a few driver tips and gotchas you might encounter after a reinstall:

• Chipset update—Check to see whether a chipset update is available from either your computer maker or motherboard maker (if you had a custom-built computer from a local computer store). The chipset is the chips that make up the ecosystem of devices on your motherboard. A chipset update can improve system performance and reduce or solve odd crashes and inexplicable blue screen events.

• Drivers from the source—A driver from your sound card or video card maker is better than the built-in drivers that come with Windows. Same goes for all peripherals. So, it might be time to check whether you can find drivers from the device makers—check the support areas on their websites.

• Older devices—Vista has been notorious for not supporting older peripherals or devices. It might turn out that the manufacturer of a device decided not to issue Vista-compatible drivers for older devices.

• Webcam problems—For some reason, webcams have been a bone of contention with Vista. If you are struggling to get your webcam to work with Vista, take heart—a lot of other people are suffering, too. Check the webcam maker’s site to see whether you can find certified Vista drivers. However, this might be a case where you’ll simply have to replace the cam to make it work on Vista. What a waste!

Reinstall Your Programs

At this point, it’s a good idea to reinstall all the programs you had on your system before the reinstall. But before you go into installation mode, I recommend that you shut off the UAC system to make life easier.

You are fairly safe from malware at this point because the most common entry point is via your Internet connection, and it should be turned off.

To be sure, physically turn off your broadband modem or physically disconnect the cable between your computer and your modem or router.

Here’s the simplest way to turn off User Account Control so it doesn’t get in the way of the admin work you have to do:

1. Click the Windows button and type msconfig. When the UAC box kicks in, take delight in knowing that this will be the last time you’ll see one of those for a while.

2. On the System Configuration box, click the Tools menu, and then scroll down to Disable UAC (see Figure 7.17).

Figure 7.17. Disable UAC in the System Configuration applet.

3. Click Launch. A command box opens when this command is run.

4. Close the command box.

5. Restart your computer.

After UAC is turned off and your computer is disconnected from the Internet, it’s safe to install all your applications. Note that they might look for updates from the Internet during this time. If you can, defer any connection to the Internet until you’re done installing all the programs you need.

When that’s done, turn UAC back on, reconnect your Internet service, and then run application updates for each program.

Worst-Case Scenario: Restore the System Image

The worst-case scenario is that something went horribly wrong with the reinstall. If you are running Vista Ultimate or Business and use Vista’s Complete PC to create a system image of the computer before you started the reinstall, you can put the computer back to the way it was before you started the process:

1. Insert your Windows installation DVD into your optical drive and reboot your computer. (If your computer didn’t come with a DVD see the following sidebar.

2. When you see Press Any Key to Boot from the CD or DVD Drive, press any key you want. I use the spacebar. Then wait for Windows to load. This might take a while (minutes, not hours).

3. Eventually you will see a funky aqua blue textured screen that looks like curtains in a swimming pool.

4. When the screen finally loads, choose your language settings from the three pull-down boxes and click Next.

5. On the next screen, look for the link called Repair Your Computer.

6. The installer recognizes the Windows installations on your system. Choose the one that has your current installation and click Next. If there are multiple items, you probably have several installations of Windows on your system.

7. Vista then checks the system for problems and looks for solutions. When it asks whether you want to Restore Your Computer, click Cancel because you don’t want to use that option.

8. Vista scans some more (displaying the words “Attempting Repairs”). Have patience while it does this, as it can take a long time. In my case, it took more than 30 minutes. If you try to cancel this, you’ll be told that you can’t (see Figure 7.18), which is frustrating.

Figure 7.18. Sorry, you can’t cancel the repair operation.

Microsoft might want to rethink the time it takes to get to the recovery options window. It seems silly to have to wait for a lengthy scan before you get to this list of handy recovery tools.

9. When it fails to find a repair mechanism, you’ll see a Startup Repair Cannot Repair This Computer Automatically dialog.

10. Click Don’t Send to close the dialog box and then click Finish.

11. You’re then presented with a recovery options window (see Figure 7.19).

Figure 7.19. Vista recovery options that you will eventually get to if you boot from the Vista installation DVD.

12. Attach the external storage device where the Complete PC backup info is stored, or insert the first DVD of the backup set you created with Complete PC Backup.

13. Click Windows Complete PC Restore. The backup should be detected here. If it’s not, be sure the external hard drive where the backup is stored is powered up and connected. Also check that the correct DVD is inserted into your system’s optical drive. In the event that the backup volume is not detected, close the Windows Complete PC Restore window and click Windows Complete PC Restore again from the recovery options window.

14. Confirm that the system has found the correct backup data (see Figure 7.20). If not, click Restore a Different Backup if you want to select an alternative backup set.

Figure 7.20. Make sure Vista has found the correct backup data set.

15. Before initiating the restore, make sure that the Format and Repartition Disks check box is not checked; otherwise, all partitions will be wiped on your system’s disk. This could take out your utility partitions, which contain recovery information put there by the system manufacturer.

16. Click Next to run the restore routine. Depending on the size of the disk, this might take a while, so let it do its thing.

When the restore is finished, the system restarts and takes you to the Vista login screen. Your computer is now back to the way it was before the reformat and reinstallation.