Dr. B.
I think you are doing the right thing. Just be sure to make a list of all the things you will need to add back. You will need to gather up your CDs for applications, drivers that may go with sound cards and video cards, printers, etc.
Unfortunately, Vista Home Premium does not have the Backup and Restore feature, not that I would recommend just restoring to WIN7 which would not work very well. But, it would be a good way to make an image of your PC. As far as your data, you can back it up several times with the AC backup. I would strongly recommend backing up the ENTIRE computer using some type of imaging program. I think the best out there is Acronis. You should even be able to download the trial version. By backing up an image to an external drive or Windows XP that you have connected, you can "mount an image" and actually see your entire computer in the image. This will insure that everything is backed up properly. Again, this will just insure that no matter how you backed up your individual files, you will have a complete clone or copy of your computer.
If you are going to have to do a complete install (which is best anyway), you may as well move the databases CORRECTLY to XP as the first step to see if everything would have networked anyway. While Microsoft will likely tell you that you can get by with 1GB of RAM, I would DEFINITELY make sure you have 2GBs. As you probably have heard over and over, RAM is dirt cheap. If you can do four, then I would do four, although you will only be able to use about 3.4GBs.
Microsoft does have a Windows Easy Transfer method of transferring a lot of user preferences and settings. I went online and found it can work between XP and WIN7, so it can probably work with Vista Home Premium.
I really wish Microsoft would quite making all of these versions. Just make one.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-vista/features/easy-transfer.aspxI would be glad to help. My PM and email is in my profile. Email is the best way to reach me. badams AT riverviewpediatrics DOT org
I am usually around in the afternoon to evenings.
