scar,

It depends on what sort of files you have on the C: drive. Let's say your C: drive has 30 GB of used space and 60 GB of free space. The used space is all that counts. If you use High compression and your 30 GB consists mainly of software installations then you could expect an image size of 15 GB. But if you have a lot of non compressible files, such as video and music files, then the image size will be much larger.

Do you have your HD partitioned?

Let's talk about the problems with DVDs later.

scar wrote on May 18^th, 2007 at 2:18am:

scar, when I install WinXP and a few programs, the used space is around 3 GB. How did you get to 30 GB?

11 GB. That's more like it. One advantage of partitions is that you can have your data (music, video, photos etc) in a non C: partition and your OS recovery points (images) are relatively small. I don't image non OS partitions as I use data backup software. Much more efficient.

Your recovery point would likely take two DVDs (or one DL). If you use conventional discs, Ghost will tell you when to insert the second disc. Make sure you use High compression when writing to DVDs.

Yes, remove that media folder prior to imaging.

scar wrote on May 18^th, 2007 at 3:14am:

You will "never" have to waste time installing WinXP again.

Are you planning to get a second HD or an external HD? Imaging to a HD is faster and more reliable than imaging to DVDs.

Let us know how long it takes to write the image to the DVDs.