Patent ID: 7818557

Claim:
A method for replacing an original image on an active disk of a computer system with a new image comprising: copying re-imaging files from the new image into a re-imaging directory on the active disk; preserving at least a portion of the settings and files from the original image by copying the portion of the settings and files into an identical location in the re-imaging directory; stopping processes not needed to prevent an operating system running on the active disk from becoming inoperable; moving files and settings in the original image from a top level space of the active disk into a temporary directory using application programming interface (API) commands; moving files and settings from the re-imaging directory into the top level space of the active disk using API commands; and rebooting the computer system, wherein the computer system is not rebooted between the copying re-imaging files from the new image into the re-imaging directory and the moving files and settings from the re-imaging directory into the top level space.