What's your hard-reset-reinstall-everything procedure?

[i_spock]

For those of you that like to hard-reset and reinstall somewhat frequently, how do you go about it? What's your procedure for making sure everything re-installs correctly and ends back up the way you had it in the first place? What "gotchas" have you run into?

[cslaughtermd]

I've done this in 2 ways - and unfortunately it hasn't been scheduled maintenance!
1) keep all of your favorite programs and serial numbers in one, easily accessible place, sync everything with outlook AND do a CF or system backup just in case (one time I had all of my outlook wiped out because the blank PPC was set to overwrite the desktop). Hard Reset, install your favs, then sync. Go through your my documents folder first and erase or organize prior to the sync.

2) I like this one: Basically do the above and as soon as you have all of your basic, "I ALWAYS NEED THIS PROGRAM" apps installed, organized and preffed out. Do a CF backup and save that file.
That way the next time you can avoid the app by app reinstallation of your favs.
I've tried this with teh CE Application Manager but it seems a little inconsistent with installing and uninstalling things reliably with the check boxes.

Good Luck!
PS - I also learned to always have a CF backup either on your main card or on a spare one on hand!