Hmmmmm

Hopefully, you're right lurkswithin. Since I've never done the restore from system backup (as opposed to the file backup), I didn't know you could choose what to put back, or where to put it back. The latter part of your post describes what I want to do - repartition while reinstalling Vista, and do a restore from backup so that I end up with no more XP drive, and just have a Vista drive and what is currently my E: drive.....and end up with all my applications still installed and working. Wonder if I will be able to pull that off and not have drive letter problems. Your post is the most helpful so far.