directory it is understood that step 310 may occur at any time after step 308 or may be omitted entirely in some embodiments with specific reference to fig3 b agent preferences and settings e g of the agent initiating and controlling the re imaging may be preserved by copying information such as a settings file from the active system to the same location in the newfiles directory in step 312 this avoids loss of the information and preserves the information 39 s location with respect to the directory structure of the active system in steps 314 316 and 318 additional files folders and settings may be copied from the active system to the newfiles directory as specified the files and other data to be copied may be specified by an administrator or other user or may be specified by a predefined or default configuration more specifically in step 314 network settings may be copied from the active system to the same location in the newfiles directory if a request to copy the files has been entered in step 316 user folder s may be copied from the active system to the same location in the newfiles directory if a request to copy the files has been entered the user folders to be copied may be specified for a particular user e g the user currently logged into the system for all users of the system or for a particular subset of users in step 318 any other files and or settings that are to be saved may.