What is the best program to backup the whole computer to upgrade to Vista?

I currently am on XP Professional and I want to do a clean install for Vista. I want to keep all the games and programs I already have on my XP computer, what's the best program that can backup all this and burn it on dvds?

You can't save the actual games, you will need to re-install them after vista, but you can save the game saves. Normally they are in your documents folder, or in the folder that the game was installed to.

I believe that belkin do an easy transfer, which can transfer documents and program settings, but not actual programs.

If you are using an OEM machine (hp, dell, toshiba), they normally come with their own backup program, normally listed on the start menu, or on a cd that came with the computer.

I tend to use the backup program that came with my laptop for my backup needs.

The best idea would be to use an external harddrive to store the files because xp can't write to dvd's without 3rd party tools (none that I can recommend). All versions of vista can read dvds, and most versions above the basic can write to them without 3rd party software.

Good luck, and I hope you have a good experience with Vista. It's not as bad as everyone says it is. It worked perfectly with me, apart from a little piece of very outdated hardware from tiscali for the internet, but I solved that with a wireless router.

Have a read of this article about backing up your PC to an external drive it might be better and quicker than backing up to a lot of DVDs.

http://clickdigitalproducts.com/technology/help-in-a-digital-world/now-there-is-no-excuse-for-not-having-a-computer-backup.html

Because not all sw is Vista compatible w/out updating the actual sw itself, your best bet is to invest in an external drive to slide over what you absolutely cannot live w/out - just make sure that when you install it on Vista, you run updates for everything. Some programs, you'll have to right-click on the .exe file to 'run as admin', btw. Don't forget to run your windows updates after installing Vista, b/c MS came out w/ SP1 for Vista and it helps lots. Good luck!

Nothing can do that.

A clean install of Vista will have nothing, and youcant save already installed games/programs and move them, need original software and install again once Vista is on.

if you do a clean install

you MUST reinstall the programs

you can't simply copy them, it's due to the registry

what you should do is backup the install files andkeep the cd's and then backup any other date

then reinstall

the only data you can simply copy around is

music photos videos documents (word excell etc) program installers, there are more, but the list goes on