I'm probably stating the obvious but make sure you've got your C:\Documents and Settings\user\Application Data\ directory backed up. On my system, and I assume most others, this is the bit of C:\ that contains stuff I can't get back by just reinstalling everything.

On the subject of backup, personally I backup my C:\ with Acronis Trueimage, I back up my general data (D:\) using Windows XP Pro's own backup tool, and I just plain copy my AVI archive to another drive as backup. Then occasinally I print out backup tapes of my archive using Sclive.

acronis makes some buggy software, don't bet the moon on it.

after it failed to restore a disk image for me, i used bootit, which worked perfectly: http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/

Can someone please explain to me the difference between a drive image and a complete file for file back up of a drive?
For example , if you had made a drive image, which seems to be smaller, and that drive crashed, what would you loose with an image as apposed to having the whole drive backed up on another drive?

(Personally, I have had very good experiences with Acronis software...)

With respect to your question:

Complete file backup: This backs up the files you select. That's it. This may or may not include hidden files. You could then place those files anywhere you want, however, an NTFS system still may not work correctly if you just restore the files. I know once I restored a disk partition to another physical partition location, and the NTFS system did not like this at all. I believe it was un-bootable. An NTFS partition "knows" where it is on the disk. Also, a file backup does not contain partition information. It's "just files."

Disk Image: This is just like removing the hard drive platter and backing it up or putting it in another hard drive housing. In contains all aspects of the disk partition. This is by far the most thorough way to do a backup. It backs up all aspects of whatever you have on the disk. It even "remembers" the disk fragmentation particulars. If you defragged the drive before you backed up the disk image, that's the way it is when you restore it. It is an exact bit for bit backup of whatever you have on the hard drive partition. It's unbeatable.

A good scheme is to do a disk image backup of the disk partition. This will ensure your OS is there and working OK with all tweaks applied. Then, if you selectively backed up your data files of interest, you can then restore the backed up files on top of the disk image you just restored. You can essentially go back to exactly where you were at the point in time you did the backups.

I have been doing this for years and it has served me very well. I used to use PowerQuest's Drive Image and Retrospect backup. I now changed to Acronis True Image (exponentially faster) for the disk image backups and use it in conjunction with Retrospect.

A good analogy: A file backup is kind of like relocating a bunch of houses. The city block may be pretty much the same, but all may not be exactly as before. Now, if you were to relocate the city block as a whole (disk image) to somewhere else, the city block would be exactly as before; maybe just a different geological location...but the block would be the exact same.

A disk image is a much higher level/way of looking at the data.

..and there ya go.

Edit:

>>For example , if you had made a drive image, which seems to be smaller...

They are usually compressed. If you have the time, and depending on the data, you can often select a pretty high level of compression, depending on your imaging software.

>>>...what would you loose with an image as apposed to having the whole
>>drive backed up on another drive?

Nothing at all.

I'm not too sure about the terminology, but typically doing an "image" is just the ticket for transferring EVERYTHING on the C drive to a new drive. An image is literally a copy of all the data on a partition, everywhere.

By contrast, a typical backup utility copies files, which is fine for most purposes. The problem is that such programs typically can't copy everything, including open files and Windows, so the routine has been that if your C drive goes out you install Windows on the new drive and then use the backup utility to bring back all the other files.

I have used DriveImage a lot because the process is so simple if something goes wrong. No matter what happens to my C drive, I can be back in business in less than an hour, with exactly the same setup as I had before.

Oh, something else: most backup programs will not get you back to exactly one point in time. One program does--Retrospect.

>>I have used DriveImage a lot...One program does--Retrospect.

Looks we are both doing the exact same thing... :)

Thanks to all for your comments. After losing the Documents and Settings once before by reinstalling, that was my first act--to copy all of it onto another physical drive.

I have Acronis 6.0 and it keeps hanging although my disk checking programs don't actually find any bad sectors yet.

Think I'll go back to DriveImage. P.S. Got a 160GB Seagate Barracuda drive--CompUSA has a sale going for $69 with the $40 rebate.

>>...I have Acronis 6.0 and it keeps hanging...

I have heard that earlier version of thier products did have some issues with some drives/configurations.

I have, I believe, 8.0 (whatever the latest version is).

I had some questions, and their technical support was *very* helpful and responsive.

All I know is that I am running all Maxtor drives connected via motherbbard IDE, IDE controller cards as well as RAID IDE connectors (9 drives total) and I have had no issues with Acronis software. Drive Image was a terrific product though. I parted company with them once Symantec bought out Powerquest. Hopefully they wont mess up Drive Image too much. It was a very, very good product.

I have an older version of ghost ,but I thought I would try the trial version of Acronis. what do you guys recc on the compression , it safe to go with the maximum or should I stick with normal?

Personally, I go with "Normal."

It's not that big a payoff to wait the much extra time; not that big a difference in file sizes.

Also, I would be sure the trial version will backup *and* restore an image before getting too much into it.

yeah thats what i thought, the trial does not restore but I'll probably buy the product.
I know that the external HDD I bought the other day, a western digital came with retrospect express, I have to look at it too and see if it does imaging.

Acronis True Image 8.0 has been good for me. I always just use the default compression as my C:\ isn't so big. I've reinstalled a whole C:\ with it twice perfectly. They also answered a question for me very quickly. I would avoid Symantec. I'm going to check out this Retrospect though for my D: drive as the Windows backup program is not so user-friendly.