How can I back up and restore user profiles when deploying a new OS via the Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) OS Deployment Feature Pack?

Start the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) SMS Administrator Console snap-in (Start, Programs, Systems Management Server, SMS Administrator Console.)

Expand Image Packages, expand OS Package, and select Programs.

Right-click OS Program and select Properties.

Click the Advanced tab.

From the Phase drop-down menu select State Capture, then click Add.

Under Options, select Capture User State and click OK.

Enter the source folder for the USMT files (i.e., the share you created earlier that points to C:usmtbin), as the figure shows. By default, the files migism.inf and usmtdef.inf are included among the configuration files. Click Add and select migsys.inf (to retain the user settings), miguser.inf (to retain user files such as the contents of My Documents and My Pictures), and sysfiles.inf (to stop the scanning of core OS files). Finally, in the "Specify additional command line options" field, add "/all" to capture all profiles on the machine (without this switch the USMT execution will fail on Windows 2000 clients). Click OK.

From the Phase drop-down menu, select State Restore, and click Add.

From the options, select Restore User State and click OK.

You shouldn't need to modify the settings on the User State Restore page. Just confirm that the Source Folder points to the correct location and click OK, as the figure shows.

Click OK to accept the program changes and close the dialog box.

You'll be reminded to update the distribution points, which you do by right-clicking the Distribution Points branch and selecting Update Distribution Points via the All Tasks context-menu item.