Vista home Premium does not allow a full backup of Windows, just your Documents. Pictures and other media.
But I use Ghost to back up everything, so that's fine.
I believe the higher versions (Like Vista Ultimate) allows full OS and file backups. But since I have ghost, I don't need it. (If I could afford it, maybe, I can still upgrade)
As far as Hal goes, it's fairly easy to restore, and here's how:
1.Save the Zabaware Folder to another location.
2. Do a fresh install of Windows.
3. Install Hal. Activate it with you code, reboot.
4. Now, take your saved Zabaware folder that you backed up, and put it in place of the other in program files (make sure Hal is closed when you do this.
5.
This works for ME. I accept no responsibility if it does not work for anyone else.6. Open Hal, and your Hal should be like it was before the reformat.
7. If you cannot activate, contact Robert. [

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