This actually saves me time/frustration in the long run:

I religiously keep all my "stuff" in "My Docs". I never go more than 6 months without completely reformatting my Hard Drive (after saving My Docs and my outlook pst file to a safe location of course). I keep all my install discs and keys in a single location to make this easier. Its a bit of a hassle, sure, but I find I save time in the long run not fiddling almost constantly with registry issues, corrupt file issues, disk fragmenting, persistant installs, etc ...

I did try the technique of imaging, but found it to be more hassle than its worth. I format and install from scratch.