Glenn, are you talking about True Image?
(http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/)
Acronis makes quite a range of utilities.

I have recently been looking into the subject of data safety, backup and recovery and my conclusions, in no particular order, are as follows...

Arguments against disk imaging seem to go something like this, as far as I can tell:
- it’s a good practice but you need to have a parallel and more frequent method of backing up your data files
- when you come to restore, the system that crashed will be much evolved from the latest image backup you have.

I make absolutely no comment on these arguments, but you can read them for yourself here:

http://www.2brightsparks.com/tutorials/thebackupguide.html
(scroll down to Disk Imaging)

I have read plenty of good things about Syncback (and not only on the manufacturer’s own web site!), but time must be allowed for learning and mastering the programme (good tutorials/help files are provided).
Other similar utilities - both free and commercial - are, of course, available.

The primitive method of selecting what files you need to back up and saving them to a portable storage device has its merits:
- easy (if time consuming) to do
- preferable to no backup at all
- made easier by the availability and falling prices of higher capacity devices and hard drives
- can be made quicker by the use of compression tools which produce .zips, .rars or similar file types

- there is clearly a problem with backing up to a second drive which is frequently or permanently connected to the system your backing up from. (think of fire, think of burglary…)

- remote backup (i.e. using a web-based service such as Mozy, Carbonite or ElephantDrive) seems to me to be a sensible solution but, particularly with the smaller operators, you cannot be sure they will be there 4 or 5 years from now.

- the key point in the whole story is perhaps whether you do it or not. Whatever the solution, it is going to take some thought, time and expense. The home and purely leisure user is quite obviously in a different situation from the home-based worker who would be foolish to have anything but a reliable, professional and automated solution.

I really should stop here and make way for the professionals whose views on this thorny subject will be many times more illuminating than mine.

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