Which config files are needed to restore the machine to previous after a reinstall
 

Thanks for reading.

I need to let a friend borrow my Slackware laptop for a few weeks and he will be installing XP on it. I don't want to mess around with dual booting, once I get it back it goes back to Slackware.

I haven't made many changes to the standard install except for setting up X, configuring the wireless card and changing the bash profile to give me a better prompt etc. All files in my home partition are already backed up to a thumbdrive.

I am guessing that just copying the entire /etc folder will be enough, but are there any other locations that will need to be replaced after the re-install?

Personally, I agree with your proposal. That's how I would do it (backup /home and /etc).

Of course, after re-install do not forget to update Slackware with the latest patches :)

One small thing that can catch people out is that root's home directory is under /root and not in /home, so if like me you keep admin related stuff in there, you'll need to back that up too as the backup of /home won't include it.

Thanks, actually I remembered that after I made the first post. I have a few scripts in /root that will throttle the processor and report system stuff etc so I copied them to the thumbdrive also.