Ghost is a really good tool. Another one is drive image. Anyway, I do the same thing, clean install, install major apps, config the network, set up users, etc. Then make a restore CD set. I do regular backups of data (documents, media, etc), so there's no need to have that on the restore disk. Working where I do, and seeing all the viruses and such that come in on machines, I have developed a nearly complete lack of sympathy for folks who have backup solutions but choose not to use them. There's not a week that goes by where someone with a DVD burner, or external hard disk, or even a CD burner comes in with a dead main drive, or one that eaten up with a virus. Most of the time their data is gone, and they cry a river. That may sound cold, but most of those people have been in our shop before and were advised to do regular backups. Programs can be reinstalled, but data is something else.
Another point about ghost, and this is a bit off topic, but, my office has started a policy of imaging XP machines before we install SP2 on client machines. So far we have had a couple of customers who have installed SP2 at home and it killed their boxes. This isn't an anti MS rant, just a heads up. Sometimes SP2 goes south, and from what I've seen and read, it stays south and only a reformat will bring the machine back. A small investment in ghost and another hard disk can prevent a reformat. Ghost your disk before you put SP2 on. If it goes south, ghost it back and you're up and running again.
