Backing up c:\users directory with USMT

I need to re-image my Vista Business laptop with the manufacturer provided
"reload to factory" image from the system recovery partition. As this will
completely reformat my hard drive I need to preserve the data in the
c:\users\username directory or I will lose a lot of work.

Can I use the User State Migration Tool (USMT) to save all this data before
the re-image and the restore it afterward?

Is there another tool to do this?

Simply copying the c:\users directory doesn't seem to work because many of
these files are "in use" and cannot be copied.

You need Windows Easy Transfer for this ... no XP tool will work to gather
or restore Vista settings.


"kiscokid" <kiscokid@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news0D7DE54-54BB-46C4-85EA-73C8C89F7AC7@microsoft.com...

>I need to re-image my Vista Business laptop with the manufacturer provided
> "reload to factory" image from the system recovery partition. As this
> will
> completely reformat my hard drive I need to preserve the data in the
> c:\users\username directory or I will lose a lot of work.
>
> Can I use the User State Migration Tool (USMT) to save all this data
> before
> the re-image and the restore it afterward?
>
> Is there another tool to do this?
>
> Simply copying the c:\users directory doesn't seem to work because many of
> these files are "in use" and cannot be copied.